JP Morgan Purposely Downplayed Litigation Risk That Spiked 5,000% Last Year & Is Still Severely Under Reserved By Over $4 Billion!!! Shareholder Lawyers Should Be Scrambling Now

Check out the screen shots below from Bloomberg.com yesterday.
Whoa!!! What happened? How did we get here? Let’s just keep in mind that
what may look like analytical/intellectual superiority on my part in
comparison with to the literal army of Wall Street analysts and pundits
may actually simple end up being intellectual honesty and a dearth of
truth destroying conflicts of interests. Then again, it does make me
feel good to say that I may be smart, doesn’t it?

Let’s reminisce, but before we do, here’s a direct challenge to the
mainstream media and the sell side of Wall Street – A DIRECT
CHALLENGE!!! I will gladly debate anyone who claims that either their wasn’t an obvious and substantial risk of under-reserving in order to prop up sagging bank profits or worse yet anyone who doesn’t believe we are still in the meaty end of a cyclical downturn in real assets – worldwide,
on international television. I’m ready to go on a truth telling, fact
finding mission with ANYONE, preferably from one of those esteemed
institutions that get too much airplay as it is for their mass
consumption marketing, pump and dump schemes, and generally crappy
advice that they are totally overcompensated for. The only ground rules
is that we get ample time to flesh out our arguments vs. having a
soundbite battle. This list intellectual counterparties should be quite
long since there were little to no outright warnings of real trouble on
the horizon in 2009 for JP Morgan, Bank of America or the other big
banks, and the NAR said last year (and the year before that, and the year before that) was the best time to buy a house.

Goldman Sachs anyone? Any major Wall Street bank?

• Did Reggie Middleton, a Blogger at BoomBustBlog, Best Wall Streets Best of the Best?
• Is It Now Common Knowledge That Goldman’s Investment Advice Sucks???

National Association of Realtors???

• When Will the Mainstream Media Be Ready To Call The NAR The Sham That It Really Is?

Anyone!!!?? There’s the challenge, let’s see who bites. In the
meantime, let’s use this blogging medium to steamroll over the
disinformation formally known as SEC mandated financial reporting, and
better yet we will examine why blogs have taken over the role as auditor
and analyst… For shame… For shame…

Less
Than 24 Hours After My Warning Of Extensive Legal Risk In The Banking
Industry, The Massachusetts Supreme Court Drops THE BOMB! Monday, January 10th, 2011, as excerpted..

The day after I posted “As
JP Morgan & Other Banks Legal Costs Spike, Many Should Ask If It
Was Not Obvious Years Ago That This Industry May Become The “New”
Tobacco Companies” wherein I made clear my opinion that the legal and litigation risks that the banking industry faces is woefully underestimated, the Massachusetts Land Court Decision that invalidates foreclosures based on post sale assignments
was up held by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. This is permanent, and
precedent setting, absolutely justifies and vindicates my post from the
day before, which also contained links to other posts which any
declared sensational just a few days before, ex., The
Robo-Signing Mess Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg, Mortgage Putbacks
Will Be the Harbinger of the Collapse of Big Banks that Will Dwarf
2008! and As Earnings Season is Here, I Reiterate My Warning That Big Banks Will Pay for Optimism Driven Reduction of Reserves. This is a very big deal since it actually
unravels many thousands of foreclosures and sets precedent to be
examined across the country (all 50 state’s attorney generals are
looking into fraudclosure issues) that will really cause material damage
to the banks that are pursuing (have pursued) said foreclosures.

BoomBustBloggers were thoroughly
and explicitly warned of JP Morgan’s accounting profit pumping optimism
in releasing reserves and under reserving for put pack risk since 2009!

See As Earnings Season is Here, I Reiterate My Warning That Big Banks Will Pay for Optimism Driven Reduction of Reserves or “After
a Careful Review of JP Morgan’s Earnings Release, I Must Ask – “What
the Hell Are Those Boys Over at JP Morgan Thinking????” As excerpted from the The
Robo-Signing Mess Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg, Mortgage Putbacks
Will Be the Harbinger of the Collapse of Big Banks that Will Dwarf
2008!

This is the part that everybody seems to be overlooking…

All you really need to do is find the
banks that accepted a lot of broker business, factor in the expense of
the class action suit litigation that is popping up in nearly every
state (try Googling it, you will be amazed as big firms and store front
lawyers alike are throwing their hats in the ring), and you will see
the easiest way out of a potentially tough bind for investors is the
put back. Where does this land? Squarely on the balance sheet of the
banks – who, BTW have the money to attract even more predatory lawyers.
A forensic review of high LTV loans between 2003 and 2007 should find
that at the very least 30% were aggressively valued, with a more
realistic number coming in at about 60%. Ask anyone who was in in the
business at that time, I doubt they will disagree.

When I warned of this LAST YEAR, it was not taken very seriously. I suggest all should think again – Reggie Middleton on JP Morgan’s “Blowout” Q4-09 Results. Let’s reminisce…

Warranties of representation, and forced repurchase of loans

JP Morgan has increased its reserves with regards to repurchase of
sold securities but the information surround these actions are very
limited as the company does not separately report the repurchase
reserves created to meet contingencies. However, the Company’s income
from mortgage servicing was severely impacted by increase in
repurchase reserves. Mortgage production revenue was negative $192
million against negative $70 million in 3Q09 and positive $62 million
in 4Q08.

Counterparties who are accruing losses from bad loans, (ex. monoline insurers such as Ambac and MBIA, see A Super Scary Halloween Tale of 104 Basis Points Pt I & II, by Reggie Middleton circa November 2007,) are stepping up their aggression in pushing loans that appear to breach certain warranties or smack of fraud.
I expect this activity to pick up significantly, and those banks that
made significant use of brokers and third parties to place mortgages
will be at material risk – much more so than the primarily direct
writers. I’ll give you two guesses at which two banks are suspect. If
you need a hint, take a look at who is increasing reserves for
repurchases! JP Morgan and their not so profitable acquisition, WaMu!

As I said, losses should be ramping up on the mortgage sector.
Notice the trend of housing prices after the onset of government
bubble blowing: If Anybody Bothered to Take a Close Look at the Latest Housing Numbers…

PNC Bank and Wells Fargo are in very similar situations regarding
acquiring stinky loan portfolios. I suggest subscribers review the
latest forensic reports on each company to refresh as the companies
report Q4 2009 earnings. Unlike JPM, these banks do not have the
investment banking and trading fees of significance (albeit decreasing
significance) to fall back on as a cushion to consumer and mortgage
credit losses.

Well, it looks as if I was onto something.

… On the over exuberant JPM Management…

And now on to the main story of the day…

JP Morgan Faces $4.5 Billion in Worst-Case-Scenario Losses (WSJ):

NEW YORK—J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. said it faces up to $4.5 billion in legal losses, in excess
of its established litigation reserves, should its worst-case legal
scenario occur. The New York bank made the disclosure in its annual
Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, saying the
additional losses represent a range of reasonably possible losses. The
SEC has requested the additional disclosures on what banks could
potentially face on legal losses on top of what they have set aside. The
banks all face a rash of lawsuits regarding the financial crisis and
collapse of the housing market, particularly from investors who
purchased mortgage-backed securities that later tumbled in value.

The bank already accounts for what it
considers a reasonable estimate of losses in a litigation reserve, a
number it doesn’t make public. The $4.5 billion figure would be a
worst-case scenario on top of that number. It said the additional
losses could be zero, though it could also go higher as the bank can’t
yet make estimates on the more than 10,000 legal proceedings it faces.
Last week, Citigroup Inc. warned the high end of its worst-case scenario was $4 billion, while Bank of America Corp. warned of up to $1.5 billion in additional losses and Wells Fargo & Co. said its extra disclosure was $1.2 billion above its reserves.

J.P. Morgan was also the latest bank
to include a disclosure that it has received “a number of subpoenas and
informal requests for information” about its mortgage business. The
bank said those requests include questions about its underwriting of
mortgage-backed securities. The bank said some of the investigations
also arose after it announced a foreclosure moratorium last year when
it found problems in its foreclosure practices. The investigations,
J.P. Morgan said, could result in “material fines,” penalties, or other
enforcement, including forced changes to its processes.

…

The bank added repeatedly to its litigation reserves in 2010, and legal costs soared last year to $7.4 billion from $161 million a year earlier.

So what’s going on here? Tangible, tradable fraud. Unlike FASB
bending over and allowing the retail investor to get fudge-packed like
the 78 accountants who actually still had respect for their profession,
institutional investors are not so quick to grab ankles. As a matter of
fact, the only way to prevent the banks from getting steamrolled by
investor AND borrower law suits is to literally legalize fraud by
statute, retroactively. To skip directly to Reggie Middleton on tradable
fraud, move to 15:18 in the video, or from 11:55 for the whole spiel on Tradable Fraud, Goldman’s Facebook Deal & Phantom Bank Earnings.

JPMorgan Sells $1.5 Billion of Commercial-Mortgage Bonds as Spreads Widen  (Bloomberg)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. sold a $1.5
billion commercial-mortgage bond as Middle East turmoil slows a
three-month rally for the debt. Top-rated securities tied to skyscraper,
shopping mall and hotel loans are yielding 1.95 percentage points more
than Treasuries, up from a spread of 1.88 percentage points on Feb. 18,
the lowest level in at least three years, according to a Barclays Plc
index. Investors are demanding higher yields as protests gain momentum
in Libya,
sparking concern that rising oil prices could hamper an economic
recovery, said Brian Lancaster, a Stamford, Connecticut-based analyst
with Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. sold a $1.5
billion commercial-mortgage bond as Middle East turmoil slows a
three-month rally for the debt. Top-rated securities tied to skyscraper,
shopping mall and hotel loans are yielding 1.95 percentage points more
than Treasuries, up from a spread of 1.88 percentage points on Feb.
18, the lowest level in at least three years, according to a Barclays
Plc index. Investors are demanding higher yields as protests gain
momentum in Libya, sparking concern that rising oil prices could hamper
an economic recovery, said Brian Lancaster, a Stamford,
Connecticut-based analyst with Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.

Investors obviously aren’t demanding that much. Considering how risky
much of this stuff is combined with where we are in the rate cycle, I
wouldn’t touch this with your money – oh yeah, they probably are using
other people’s money, aren’t they? Remember, commercial real estate
returns are essentially a risk adjusted spread off of the (allegedly)
risk free benchmark rate, which is already risky enough as it is since Ben B. has been artificially suppressing rates and stoking demand. As excerpted from  Reggie Middleton ON CNBC’s Fast Money Discussing Hopium in Real Estate…

Listen up people, HERE ARE THE NASTY FACTS!!!

Real estate is a highly rate sensitive asset class. Capitalization rates (the popular method of pricing real estate) is explained in Wikipedia as:

Capitalization rate (or “cap rate”) is the ratio between the net operating income produced by an asset and its capital cost (the original price paid to buy the asset) or alternatively its current market value.^[1] The rate is calculated in a simple fashion as follows:

Without going into a CRE class, when
interest rates go up, cap rates generally go up as well and the value
(or cost to purchase) of the property goes down in sympathy unless the
rise in interest rates is offset by a commensurate or greater rise in
net operating income. Now, either everybody believes that unemployment
is going to drop towards zero  in an era of US austerity (reference Are the Effects of Unemployment About To Shoot Through the Roof? then see Budget Austerity: Goldman Sees Danger in US Budget Cuts – CNBC) at the same time that historically low interest rates that actually went negative are going to get lower (see the Pan-European Sovereign Debt Crisis) —- or cap rates are about to skyrocket. I’ll let you decide!

As you can see above, CRE drops
in value whenever yields spike more than the + delta in NOI. Looking
below, you can see that US CRE actually runs to the inverse of the 30
year Treasury.

That visual relationship is corroborated by running the statistical correlations…

The relationship is obvious and
evident! In addition, we have been in a Goldilocks fantasy land for
both interest rates and CRE for about 30 years. CRE culminated in the
2007 bubble pop, but was reblown by .gov policies and machinations. The
same with rates. Ever hear of NEGATIVE interest rates where YOU have
to PAY someone to LEND THEM MONEY!!!

So, BoomBustBloggers, where do YOU think rates are going to go from here? Up of Down???

And now back to that Bloomberg story…

JPMorgan’s largest top-rated portion
of the commercial- mortgage bond, a $485.4 million slice maturing in
9.77 years, yields 112 basis points more than the benchmark swap rate,
according to a person familiar with the transaction who declined to be
identified because terms aren’t public. The New York-based bank had
originally offered the debt for 105 basis points over swaps, according
to marketing materials distributed to investors on Feb. 23.

Call me stupid, but why would I accept that level of risk for only
105 or even 112 basis points? That, my dear BoomBustBloggers, is the
stuff crashes are made from!

$45 Billion Forecast

Banks have arranged about $6.5
billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities this year, compared
with $11.5 billion in all of 2010, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. JPMorgan has forecast sales will rise to $45 billion this
year after plunged to $3.4 billion in 2009 amid the financial crisis.
Issuance peaked at a record $234 billion in 2007, Bloomberg data show.

… Competition among lenders has led to riskier loans being included in more recent deals, Standard & Poor’s
said in a Feb 24 report. Current offerings are more highly leveraged
and have less income to cover debt payments than those completed in late
2009, S&P said.

“In the short 15 months since we
began seeing new CMBS issuance again, transaction structures are
becoming more complex and underwriting standards are loosening
somewhat,” the analysts wrote.

‘Nuff said! Yeah, those CMBS deals
are the shiznit! I remember speaking on them a year or two ago,
detailing exactly the type of fraud, misinformation and disinformation
that is needed (and perpetrated) to elevate worthless trash to the level
that it was (and very much still is) at…

1. As If On Cue, Goldman Upgrades REITs As It Pumps TALF CRE Offerings Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
2. Reggie Middleton Personally Congratulates Goldman, but Questions How Much More Can Be Pulled Off
3. The
   Conundrum of Commercial Real Estate Stocks: In a CRE “Near
   Depression”, Why Are REIT Shares Still So High and Which Ones to Short?
4. Wall Street Real Estate Funds Lose Between 61% to 98% for Their Investors as They Rake in Fees! Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
5. Reggie Middleton vs Goldman Sachs, Round 1 Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The Biscayne Landing developments in North Miami are a perfect
example of obvious overexuberance (or highly skilled CMBS sales persons
and bankers, or just one hell of a corporate tab run up at Tens late
night, you know where the steak and wine comes up on the receipt for
$12Gs – remember fellas, whatever she was doing with you she was most
likely doing with the dude that was there right before you. Things don’t
get any cleaner when you tip harder off the corporate card). Hmmm, but
wasn’t Biscayne Landing supposed to be a monumental luxury development.
As a matter of fact, it is one, isn’t it.Check out one broker’s developer renditions…

15045 Biscayne Blvd, North Miami, FL 33181

Here’s what the broker has for sale on his site. Lucky for those fortunate condo owners, you can still sell those luxury units for MORE than they were going for a year after they were built in 2007 at the top  of the market. Whewww!!!

Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s take on it – More Pain in Wake of Deal Froth(WSJ)

North Miami, Fla., officials are
moving to seize control of the Biscayne Landing development site.
Bondholders are likely to see no principal returned from the deal. In
2007, Credit Suisse Group
sold $163.5 million in mortgage-backed securities backed by a virtually
empty former Superfund site in North Miami, Fla. Investors didn’t
even blink at the $475 million appraisal of the property’s value. Now,
city officials are moving to seize control of the 188-acre
development site. The commercial mortgage-backed securities sold to
investors are on track to become the second-biggest flop ever among
such securities. Holders of the bonds likely will see little or no
principal returned from the deal.

I’ll let you guess who holds the title for the biggest flop in such securities, but don’t be surprised if it rhymes with tax... Speaking of which… Goldman Sachs Estimates Possible Losses From Legal Cases at $3.4 Billion. As was explicitly forewarned by yours truly in Banks,
Monolines, and Ratings Agencies As The Three Card Monte (Wall)Street
Hustlers! Its a Sucker’s Bet, Who’s Going to Fall for it in QE2? Let’s not forget The
3rd Quarter in Review, and More Importantly How the Shadow Inventory
System in the US is Disguising the Equivalent of a Dozen Ambac
Bankruptcies! Before we drift too far from the crux of the current
thought, namely those lovely and smartly collateralized CMBS, let’s tour
15045 Biscayne Blvd, North Miami from Google Maps…

And a the lovely view across the street – after all real estate is really about location, locations, location!

Hey, check out the pic of Biscayne Landing that appeared in the WSJ
article above. I’m not even sure if its the same location, but it damn
sure is the same economic and financial theme.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Then there’s those other banks in the news… HSBC Halts U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures After Joint Examination by Fed, OCC and Citigroup Says It May Face $3 Billion in Claims From Lehman.
Sounds like a trend to me. What do you think? Hey, JPM is managed by
the best and the brightest, right? Nothing shall become of them. Of
course this mantra is much harder to believe after I put their Q3-10
earnings into perspective -
JP Morgan’s 3rd Quarter Earnings Analysis and a Chronological
Reminder of Just How Wrong Brand Name Banks, Analysts, CEOs &
Pundits Can Be When They Say XYZ Bank Can Never Go Out of
Business!!! You true believers have been Had! You’ve Been Took! Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led Astray! Run Amok! This Is What They Do! Everyone should be asking themselves if Another Banking Crisis Inevitable?
Hey, I don’t believe the last one ever ended. It was just painted over
with trillions of global, inefficient stimulus that is now showing its
age.

The full JPM Q2 2010 review can be downloaded by subscribers (click here to subscribe) here: JPM 2Q10 review

Subscribers should also review our forensic valuation reports, which
have (thus far) proven to be right on the money in terms of JP Morgan:

The JP Morgan Professional Level Forensic Report (subscription only)

The JP Morgan Retail Level Forensic Report (subscription only)

Those that don’t subscribe still have a lot of BoomBustBlog JPM
opinion and analysis to chew on, including a free, condensed (but still
about 15 pages) version of the forensic analysis above. You can find
it below this pretty graphic from “An Unbiased Review of JP Morgan’s Q1 2010 Results Yields Less Roses Than the Maintream Media Presents“…

1. An Independent Look into JP Morgan (subscription content free preview!)
2. If a Bubble Bubble Bursts Off Balance Sheet, Will Anyone Be There to Hear It?: Pt 2 – JP Morgan
3. Is JP Morgan Taking Realistic Marks On Its WaMu Portfolio Purchase? Doubtful!
4. Anecdotal observations from the JP Morgan Q2-09 conference call
5. Reggie Middleton on JP Morgan’s Q309 results
6. Reggie Middleton on JP Morgan’s “Blowout” Q4-09 Results
7. Is the US Government About to Forgive Mortgage Debt? Let’s Crowdsource Our Way Through a Scenario or Two!
8. Pay Attention to the National Association of Realtors and Their Chief Marketing Agent At Your Own Risk!
9. Why the Case Shiller Index, Although Showing Another Downturn Coming, is Overly Optimistic and Quite Misleading!
10. Yes, Housing Prices Have Much Farther to Fall. We’re Talking Years…
11. Because 105% LTV On Depreciating Property Wasn’t Good Enough for the US Taxpayer…
12. I
    Told You Housing Was Going to Take a Downturn for the Worse.
    I’ll Tell You Something Else, We Are in a Housing Depression!
    It’ll Get Worse Until Market Forces Rule Over Government Bubble
    Blowing!
13. As I Made Very Clear In March, US Housing Has a Way to Fall
14. It’s Official: The US Housing Downturn Has Resumed in Earnest
15. The Great Global Macro Experiment, BoomBust Cycles, and the Refusal to See the Truth: Bubble Economics in the Mainstream Media

Comments

[JR]

Reggie, what is it in your extremely detailed and pertinent report that strikes Zero Hedge editors today as dangerous?  Your material is extensive enough that ZH readers could not have digested it before ZH moved lesser topics on to replace it on the front page.  It reminds me of CNBC’s Fast Money who gives you a short time, 3 minutes, outside the studio to explain your position on commercial real estate, and then when the studio panel gets a shot at knocking it down, you’re not present and able to defend it.

To discover the truth in a subject, there needs to be discussion on both sides of the topic.  ZH, for example, is a live blog and IMO would benefit from more back and forth viewpoints; IOW, longer comment periods on critical issues from contributors and less high speed movement of topics through the day’s calendar.

When a topic is on the front page for a very short time, comments are discouraged.

The bankers think at this point they can get by with anything and are trying to outdo each other. But they are heading for disaster. They are building their tower on worthless paper not backed by value.  And they’re losing the support of Americans that will translate into the loss of political support.

You can’t have an economy without supporting value.  They’ll be a time when politicians can get elected by saying, I’m going to take the bankers out of our government.

I heard a local leftwing program this morning that spent an entire segment on Matt Taibbi’s latest from the Wall Street crime beat.

Well done, Reggie. And thanks.

[Rainman]

I continually scratch my head wondering why these big banks gobbled up all these failed rogue institutions crammed with bad paper. It must have been either a) a lust for bigger bigness or b) a gross underestimation of the losses to be further realized or c) the counterparty risk of collapse was a threat to their own survival.

It was probably a combination of all three.

You're right, Reggie. We are still very much in the meaty end of a cyclical downturn in real assets. You'll get no serious debate on that issue.

[sodbuster]

This is what QE is for- to pump money into insolvent institutions to keep them afloat.

[Bob]

Reg, I'm sorry but Uncle Warren said this morning that excess US housing inventory will be comletely cleared within 12 months.  So, you must be wrong, right?

[Dnice0123]

Reggie, the detail in your work is much appreciated.

[moldygoat]

I have learned more from Reggies posts in 6 months than I did in my *cough* 19 years of schooling.

This is amazing information and analysis being provided for nothing.

Thanks Reggie.

[Fearless Rick]

Right on, Reggie. Keep fighting the good fight.

Just anecdotally, I have a property in foreclosure due to an inheritance. BofA, FKA Countrywide, foreclosed in March of 2010. I had been delinquent - due to defects in the original loan docs - since August 2009, so this is quickly approaching 2 years. Bank has not moved from square one, which, in NY, would be to file a Request for Judicial Intervention (RJI) which gets the case on the docket for motions and/or argument. Once that is done, NY law says the bank and borrower must meet to discuss a workout. Obviously, none of this has happened, and it struck me, that since my loan is delinquent, not large and probably involved in put-back litigation, the bank has made the decision to keep it on hold.

Now, these put-backs could take many months, if not years, to unwind, and in the meantime, I will be paying taxes, living in, but not actually owning the home. I'm figuring on at least another 6-12 months before anybody makes a move, if then.

Eventually, I suppose somebody will show up with a forged note or other such ridiculous instrument (the assignment from CW to BAC is already an obvious fraud), and until then I'm content to wait them out. Only 9 years and 4 months until I can take it on adverse possession, though I'll likely file a quiet title action at some point, though I know not exactly when.

The kicker is that the banks will go bust some day and they will not bother with my small potatoes amid a so much confusion and despair.

Just something to think about. Other homeowners are surely in similar circumstances or about to be.

[MrBoompi]

Max Keiser has also been telling us the Banks are continuing to hide trillions in losses, and they just whip out these losses whenever the time is right, which I'm sure includes tax time.

But really isn't a few billion is pocketchange to these companies? And let's not forget they can borrow at zero interest if they need to. The Federal Reserve has most likely been well aware of the problems in these Banks. They are allowing recapitalization by any means necessary, including fraud. And if we put up enough of a stink about it, they'll retroactively legalize everything they've done.

[tom]

Reggie, I assume you've read the Ambac vs JP case, probably more than once. Which could have been the US attorney general's case, if Obama wasn't the uber-sellout.

It looks to me like the government's strategy on this is:

 - De facto subsidize the banks through Fed & fiscal policy

 - Make almost no cases against the subprime fraudsters and thus give almost no investigative assistance to fraud victims seeking compensation (granted, monolines like Ambac were knowingly overlooking fraud for the sake of short-term profits, but that hardly seems like it would be a winning defense for the fraudsters if they were being prosecuted)

 - Hope the de facto subsidies are enough to absorb the losses from private lawsuits against the fraudsters as they roll in over the course of the next few years

[Judge Judy Scheinlok]

Hey Creggie, what color is your cape? Most super-hero complex guys claim to wear red but in reality they wear blue to match their tighty-tight spandex pants.

Do tell....

[Bertie Wooster]

I hope ZeroHedge is getting paid for all this Reggie Middleton and Bruce Krasting and MadHedgeFundTrader shills.  I HATE reading them in my RSS reader, they gum up the works with "I told you so" promotions, add very little to the blog.

ZeroHedge, you've got way too many articles, mostly the stuff from Tyler Durden is what's worthwhile.  Oh, and I'm absolutely utterly bored with the clown who keeps posting his "ehat retail is doing in FX" charts, which mean nothing and have zero predictive ability.  Can you get rid of this crap?

[ZerOhead]

Bertie... listen up Bro... I was initially going to immoliate you but you are definitely not a nuisance poster.

You have some excellent (controversial?) insights... so share them with us.

by Bertie Wooster
on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 21:37
#561120

You could really contribute to our discussions here. Lighten up on the contributors... they spend their time and effort making the site what it is for better or worse. Personally I like reading Reg. And his attitude is comensurate to his abilities to see through crap others can't or won't.

Post contemporaneously though if you can... not after the thundering herds have left for greener pastures!

[Reggie Middleton]

You don't find it rather contradictory to say this gums up your RSS feed and then you show up here posting a comment. if you don't like it simply move on.

[radsz]

Regie,

The man has a point. You may want to rethink your strategy of self-advertising. I also stopped reading you because the message - "I told you so" is annoying, especially to a person who generally agrees with you. I just glance at your articles to see what is the main message and I do not read it carefully so I do not get annoyed.

They say one criticism reflects hundreds of unhappy clients. Be warn. I generally agree with your message, I just think the form does more damage than good.

best,

Radek

[WallStreetClass...]

This is just a tip of the iceberg. Banksters will be held liable for the damages to the economy and private citizens!

At http://www.WallStreetClassAction.com we organize a class action against the banks, the ratings agencies and other financial institutions involved in staging the colossal securitization fraud and subsequently crashing the economy and resulting in over $5 Trillion in asset losses in the US alone.

Wall Street monopolistic, essentially rogue financial entities have destroyed the fabric of our society and broke our laws, making a mockery of fiscal prudence, ethics and justice. Even our very government is controlled and manipulated (by structuring an interdependent collosal trap) by this highly illegal banctel, where bank executive officers "retire" or transition into various government regulatory and controllership positions, futher aiding and abetting the ongoing fraud. And when the overleverages casino style betting and back-hedging finally tipples over and out of control, the losses are effectively socialized, while the injured parties are thrown out on the street.
By having repealed the essential laws and regulations beforehand banks had stepped up the level of their offense to premeditated obstruction of justice and outright conspiracy to wire fraud. Citibank - Travelers “merger” and “Glass-Steagall shattering” alone had cost us the taxpayers $2-3 Trillions in real asset losses. Hedging, backroom betting, trading fraudulently rated derivatives, all to be eventually back-stopped by the Nation’s books, while remaining off their own is an affront to feducuary trust, a mockery of fiscal prudence and ethics. 
WE THE PEOPLE will hold the banksters legally liable. 
SIGN UP ON THE SITE http://www.WallStreetClassAction.com

[unwashedmass]

does this take into account class actions by silver traders?