I just read through the third quarter shareholder letter from Marty Whitman at the Third Avenue Value Fund. Some tidbits from the letter:

One problem with Value Investing is that sometimes in trying to determine when to buy a Stock, an investor will try to wait too long, and miss an opportunity. On July 3, 2008, I posted on The DIV-Net on a company called Barrett Business Services (BBSI).

Last weekend, the Div Guy did a solid write up of the problems over at SemGroup Energy Partners, L.P. (SGLP), the publicly traded midstream entity that lost 80% of its value when SemGroup L.P., its General Partner, lost $2.4 billion on a bad bet on oil prices. There are just a few points I want to make on the situation.

Another financial I want to talk about is a bank called the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach. I suspect that most people have not even heard of this company. This stock trades on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol FMBL. It is a bank that is headquartered in California which is ground zero for the Housing downturn.

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Investing Carnival. Last week the Carnival was subtitled the "Bear Market" edition so based on the partial rebound the last few days, I will call this week the Dead Cat Bounce Edition.

NWLIA is a life insurance company headquartered in Austin, TX. It sells a wide variety of life insurance products including annuities, universal life insurance, fixed indexed annuities, fixed indexed universal life, and term and whole life products. Most of its domestic sales are annuities. It also has a large international life insurance business...

My posts the next few weeks will focus on what I consider to be attractive names in the Financial Sector.

"It is getting much more expensive to find Oil these days."

While it is true that it is getting more expensive to find oil, one has to examine whether that increase is of a permanent nature as many argue.

"What matters is growth from the emerging markets, not the United States or other mature markets."

Oil Bulls love to trot out China, and to a lesser extent, India, when discussing the unbelievable growth from emerging markets. I heard a money manager call such growth "massive."

It is a mantra of the Peak Oil movement that oil production in the United States peaked in the 1970’s, and that this production peak has, or soon will occur in worldwide production of oil.

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) released its first quarter report on the 1,276 thrifts that it supervises. The report showed the effects of the deteriorating credit cycle on bank balance sheets.

Many Small Cap Energy stocks have spiked up to unreasonable levels the last few days.

Biloxi Marsh Lands Company (BLMC.PK) is an intriguing company. I wrote a few posts on it last year, and it fell off my radar screen. It is currently selling at $20, which is a four year low.

(No position)

Hirsch International Corp. (HRSH) is a seller of equipment and support services to the decorated apparel industry. Its main products are a line of embroidery machines supplied to it by Tajima Industries, Ltd. They range in price from $10,000 to $150,000 each.

Here is why Oil shouldn't go to $200 a barrel. Notice I didn't say won't go to $200, as betting against a commodity in this market is tantamount to financial suicide.