Now, with the market in the toilet, Byrne is going around doing the "I told you so" victory lap.
Newsflash: the current mess has nothing to do with naked short selling. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In fact, the trouble at subprime lenders and large financial institutions was predicted by short sellers. The fact that naked short selling is now in the spotlight is indicative of what I've been writing for a long time: bad companies that are losing money rapidly blame short sellers. Now that once great companies are now bad companies, they blame short sellers too!
And what did Patrick Byrne have to say about sloppy lending practices and cheap credit back at the height of the bubble? In July of 2006 he referred to subprime toilet bowl Novastar Financial as an "awesome firm."
Hey, Patrick, stick to what you do best: unrealistic and unfounded predictions of profitability and accounting scandals.
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-27-2008 @ 2:24PM
SteveM said...
Wall St is a cesspool. They are using CDSs and FTDs to rip-off America. It started with sub-prime mortgages, then it turned into a "liquidity crisis" which then exposed the CDO crisis. Yes, there is an FTD/FTR crisis and everyone knows it. Byrne is right, Reg SHO proves it.
Now crawl back into your hole.
10-27-2008 @ 2:30PM
SteveM said...
Oh, and Novastar is still around. They are surviving on their retained mortgages which are paying well. Who else in the sub-prime space is able to say that?
Byrne appears to have been right about Novastar as well. Now cover your trades.
10-27-2008 @ 5:19PM
Dave said...
In this crisis we now live, abusive short selling is the second highest topic of conversation globally. I feel sorry for you if you do not see that these are linked together.
10-27-2008 @ 5:59PM
Dave said...
Zac, you have this listed under scandals - care to opine on exactly what scandal you are referring to? It seems that the more household names in TV, and not simple bloggers, differ in your views here. None have potrayed Byrne's comments as scandalous so outside of the opinions of a select few BIASED (and closely connected) bloggers, what makes this scandalous?
Tell us, how exactly did it become that the three of you repeat each other word for word and continue the barrage of negativity on Overstock when there are so many more stories to be told with this crisis we are in?
10-27-2008 @ 6:42PM
KJP said...
"They are surviving on their retained mortgages which are paying well."
What retained mortgages? 'NovaStar Mortgage is no longer servicing any loans'
http://www.novastarmortgage.com/
"second highest topic of conversation globally"
Not that I care how many drugs are involved in the conversation, but could you at least cite which of the hundreds of "what's hot" services out there you're talking about?
10-27-2008 @ 6:49PM
Dave said...
Zac, great job of editing my post. would expect nothing less from you.
BTW...this is listed under scandals. Care to opine on what exactly makes this a scandal beyond the biased and incessive postings of yourself, Weiss, and Coenen? It seems that reputable TV personalities correlated Byrne's prior "red flags" to todays troubles and yet only the byrne bashers disagree. Maybe you can explain why.
In case you were unaware, the CDS have MASSIVE settlement issues which exacerbated this problem. What is a settlement issue? Selling what you can not deliver.
Oops we can't say that here or you may get mad and edit the post.
10-27-2008 @ 7:04PM
Zac Bissonnette said...
David,
As I explained in my email to you, we can't post comments from you referring to people as shills without any proof. It's a liability issue for you and, more importantly, for AOL.
I certainly respect and appreciate your opinion on these (and other topics) and hope you'll continue to comment frequently.
Be well,
Zac