dcollon

Wow. This is the first buy that I can remember in a long time. Somebody here will correct me I'm sure.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/06/bob-rodriguez-the-man-who-sees-disaster/

This was one of my favorite lines in the article: "Nobody around the globe knows exactly who holds those papers and what it means if they come due," Merkel told a meeting of the German parliament's European affairs committee. She said it was also unclear "who will have to pay how much and who will need fresh capital in what way."

It continues to amaze me that the regulators are struggling with CDS problems. It's pure madness.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43391458 *from bankstocks.com

I'm attaching my comment to this thread since I don't want to start another. I can't remember, but someone on the board recommended reading The Great Depression: A Diary and I wanted to thank them. It was a great book and it was staggering to see how many similarities there were between 1930-1938 and today. Obviously, many differences as well. I recommend anyone that hasn't read the book to pick it up.

Thanks for the Howard Marks article. I enjoyed reading The Most Important Thing as well. I'm not sure how to feel about the IPO of their business.

It will be interesting to watch where he goes from here. Thanks for sharing the article and all the best in game 7 Sanjeev.

I'm not a tax expert, but here is an example of what I mentioned a few posts ago. http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/9250375?f=related

OEC, I'm not looking at it from a Nationalistic point of view. I'm looking at it from a capitalist point of view and as a shareholder I would rather pay the tax and have the cash back here to buyback stock in the situations I'm looking at. It's my opinion, that the businesses are trading at a large enough discount to fair value that the tax hit would be more than made up by reducing share count at current prices. In addition, given the tendencies of management in many situations to waste cash in m&a deals I would once again rather have the cash. Obviously, this is just my opinion and I respect your view.

They could borrow against the cash to buyback stock, but it doesn't solve my main frustration, which is leaving cash overseas holding out hope the government changes course. I don't see any reason why many of these companies couldn't bring back 20, 30, 40% of overseas cash pay the tax on move on. The remaining balance can stay outside the country and hope for better tax policy. I have also seen companies buyback there stock overseas if they are trading on a foreign exchange. Shah, I hope you are right.

Thanks Myth. Oldschoolsting, this http://www.people.hbs.edu/ffoley/Cash.pdf might help your understanding. It's a little old, but has good information.

I'm wondering if anyone else on the board has had discussions with any management teams regarding overseas cash. If so, I would enjoy hearing any items of interest. I'm getting very tired of the unwillingness to bring cash back to the U.S. I understand the tax situation, but in some of the situations I'm focused on there is really no excuse given the opportunity to buyback their stock at very attractive earnings and free cash flow yields. Actually in one situation, the company is unwillinig to even give me a rough idea (percentage wise) of how much of their cash is actually held overseas. They are only willing to say a "vast majority". I would appreciate any other stories and/or excuses from companies that some of you may follow.

Winthrop Realty Trust Announces Recent Transactions Monday, June 06, 2011 08:00:00 AM BOSTON, June 6, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR), a diversified REIT that focuses on opportunistic debt and equity investments in real estate, has executed or entered into several agreements positively effecting its equity owned property portfolio and its loan portfolio deploying and committing to deploy since January 1, 2011 an aggregate capital amount of $112.0 million. In addition, the Company has sold or received repayments totaling $75.0 million on outstanding loans. "With capital commitments, we have deployed $112.0 million of capital on a year to date basis and have taken in $75.0 million in loan repayments or property sales. Our pipeline remains full and we continue to identify accretive opportunistic transactions which we can add to our portfolio and selectively prune fully valued assets," commented Michael Ashner, Chief Executive Officer. Acquisitions Acquired a $15.0 million preferred equity interest in the entity that holds the leasehold interest in a newly constructed 70% pre-leased 102,000 square foot retail and office property located on the High Line at 450 West 14th Street, New York, New York. The investment is subject to a $54.0 million first mortgage loan. Acquired for $17.5 million, a $20.0 million senior mezzanine loan secured by six apartment complexes located in Florida, containing an aggregate of 2,106 units. The loan is scheduled to mature in July 2011 and is expected to generate a yield to maturity of 15.8%. Invested $5.76 million to acquire a 50% economic interest in a $71.5 million mezzanine loan held by Concord Debt Holdings ("Concord") secured by an interest in the Sofitel hotel in New York City. The loan is encumbered by a $56.2 million repurchase obligation. Its Northwest Atlanta joint venture with Sealy entered into an agreement with the lender holding the mortgage loan on the joint venture's property which will enable the joint venture to satisfy the $28.75 million loan at a discounted payoff amount of $20.5 million at any time prior to June 30, 2011. Concord satisfied its KeyBank loan resulting in an expected current annual distribution to Winthrop of approximately $680,000, exclusive of any distributions on account of the Concord CDO. As a result of the loan being satisfied, Concord's interest in each of the following assets are now unencumbered: (i) the CNL Hotel portfolio; (ii) five mezzanine loans with an outstanding principal balance of $18.6 million; (iii) the ownership of One Riverwalk, a 240,000 square foot office building in San Antonio, Texas which is 70% leased and subject to a $14.0 million loan; and, (iv) six CMBS and CRE CDO bonds. Sales and Repayments: Sold to its partner, Marc Realty, for $18.5 million its interest in three properties in its Marc Realty Portfolio (8 S. Michigan, 11 E. Adams and 29 E. Madison), the purchase price for which was paid $6.0 million in cash and a $12.5 million secured promissory note which bears interest at 8% per annum, requires payments of interest only and matures May 31, 2016. Received repayment on its two recently acquired non-performing first mortgage loans secured by two retail centers located in Riverside County, California. Winthrop received repayment of $18.8 million on its $18.1 million investment for an annualized return of 30%. Received repayment on its recently acquired first mortgage secured by a 26-story, 66-room boutique hotel located on 46th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues in New York, New York. Winthrop received repayment of $8.66 million on its $7.98 million investment for an annualized return of 34%. Winthrop Realty Trust is a NYSE-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Additional information on Winthrop Realty Trust is available on its Web site at http://www.winthropreit.com.

http://www.businessinsider.com/transcript-of-bill-ackmans-super-fast-speech-at-the-ira-sohn-conference-2011-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/transcript-of-david-einhorns-speech-at-the-ira-sohn-conference-2011-6

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-02/berkshire-failed-to-apply-sokol-standard-at-rv-unit-ex-manager-mart-says.html

From the WSJ Op-ed section.

I know some of you enjoy Gawande's comments like I do. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/atul-gawande-harvard-medical-school-commencement-address.html?printable=true&currentPage=all

http://www.oaktreecapital.com/MemoTree/How%20Quickly%20They%20Forget%2005_25_11.pdf

For as much as CNBC drives me nuts, I always enjoyed Mark Haines. He will be missed.

Misterstockwell, That's a good question, but it’s hard to know where to start. One large topic that stuck me was the use of energy in various cities. My initial comment would be, if they ever starting consuming oil/gas/electricity like we do here look out. Prices of those commodities will be much higher. For example, in one city I was in they turned the power off, city wide, from 8am until 7pm. We received a notice from the hotel the night before, so we wouldn't get stuck on the 22nd floor of our hotel without the use of an elevator. We ate breakfast that morning using candles. This is a city of 1mm plus people and a ton of manufacturing. I was told this is not uncommon throughout many parts of the country (I saw it in another city on a smaller scale). In addition, every factor we were in used almost no power outside the actually factory. They had heat in the offices, but didn't turn it on. They had lights, but didn't use many of them. It was very interesting to see. I never took my coat off (winter coat) in the meetings. The hotels we stayed in were decent, but the multifamily facilities nearby would make places in Detroit look nice. No one ever asked me for money, but they are definitely not living on much money per day. Some of the farm houses (if you can call them that) were very poor. I doubt many of the ones I saw had running water and most didn’t have windows. I have tried to keep this very brief. There are so many amazing things from the new airports, to the high speed rail lines that aren’t yet finished, to the pollution that I could talk about, but it would take pages. Again, these areas that I’m highlighting with my comments above are not the big cities (Shanghai/Beijing). Those cities are amazing. Beautiful and huge. Great restaurants and tons of people. I guess that is another thing I would say. I have never seen so many people. When I returned home it felt weird not being completely surrounded. Truly an amazing country, for so many reasons.

I would highly suggest going to visit China with someone that knows the country. I was fortunate enough to spend 10 days traveling in the small towns (only about 1mm people) :). I was able to see first hand the factories, standard of living, energy problems, etc...I ended up visiting 5 different cities and it was eye opening. I find that there are many misconceptions of people here when I talk to them about what's going on over there. If you have the chance, you should really go see it.

I always find Steve's comments interesting. Below is his presentation at the Value Investing Congress. http://www.fpafunds.com/news_05052011_valueinvesting.pdf

I thought some of you might find this quick story from Bloomberg interesting http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-16/chinese-spreading-wealth-make-vancouver-homes-pricier-than-nyc.html