Bonus: Inflation Hedges Are Back: Why SCHD, Mosaic, and CF Are Catching Bids  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 12, 2026   |   Read Online 3 times the government seized private wealth (Are we next?) Bonus: Inflation Hedges Are Back: Why SCHD, Mosaic, and CF Are Catching Bids A message from our friends at Weiss Ratings (Sponsor) 3 times the government seized private wealth (Are we next?) Dear Reader, If you think the U.S. government would never freeze or seize your bank account ... you need to look at history. In 1933, FDR made it illegal to own gold. In 2013, the government of Cyprus seized up to 47.5% of citizens' bank deposits exceeding £100,000 overnight to bail out their banking system. In 2022, Canada froze the bank accounts of ordinary citizens who donated to or participated in a trucker protest. The only thing stopping the U.S. government from doing the same thing on a massive scale? So far, our banking system has been too fragmented. And the technology too slow. But now? Buried in Federal Reserve Docket No. OP-1670 is the blueprint for "FedNow" - a centralized, real-time payment hub that over 1,500 banks have already joined. In a nutshell, once your bank is plugged into FedNow, every dollar you move is routed through a system that the Fed built and controls. That means if we ever run into a "national emergency" or a "banking crisis," they won't need to ask your local branch manager to freeze your account. They could theoretically do it with a few keystrokes from Washington. And that's why you must act before this new system fully takes over. I've outlined 4 simple, 100% legal steps to "Fed-proof" your savings - without closing your current accounts. The best time to move your savings out of the crosshairs is BEFORE a crisis hits. See the 4 steps to protect your money right here. Good luck and God bless! Martin D. Weiss, PhD Weiss Ratings Founder P.S. Every single time, the story has been the same. People go to sleep thinking their money is safe. They wake up to find their life savings decimated by government action. Do not let FedNow catch you sleeping. Get the 4 steps here and act on them now BONUS ARTICLE Inflation Hedges Are Back on the Menu The market keeps trying to tell itself a comforting story. Inflation is cooling. The Federal Reserve might eventually get room to ease. The hard part is behind us. Maybe. But markets rarely rotate into dividend-heavy value funds and fertilizer stocks because they feel perfectly relaxed. They do it because they are not fully convinced the inflation problem is dead. That is the setup right now. On March 11, 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. CPI rose 0.3% month over month in February and 2.4% year over year, while core CPI rose 0.2% on the month and 2.5% over the year. That is cooler than the ugly prints investors feared a year ago, but it is not the kind of number that makes inflation risk disappear. Food prices were still up 3.1% over the prior year, and food-at-home prices were up 2.4%. That is why this latest market rotation makes sense. The trade is not "panic inflation." It is "residual inflation." And residual inflation tends to reward two very different corners of the market: First, value-and-dividend exposure through something like SCHD, which offers income, profitability, and a bias toward mature businesses. Second, materials with direct pricing exposure to agricultural inputs, especially Mosaic (MOS) and CF Industries (CF), which can benefit when fertilizer prices rise because supply chains get pinched. That is exactly what is happening. As of today, SCHD is trading around $31.00, Mosaic around $29.15, and CF Industries around $120.13. Mosaic is up about 10.0% on the day and CF about 9.1%. So the real question is not whether investors are hiding. They are not. The real question is whether they are getting smarter about where inflation protection actually lives now. The macro backdrop: cooling inflation is not the same as defeated inflation This distinction matters. The February CPI report was soft enough to calm some of the immediate inflation panic, but several sticky elements remain. Shelter was still up 3.0% year over year, food was still rising faster than headline inflation, and natural gas prices were up 10.9% over the last 12 months. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that recent geopolitical tensions and higher oil prices are reviving concern that the path to easier monetary policy could get delayed if energy starts feeding back into broader inflation. That is important because markets do not hedge the inflation they just saw. They hedge the inflation they are worried might come back. And right now, there are two live concerns: One, that inflation may settle at a level still high enough to keep interest rates elevated. Two, that commodity-linked disruptions—especially in energy, shipping, and fertilizers—could spill into food costs and reignite inflation pressure later. That second piece is where the fertilizer names come in. Reuters reported on March 5, 2026 that the war-linked disruption around the Strait of Hormuz is threatening global fertilizer supply chains just as the Northern Hemisphere spring planting season begins. The same reporting said fertilizer prices in the U.S. have already jumped sharply and could rise further if disruptions persist. Another Reuters piece said shipping activity through Hormuz had plunged 97% after the conflict escalated, and that the strait handles roughly 33% of global fertilizer trade. That is not a small macro footnote. That is a direct threat to one of the world's most important agricultural input chains. Why SCHD fits the inflation-hedge conversation At first glance, SCHD and fertilizer stocks do not seem like they belong in the same article. One is a dividend ETF. The others are commodity-exposed materials names. But they are connected by the same market instinct: investors want assets with cash flow, pricing resilience, and less dependence on rosy multiple expansion. SCHD is the cleaner version of that instinct. According to Schwab Asset Management, SCHD tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, charges an expense ratio of 0.060%, holds 101 stocks, and had total net assets of about $84.26 billion as of March 11, 2026. Its 30-day SEC yield was 3.46% as of March 10, and its trailing distribution yield was 3.51% as of January 31. The fund's weighted-average market cap was $158.85 billion, and its portfolio price/earnings ratio was 20.05 as of February 28. That matters because SCHD is not simply "high yield." It is an index built around the quality and sustainability of dividends. Schwab explicitly says the index selection process emphasizes companies with fundamental strength relative to peers. In other words, investors are not just buying payout. They are buying durable payout. And in an environment where growth funds are seeing outflows and value funds are still drawing money, that matters. Reuters reported that in the week ending March 4, 2026, U.S. growth funds suffered $11.15 billion in outflows, while value funds took in $146 million, extending their inflow streak to four weeks. That is a classic "less story, more cash flow" shift. SCHD's holdings reflect that posture. Its largest positions include Lockheed Martin at 4.92% of assets, ConocoPhillips at 4.55%, Verizon at 4.40%, and Chevron at 4.39% as of March 4, 2026. That is defense, energy, telecom, and large-cap cash flow—exactly the type of mix investors tend to prefer when inflation risk is fading only slowly rather than collapsing. So is SCHD an inflation hedge in the old-school, hard-asset sense? No. But it is an inflation-aware equity allocation. And that is often what investors really want when they say they are "hedging inflation." They want businesses that can keep paying them while the macro stays annoying. Why Mosaic is suddenly interesting again Mosaic is a much more direct inflation-sensitive trade. Unlike SCHD, which hedges through yield and quality, Mosaic hedges through fertilizer pricing exposure. That makes it more volatile. It also makes it more explosive when supply gets squeezed. Mosaic's current stock setup is interesting because the valuation is not demanding. The stock trades around $29.15, with a market cap near $11.0 billion and a trailing P/E of about 8.95. Those are not bubble numbers. And the company's 2025 financials were solid enough to justify renewed attention. Mosaic reported 2025 net income of $541 million and adjusted EBITDA of $2.4 billion, up 10% from 2024. The potash business was especially strong: full-year potash segment adjusted EBITDA rose to $1.183 billion from $944 million in 2024, while full-year MOP realized selling price increased to $255 per tonne from $222. Potash sales volume also rose to 9.0 million tonnes from 8.7 million tonnes. That is the good part. The less-good part is that Mosaic's phosphate business was weaker late in the year. The company said lower U.S. phosphate demand in the fourth quarter reflected "affordability challenges," and it ended the quarter with elevated finished-product inventories. Full-year phosphate adjusted EBITDA fell to $917 million from $1.191 billion in 2024. So why is the stock rallying now? Because the market is looking forward, not backward. Mosaic said first-quarter 2026 phosphate sales volumes should recover to 1.7 million to 1.9 million tonnes, with DAP prices expected in the range of $640 to $670 per tonne, reflecting strong international demand and an expected recovery in U.S. purchases ahead of spring planting. For potash, Mosaic expects first-quarter 2026 realized mine-gate MOP prices of $255 to $275 per tonne and total 2026 potash production of about 9 million tonnes. Now add the shipping story on top. Reuters reported that the Middle East conflict is disrupting the flow of urea, sulphur, and phosphates, and that countries highly dependent on Middle Eastern fertilizer supply are facing sharp price increases and shipping delays. Another Reuters report said Brazil, a massive agricultural market, relies entirely on imported urea and that 41% of that supply comes through the Hormuz route. That matters for Mosaic because fertilizer markets are globally linked. When one big supply artery gets hit, pricing power tends to ripple across products and geographies, even if the disruption is not directly concentrated in Mosaic's exact product mix. In Cheap Investor language, Mosaic is interesting because it is: a cyclical materials name, with a single-digit earnings multiple, that can catch a bid when fertilizer prices rise faster than the market expected. That is a very different inflation hedge than SCHD. But in some scenarios, it is the stronger one. Why CF Industries may be the cleaner fertilizer trade If Mosaic is a broad fertilizer story, CF Industries is the cleaner nitrogen story. And right now, nitrogen is exactly where investors are paying attention because of urea exposure and global ammonia-linked supply worries. CF trades around $120.13, with a market cap near $14.5 billion and a trailing P/E of about 10.54. Again, that is not expensive. And the business delivered stronger 2025 results than 2024. CF reported full-year 2025 net earnings of $1.46 billion, or $8.97 per diluted share, adjusted EBITDA of $2.89 billion, and free cash flow of $1.79 billion. It also repurchased 16.6 million shares for $1.34 billion during 2025, cutting its share count by roughly 10% from year-end 2024. Those are strong numbers for a company trading at roughly ten-and-a-half times trailing earnings. And CF has one very important structural feature in this macro: management emphasized the strength of its cost-advantaged North American manufacturing and distribution network. That matters because when global shipping gets messy, domestic or regionally advantaged production becomes more valuable. This is where the inflation-hedge logic gets sharper. If global nitrogen supply is disrupted by shipping bottlenecks, damaged trade routes, or energy-related production constraints, the winners are often not just "fertilizer companies" in general. They are the ones with: strong domestic production, cash-rich balance sheets, and enough operating leverage to monetize tighter supply. CF checks a lot of those boxes. It is also the cleaner margin story. Mosaic's recent results were mixed by segment, while CF's 2025 results were broadly robust and backed by heavy cash generation and shareholder returns. That does not make CF risk-free. Reuters previously noted that fertilizer names can be hurt by swings in natural-gas costs and by weak farm economics when crop prices soften. But in the current setup, the market is focusing more on supply risk and fertilizer pricing than on last year's demand softness. That is why CF is moving like an inflation hedge now. So which inflation hedge is actually better? This is the part people usually oversimplify. SCHD, Mosaic, and CF are not substitutes. They are different tools for different inflation scenarios. If inflation stays sticky but not chaotic—say, headline CPI settles in the low-to-mid 2s, rates stay somewhat elevated, and investors still want income—SCHD is the cleaner choice. It gives you yield, quality, and exposure to mature large-cap businesses without forcing you to bet on one commodity cycle. If inflation re-accelerates through food or input costs because global fertilizer supply gets squeezed, Mosaic and CF are more direct hedges. They are not just inflation-aware. They are inflation-linked through product pricing. Between the two fertilizer names, CF looks like the cleaner quality setup right now because its earnings, free cash flow, and shareholder returns were stronger and simpler in 2025. Mosaic looks more cyclical and potentially more torque-heavy because it is cheaper on earnings and more directly exposed to potash and phosphate pricing swings. Put differently: SCHD is the calm inflation hedge. CF is the disciplined commodity hedge. Mosaic is the more volatile pricing-leverage hedge. Is this rotation rational, or is it late? I think it is rational. Not because inflation is exploding today. But because the market is adjusting to a more nuanced world where inflation can cool in the aggregate while still flaring up in important places—especially food, energy, and trade-sensitive inputs. That is exactly what the current data and headlines suggest. U.S. CPI is cooler than feared, but still not fully comfortable. Food inflation is still positive. Oil has spiked on Middle East disruption. Shipping through Hormuz has collapsed. Fertilizer prices are moving. Growth funds are bleeding, while value funds and materials-related exposures are drawing interest. That is not a random set of events. That is the market repricing the idea that "disinflation" and "no inflation risk" are not the same thing. Bottom line If you step back, the message is pretty simple. Investors are not buying SCHD, Mosaic, and CF because they think the world is ending. They are buying them because they think the world is still messy enough that: cash flow matters, yield matters, pricing power matters, and supply-chain disruptions still matter. SCHD offers a 3.46% SEC yield, a low 0.060% expense ratio, and a portfolio full of large, profitable dividend payers. Mosaic trades at about 9x earnings and gives you cyclical fertilizer leverage if potash and phosphate pricing keep strengthening. CF trades at about 10.5x earnings, produced $2.89 billion in adjusted EBITDA in 2025, and may be the cleaner nitrogen-linked way to play supply disruption. So here is the Cheap Investor verdict: SCHD is the best choice if you want inflation defense with less drama. CF Industries is the best choice if you want the cleaner fertilizer-linked operating story. Mosaic is the higher-beta value play if you believe pricing pressure in crop nutrients has further to run. In other words: The inflation hedge trade is back. It just does not look like gold bars and panic anymore. Disclaimer: This editorial is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Always conduct independent research before making financial decisions. IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER Investing Media Solutions, LLC ("IMS"), the owner of this website (the "Website"), cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in any article, email, newsletter, or other publication posted on or viewed in connection with this website (the "Publications"). The author or authors of those Publications are solely responsible for their contents. IMS has not done any research or due diligence into the markets, industries, or companies which may appear or be mentioned in the Publications. IMS will NOT be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader's reliance on information posted on the Website or contained in the Publications. 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