Too bad we can’t invest in uncertainty. Is the recovery truly on track? Is Europe making a comeback? Will the Fed ruin the stock market party by taking away the easy-money punchbowl too quickly? Uncertainly is booming right now.

Sure, these issues are important, but at Global Income Edge we’ve designed our portfolios to thrive despite them. And right now, given the U.S. is the bedrock of a nascent global recovery, we feel especially good about our U.S. holdings.

All of our U.S. holdings not only are financially strong, they have powerful megatrends baked into their businesses. For example, some have pricing power: They command great influence over the price customers pay. Electric-utility monopolies are an example. Some other firms take advantage of inexorable demographic trends, such as the graying of America: health care companies, for example.

So at a time when many investors are just a bit edgy about the economy and interest rates, we’re profiling some of our favorite, homegrown, income generators. We have a separate story in this issue on telecom AT&T, which yields 5.8%. The communications behemoth is not just a dominant player in the U.S.; it’s positioning itself to become a major player in broadband, cellular and cable markets throughout Latin America. T is a buy up to $38.

We also hold Verizon (4.78% yield), which operates America’s fastest and most extensive 4G wireless network, providing services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network. It also provides superior broadband, video and other wireless and wire line services to consumers, businesses, governments and wholesale customers across the globe. To get this kind of service, customers are willing to pay a premium. That’s pricing power.

Industry leaders also command the power, and these two telecoms have always been at the forefront of their industry. They’re the successors to two Baby Bells that came to dominate the space for new technologies. As evidence of their growth, their combined market capitalization rose from $40 billion in 1988 to $540 billion today. Now that these Baby Bells are all grown up, I continue to expect great things from them. VZ is a buy up to $59.  

The Power of Electric Utilities

Meanwhile, I continue to be a great proponent of U.S. electric utilities for income investors. In our portfolio we hold one of America’s largest energy utilities, Southern Company, which has been outperforming analyst expectations for five straight quarters. It yields 4.13%. In early February, the firm surprised analysts by beating their estimates by $250 million; the latest quarter also represents a $105 million increase over 2013’s fourth-quarter sales.

Concern surrounded Southern recently, when it announced an 18-month delay in the finalization of its new nuclear power plants, but this isn’t a big issue because contractors would take most of the financial hit, not customers.

The utility is in an ideal position to deliver solid income. This is because of the cozy regulatory environment in which it resides and the improving electricity demand in Southern’s service territory as a result of the U.S. recovery. Residential sales for the quarter grew 5.5%, commercial sales 1.3%, and industrial sales 3.3%. For 2014 overall, total sales increased 6.0%.

SO is a buy up to $55.

But our portfolio is not just about traditional income investments. We’ve also identified new income investment categories and are following demographic changes that are creating new income opportunities. 

Many investors already know that retiring baby boomers will be a boon to the health care industry. In our Aggressive Portfolio, we hold PDL Biopharma (NYSE: PDLI), which manages a portfolio of patents and royalty assets for a new generation of treatments for cancer and immunologic diseases.

The company’s stock has been volatile this last year as investors speculate whether the firm will be able to replace its main income-generating patents, known as the Queen et.al patents that expire the first quarter of 2016. 

The company has invested $780 million in late-stage health care companies and other technologies in an effort to continue to pay one of the highest dividends in the health care industry. PDLI yields a whopping 7.75 %.

And, given its past success, we’re willing to give PDLI the benefit of the doubt over the next year to prove that it can find those all-essential, lifesaving breakthrough patents that generate a new ecosystem of drug treatments. PDLI is a buy up to $14.

In our Conservative Portfolio is S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat HCP (NYSE: HCP). HCP is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, that owns or holds interests in $22 billion worth of properties, including 20 hospitals, 444 senior housing properties, 302 nursing facilities, 115 properties occupied by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and more than 270 medical offices. HCP offers a dividend yield of 4.54%.

Given the sheer growth in property or real estate development that’s still likely to occur in the health care industry due to retiring baby boomers, I expect this firm to be a long-term income play. HCP is a buy up to $44.

Financial planning and asset management are areas that also stand to benefit greatly from the boomer boom. (By 2030, the over-65 crowd will expand to 72 million people, up from 40 million in 2010.)

All these retirees will need sound investment advice and good products; that’s why in this issue we’re highlighting AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB), a global asset manager that is taking a bigger and bigger share of mutual fund assets managed—the favorite investment of boomers. Yielding 7.6%, AB is a buy up to $30.  

The New Income Opportunity

Finally, the greatest new income opportunity of our generation is starting to develop in the U.S.: investing in companies that will replace and enhance America’s aging infrastructure.

My current favorite income play, as many subscribers know, is investment in America’s renewal. There’s a trillion dollars needed for infrastructure investment in the U.S. over the next seven to 10 years, and $400 billion alone will go to regulated utilities, where a large portion will be used for replacing aging coal plants with natural gas power plants, and adding renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

And the private sector will increasingly help finance infrastructure projects because governments don’t have the cash and because investors are looking for new sources of return.

Two companies in our portfolio are going to be part of this renewal in U.S. infrastructure: U.S. firm Macquarie Infrastructure (NYSE: MIC), which we profiled last month, and ABB (NYSE: ABB), which derives half of its earnings from the U.S.  

Yielding 5.5%, MIC owns four infrastructure businesses in the U.S. in aviation, tank terminals, gas and contracted power that generate high, consistent levels of cash due to long-term contracts to supply essential services.

In early February, MIC recently inked a $720 million deal for the Bayonne Energy Center from an affiliate of energy firm ArcLight Capital Partners. The company expects the power plant, which supplies electricity to New York and New Jersey, to generate EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $62 million per year and result in an increase in the quarterly cash dividend.

MIC is a buy up to $77.

ABB specializes in power-transmission distribution and power-plant automation. It also develops upgrades for power plants and transmission systems, and benefits from developing nations that are building their energy infrastructure at a rapid rate.

 Yielding 2.69%, ABB has been a steady player that has raised the dividend over six consecutive years. In its recent 2014 results, the firm’s orders grew 9%. The firm still has a challenging environment in its global business, but we believe that as the U.S. economic recovery gains more steam, so will the fortunes of ABB.  

ABB is a buy up to $30.