Talking Billions with Bogumil Baranowski

Daniel Peris: Is Your Portfolio Built on a 40-Year Illusion? Why Wall Street's War on Dividends Defies 5,000 Years of Financial History

Oct 6, 2025
In this discussion, Daniel Peris, a historian-turned-portfolio manager at Federated, challenges modern finance's disdain for dividends. He argues that many current financial practices mimic ancient strategies and critiques the illusion of equilibrium economics. Peris identifies four reasons for the decline of dividends over the last 40 years, including falling interest rates and the rise of share buybacks. He believes conditions are ripe for a return of dividends, emphasizing the importance of tangible cash returns and the psychological aspect of investing.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

History As An Investment Lens

  • Daniel Peris uses his historian training to test modern finance by tracing where rules came from and whether they remain fit for purpose.
  • He argues many financial innovations have ancient antecedents and history offers practical lessons for today's problems.
INSIGHT

Why Dividends Vanished And May Return

  • Dividends declined due to falling interest rates, NASDAQ's rise, buybacks, and neoliberal politics over 40 years.
  • Peris argues those conditions have stopped or reversed, creating a potential pivot back to cash returns.
INSIGHT

Equity Is A Claim On Cash Flow

  • Owning equity is fundamentally a claim on future cash flows and dividends are the clearest manifestation of that business outcome.
  • Peris stresses cash-based valuation thinking has been observed across 5,000 years of financial history.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app