I couldn't agree with you more regarding interest and dividends. But a large majority of HNBC stockholders are retired people who invested their money carefully and thoughout the years the stock doubled many times. Thus as you are aware of the pension plans years back and social security were not too good. As in my mothers case that was the fact. So the dividends helped to pay the school taxes, and her medical plan plus her prescriptions. Without the dividend life would have been very cruel indeed. Whether all this is contrived one only knows. But years back the stock went up about 6.00 in one day and then dropped the next day. And that only means that somebody wanted to sell their stock at a real high price. The stock market can be and is manipulated everyday.