William Eichler

Is Health Care Properties a Buy?

NOTE: on 04/23/09 the HCP Board of Directors declared the
regular dividend of $0/46/sh...

So now the question becomes: who do you trust...the HCP Board
and management or, the various comments, opinions and claimed
financial holdings (long, short, none) of investors?

REITs and the Fallacy of FFO

The current and future income, plus the interest rates environment will determine the value of a property. The income from a medical office building, laboratory, or senior housing facility is the foundation for Health Care Properties as an investment. I forsee no slack in demand for their properties and therefore no decline in future income. Perhaps Mr.Woon should re-work his dissatisfaction with FFO & depreciation.

BofA Left to Clean Up Countrywide's Mess

For those worrying about the BAC or Countrywide mortgages you should check out the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008 (still to be voted on). Especially Sec.257 (c) (6)(A)(i) which provides for the refinancing of such existing mortgages in an amount not greater than 90% of the current appraised value of the property involved.

A mortgage was obtained at $200,000 to cover the original appraisal.
Time passes and it drops 25% to $150,000. Take 90% of 150K and
the FHA will buy it for $135,000; for a 32.5% loss for the bank.

The bank was stuck with a non-performing loan or, a very hard to resell house. Now it has capital. Sound good to me.

Bank of America: Earn 6.5% While You Wait

OK...shoot me...one more change:

Tier1 + Tier2 Capital equal 10% to be "well capitalized;" and BAC is at 11.02% [10-K, 02/28/08].

The point still stands...between yield and call money BAC makes fro an interesting financial stock.

Bank of America: Earn 6.5% While You Wait

Forgot to add this to above:

A bank is "well capitalized" if Tier1 capital equals 6% and Tier 1 + Tier1 capital equals 10%; BAC is at 11.02% [10-K, 02/28/08].

The Credit Bubble: Deregulation Gone Wild

The financial stocks have paid...via large, price declines. Bear Stearns
especially...it is gone. Perhaps the government will bankrupt the issuers of the debt it took on from private parties...one can hope.

Obviously some new rules need to be established...perhaps over-
sight should be concentrated. As always, the S&L scandal being the poster-child for this, government aid for failure but no limits on economic behavior eventually leads to disaster.

This is inherent to free-market testing of economic behavior. It is not a condemnation of Capitalism that extremes are reached [that would be like complaining about your weather because it got too hot or too cold]. It is something to be aware of and to be avoided...not an easy task, for regulators or Capitalists.

Filling Up on Natural Gas

From article above, 'The combination of increasing demand with stagnant supply - well you know the rest."

Might "the rest" be: LNG imports thru KMP

Kinder Morgan Energy: A Little Corruption, American Style

The 12/11 MorningStar report on KMP notes that Enterprise Products Partners - EPD parent, Enterprise GP Holdings - EPE, reduced its incentive call on EPD's cash-flow to 25% in return for shares in EPD.

A move available to privatized KMI and KMP.

Kinder Morgan Energy: A Little Corruption, American Style

Someday KMP will have Distribution per Unit of $10.00.
At that time the GP will receive 42.375% of that amount.
The LPs will receive 57.625%. And that is the price to piggy-back
on this great company.

U.S Solar 'Power' Depends on Thin Film Technology Growth

According to a presentation by FSLR at the Cowen Clean Energy Conference [p.11] their watt per module cost = $0.0351.

Poly-silicon = $0.0222 per watt [37% cheaper than FSLR] and
Mono-silicon = $0.176 per watt [50% cheaper than FSLR].

Don't believe it...check it yourself.

Is the Wal-Mart Era 'Drawing to a Close'?

Good article ... lets not forget WMTs push into health care centers.
They would provide nurse services, home health equipment, prescription glasses, and pharmaceuticals. They hope to have 2,000 clinics within five to seven years. WMT has 300 different banks, with 1,200 branches, inside WMT stores. They plan to add 200 more by 2009. The re-negotiated leases give WMT the explicit right to offer mortgages, home-equity line of credit and consumer loans. Plus 170 MoneyCenters. Their success with electronics from Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, and Dell. And finally, the search for a M&A executive. There is more but ....