Reggie Middleton's blog

What do you think would do the most damage, the default of three EU nations or the collapse of Lehman Brothers? This may very well be a trick questions since the default of EU nations may very well bring on a banking collapse in and of itself.

The quarter AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity is the quarter they report record numbers. Why? They started pushing high end Android phones that more than made up for the iPhone loss. You really can't compete with "less than free"!

Google's post Q1 earnings reaction is one of the most blatant examples of nearsightedness I have seen for awile, rivaling the S&P AAA rating of subprime NINJA loan CDS writing monoliness using 120x leverage at the top of the housing market in 2007.

The Rate Storm that I have been preaching about is nigh upon us. Greece and the US today, who the hell knows tomorrow.

I’m fresh back from my trip to Amsterdam where I lectured hundreds of ING institutional clients/staff on the potential of a European banking collapse. Below are a few clips from the first of two lectures. The admonitions look to be quite timely as Greek spreads to Bunds break the millenium mark and head to the North Star. For those who haven't connected the dots, these bonds are held on many EU bank balance sheets as risk free in the hold to maturity category, and are levered up many, many times. Who's larger, the peripheral EU states or Lehman Brothers?

If you really don't think a Pan-European bank collapse may be in the cards, you really haven't been paying attention. Things are coming to a had much more quickly than even I anticipated, and you know I'm far from optimistic in this regard.

Contrarian, yet common sense, perspectives on Apple that so few seem able to see.

The continuation of my rant on stagflation, and why it is mistakenly being called inflation in the media and how all of it is being denied by US.gov.

As I warned last year, Portugal is on the verge of getting bailed out. Just like its already bailed cousins in insolvency, Greece and Ireland, Portugal declared to the very last minute that they didn't need, and would not ask for a bailout. Credibility is the key!!! What many may be missing is that the cause of all of this mess is the overleveraging of banks into over valued real estate. The default or restructuring of debt in Portugal, Greece or Ireland (or realistically a combination that may include larger countries) will spike rates that will make the 2008 real estate crash look like a bull rally. Here's the lay of the land...

Stress test results are out. Ireland now has the ammunition to get real. For those who don't think an Irish haircut is realistically on the table, just remember that this was a campaign platform for the new government. This is what they used to get into office. In addition, the Danish lopped a sizable bang of hair off of its banks bondholders, and Denmark is still on the map. Yes, you can cut your lender's head and survive. Governments have a history of it. If Ireland goes that route, the "Euraclypse" (yeah, I stole that one from Tyler) floodgates are open.

One can be rest assured those Irish haircuts are coming. Will the other indebted EU nations just sit back as Ireland clips its debt without following suit? Doubtful! Remember, I have been warning of this event for over a year, and the daisy chain effect is still being ignored.

At what point does an advisor who is wrong nearly 100% of the time lose credibility? Well, the National Association of Realtors has been consistently wrong since the very tippy top of the real estate bubble 4 years ago, yet they get ample air time in the media to continuously spout their methodically erroneous viewpoints and data. Finally, someone in the mainstream has called them on this perpetual farce that has costed those that followed them substantial wealth in exchange for a 2.5% commission split!