Reggie Middleton

It appears as if I wrinkled a few feathers of the birds that are doing God’s work with my missive “Goldman’s $430 Target, Screaming Buy On Apple At Its All Time High Is In Direct Contravention To Reggie Middleton’s Logic – Who’s Right? Well, Who Has Been More Right In The Past?“. This is a good thing! A little creative destruction and anarchy is positive for the complacent masses. I say we take this up a notch, pull down our pants and see who is truly the most intellectually endowed...

Contagion in the Europe is a foregone conclusion and its risk cannot be truly priced in since no one really knows where it will kick off, how, and what direction it will take through which channels. All that is known for sure is that you have a collective of nations that have been purposely over-optimistic in forecasts, purposely misleading regarding their past and present liabilities and mired in debt and bad assets amid an inevitable hard landing - or worse.

Reggie Middleton with the rather animated Max Keiser (the guy actually had a Lloyd Blankfein action figure for waterboarding) on the Keiser Report Discussing Banks, Oligarchs, Fraudclosure & Derivative Exposure. Also included - how Britain is avoiding confrontation with suicide bankers who took down the financial system "for kicks". If you guys think I'm offensive, you ain't seen nothing yet. Regular ZHers will probably enjoy the whole thing. Those in the banking industry should just fast forward to my portion so you can just harshly disagree vs being thoroughly offended :-)

Here’s a little cross pollination to attract bears from all over. Karl Deninger, the editor of the Market Ticker, invited me over for a half hour chat on his Blog Talk Radio show to discuss things such as foreclosure fraud, banks, derivative risk and the markets. You can access the original airing podcast on Karl’s site. I have taken the liberty to append some graphics to the background to add some information to the discussion (see below). Enjoy!

The latest on Apple's earnings that went far in corroborating what I've been preaching for months to a bunch of crazed, excitable Apple fanatics who simply refused to see facts for what they were. Its called compression!

A very well made 45 minute documentary on Goldman Sachs, derivatives, US real estate and the root causes of the Pan-European Sovereign Debt Crisis

Before I get started, I want all to realize that this is not Goldman bashing piece. I think it is a [relatively] well run company, but its PR machine appears to be from Kindergarten land, and the aura of invincibility that it enjoys(ed?) is highly undeserved, as a consequence its historical "aura-based" premium is absolutely unjustified. Case in point...

JP Morgan's Q4 results show that banks are not only still in hot water yet, but the pot hasn't even really started to boil. Why is it that I look at the info and get such a different impression than much of the media and the sell side who proclaim "blow out results"? Yeah, the results "blow" alright...

I will be the first to admit that 2009 was a disappointing year for my investment results. Although the first quarter of the year was the strongest that I ever had during the Asset Securitization Crisis, and I clearly saw the trend reversal coming at the end of the quarter, I significantly underestimated the length, breadth and depth of the trend reversal. With that being said, I do want to put things into perspective...

So, now the buy side becomes the sell side?!?!?!
I am here to weigh in on the increasingly popular marketing battle over GGP's (General Growth Properties) value in, and out of bankruptcy. The players in question are Ackman/Pershing square - long the company's stock, Hovde Capital Advisors - short the stock, and Reggie Middleton - the original player! [and the first guy to call GGP's downfall two years ago at $55 with an investment grade rating and multiple sell side buy recos!] Being an early mover who was right, and having no position in the stock now gives me a position of credibility to pick a winner in this fight. And the winner is...

I am here to weigh in on the marketing battle over GGP's value in, and out of bankruptcy. The players in question: Ackman/Pershing Square - long the stock, Hovde Capital Advisors - short the stock, and Reggie Middleton's BoomBustBlog. I currently have no position in GGP, but received many requests to weigh in on who is right on this rush to recreate the propaganda power of the sell side banks. And the winner is...

Ackman from Pershing Square fame has released a very bullish CRE presentation. I stand diametrically opposed to both the conclusions and the analysis in general, thus have created my own comprehensive CRE outlook for 2010 and beyond. Here you have it: A bulls vs bears debate in the CRE space - both of which are quite well documented and allow for rich reading.

Innovation, in and of itself, is a very good thing. The issue currently at hand is that it was not financial innovation that got us into this mess. It was fraud! Financial engineers attempted to create methods of circumventing regulations, laws, prudent risk management, common sense and mean market returns. This lying, in turn, was labeled "innovation", which it absolutely was not, and the moniker has been carried on in the media ever since.

Just a quick perusal of news (and an analytical fact or two) in the CRE space that makes one wonder why Goldman Sachs thinks that anyone would believe them. Then again, looking at the ($19 billion) bonus pool, much of which was just nearly halved by the UK government, it appears as if enough people believe them. Let's see what we can to do alleviate that...

I don't want anyone to think this is a Goldman bashing exercise. I actually admire their prowess. Not for operational excellence (as many mistakenly consider them to have when not adjusting accounting returns for risk), but for the way they seem to get away with murder, time after time. You gotta give it to them. I want readers to take time to go through the anecdotal evidence here and decide if it is more profitable to invest with Goldman, or actually attempt to put your bid in to get a slice of that $19 billion, middle class taxpayer funded, regulator protected bonus pool.