by Robert Williams, Advisory Panelist, The Oxford Club Thursday, January 8, 2009: Issue #912

Editor’s Note: Our colleagues at The Oxford Club have been sorting through the debris from the mortgage and credit crisis. Robert Williams has found a company that’s been bucking the trend, profiting from mortgages and racking up a safe, consistent dividend. It fits in perfectly with our asset allocation portfolio, since we recommend holding 5% of your assets in REITs.

Dear Investment U Reader,

The U.S. housing market is walking the plank. Easy credit helped usher in an unprecedented period of rising home prices. But now those same lax credit standards have us caught in one of the worst slumps in recent memory.

According to the latest data, the inventory of unsold homes sits at 4.23 million, representing a 10.2-month supply at the current sales pace. For comparison’s

After making gains the last six sessions, the Canadian Markets fell victim to profit taking during Wednesday trading. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 3.70%, while the TSX Gold Index gave back 7.3% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 2.76% with the declining issuers beating out the advancers by a 467 to 307 margin on volume of 161 million shares traded.

Crosshair Exploration & Mining (AMEX:CXZ) and Target Exploration & Mining have agreed to merge in a transaction that would see Target shareholders get 1.2 Crosshair shares for each target share. The move gives Target access to Crosshair’s cash, while Crosshair gets Target’s Wyoming uranium assets. Crosshair ended the session down C$0.05 at C$0.25, while Target added C$0.045 at C$0.225.

It was a rough day for Shore Gold as the company announced a reduced 2009 exploration budget of C$17.9 million

Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. has focused their efforts on developing significant high-performance technical fibers and polymers utilizing their research related to spider genes to create a transgenic variety of silkworms capable of spinning a new “super fiber” that is either similar or an exact copy of natural spider silk, which is known as one of the strongest and most resilient fibers. For many years the textile and material science industries have tried to replicate spider silk, but have not been successful.

The company has acquired the exclusive rights, in their field of use, to the genetic sequences patented by the University of Wyoming and the genetic engineering technology developed by the University of Notre Dame. The company’s intellectual property portfolio also includes a separate US provisional patent application regarding certain methodologies, genetic sequences, organic polymers and composites of fibers.

Although the production of

Malcolm. J. Fraser, Jr. Ph.D. earned his Ph.D from Ohio State University and performed postdoctoral research at Penn State University and Texas A&M University. At the Texan University, he played a key role in developing the genetic expression system which is now a widely used methodology for producing organic molecules, including pharmaceuticals, on an industrial scale.

Randy Lewis, Ph.D received his B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and his M.S. in chemistry and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Lewis, internationally renowned for his work on spider silk, is the named inventor of a number of patents relating to spider silk polymers. He currently heads the Lewis Laboratory within the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming. The study of spider silk polymers and their underlying genetics is a major focus of Dr. Lewis’s research.

Donald

Headquartered in Lansing, Michigan, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. is a biotechnology company focusing on the development of commercially significant polymers and high performance fibers. The Company works with university scientists and laboratories to create new polymers with potentially broad applications. Spider silk gene sequences are at the core of Kraig Biocraft’s technology.

Spider Silk is one of the strongest fibers produced in nature. Dragline silk, the silk used when a spider is repelling, is of commercial interest. This natural polymer is extremely strong and extremely flexible. These properties of the underlying polymer create the potential for commercial opportunities. Kraig Biocraft has the exclusive right, for the spider silk gene sequences in their field of research. Dr. Lewis of the University of Wyoming first studied and then patented these genetic sequences. The Company obtained, in 2006, certain exclusive rights from the University to utilize the sequences in their field of

Coming off the second worst one-day sell off since 1987, the Canadian Markets continued to freefall during Tuesday trading with slumping commodity prices and political uncertainty sparking a renewed bout of uncertainty. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange dropped 0.93%, while the TSX Gold Index bucked the down trend by adding 7.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 1.08% with the declining issuers outpacing the advancers by a 423 to 309 margin on volume of 153 million shares traded.

Esperanza Silver and partner Silver Standard (NASDAQ:SSRI) tabled a 31% jump in measured and indicated gold resources at their San Luis project in Peru. The new tally is 347,000 ounces of gold running 22.3 grams gold and nearly 9 million ounces of silver grading 578 grams silver per tonne. Esperanza ended the day up C$0.01 at C$0.50, while Silver Standard closed at

While no one was looking the Bush Administration quietly changed regulations that would allow oil companies to extract shale from public lands. The U.S. Department of the Interior made both a land grab and a regulatory grab for enormous swaths of shale that have previously been off limits.

We believe this is another body blow to the ailing green industry, as Washington taps a source of energy with huge potential returns. Moreover, president-elect Obama has hedged his bets on oil shale - perhaps surprising many green advocates.

On October 27, 2008, Obama told supporters in Denver…

“When it comes to oil shale right now, I think we have to do more research and more science to discover whether or not the amount of oil that would be generated would justify what would inevitably be some disruption of the landscape here in Colorado…Colorado is blessed with a lot of natural resources.”

By opening up 1.9

Clean Energy Fuels is a supplier of natural gas as an alternative fuel across North America and designs, builds, finances, and operates fueling stations and supplies compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas. The company serves approximately 275 fleet customers operating 14,000 natural gas vehicles in public transit, refuse hauling, airports, taxis, seaports, and regional trucking markets. As of December 31, 2007, Clean Energy Fuels Corp. owned and operated 170 natural gas fueling stations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Washington, Georgia, Wyoming, and Canada.

Clean Energy Fuel was founded by billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who has made much of his fortune investing in energy markets. Investors should note the company’s shares suffered on Wednesday after California voters struck down a proposition that offered tax rebates to buyers of more fuel-efficient cars. California-based Clean Energy has maintained that the ballot initiative’s failure will not

Most natural gas and oil companies would be happy with a few producing wells pumping out a respectable amount of oil and gas. Some, however, do their homework to find a location where many wells pump many barrels or cubic feet. A company that can recognize its position quickly, and develop it to maximize a variety of revenue streams quickly, is one that will become a solid long term player in any marketplace.

New Frontier Energy Inc., an oil and gas exploration and development company, works to explore and exploit oil and natural gas deposits primarily along the Colorado/Wyoming boarder. The company has been extracting natural gas since 2005 and anticipates further profitable developments at sites adjacent to its primary Slater Dome CBM prospect.

The company is currently producing and exploring in the Sand Wash Basin, a sub-basin of the Greater Green River Basin. Its current production site is located at the

AmeriWest Energy Corp. (OTCBB: AWEC) was recently given a speculative strong buy rating from the research firm Bridge IR Group in their most recent research report. Contained in the report is an informed analysis that also projects a 12-month target price of $1.75. That value is a 450% return to investors at today’s market price of around $0.40. Ameriwest Energy already produces close to 35 barrels of oil per day (nearly $120,000 in monthly revenue) and has more wells coming online shortly.

Ameriwest is a growing, revenue-positive energy company producing underdeveloped oil resources in the prolific Rocky Mountain region of the United States. The company operates by utilizing their strategic combination of low-risk tertiary recovery projects and extensively mapped exploration plays that show significant upside potential. All projects incorporate considerable historical data and are in close proximity to excellent support infrastructure. Ameriwest has