How Governments Can Kill Profitable Habits

The following video is part of our Motley Fool Exclusive Interview series.

In today's edition, Fool.com analyst Austin Smith interviews acclaimed author and New York Times columnist Charles Duhigg about his recent book The Power of Habit and the iEconomy series he's authored for the Times.

In the following video, Charles looks at some of the things governments can do to change deeply entrenched habits like smoking. With most habits, governments simply need to find the right lever to pull to make the habit less convenient, and this could have a dramatic impact on tobacco stocks.

It's the same tactic that New York City has implemented with its recent soda ban, which could negatively impact two other big habit stocks: Coca-Cola (NYS: KO) and PepsiCo (NYS: PEP) .

If there's one thing these companies have in common besides the purchase habits their products encourage, it's monster dividends. But governments' attempts to change those habits are a huge threat. Instead, look for dividends that could help you retire rich.

We've outlined nine of these top dividend stocks in our free report. Click here now to read more.

The article How Governments Can Kill Profitable Habits originally appeared on Fool.com.

Austin Smith owns shares of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Philip Morris International. The Motley Fool owns shares of PepsiCo. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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