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Earlier today Escalera Resources (ticker:ESCR) announced a suspension of dividends on their Series A preferred shares (ticker:ESCRP) and we have had notes from Fred and Vern on the issue.As you recall we chickened out of this issue a few months ago and sold our holdings (at around $12 or so for a loss). After we sold the shares rebounded to…

Well it looks like a tough day coming up for the MLPs. Pre-market shows issues down 3% to as much as 10%--of course the worst of the hits are being taken by the upstream players as it is becoming clearer that credit lines are going to be cut relatively soon. We would expect that both utilities and REITs are going…

We constantly receive questions about what affect interest rates have on preferred stock prices. In a general sense we can address this question for perpetual preferreds.  Even though we have read investor speculation that interest rates do not effect fixed income type securities there should be no question that there is a very pronounced relationship and for those that doubt that is the case…

March 8, 2015We constantly receive questions about what affect interest rates have on preferred stock prices. In a general sense we can address this question for perpetual preferreds.  Even though we have read investor speculation that interest rates do not effect fixed income type securities there should be no question that there is a very pronounced relationship and for those that…

When we saw the employment numbers yesterday it became quickly obvious that income issues were likely in trouble for the day as the 10 year treasury shot up by 10 basis points immediately and then continued to climb until reaching 2.25%.Both REITs and Utilities have been substantially overvalued for a while and honestly the setback is more than overdue. Certainly…