NovaStar's Agony Continues

Naked-shorting poster child NovaStar Financial continued to collapse today, declining another 9%. It is now down 51% for the week, after announcing financial results that could be summed up as, "We may be able to realize aftertax profits sometime before the next ice age."

Phil Saunders a/k/a the "Bob O'Brien," the anti-shorting loon who was second to none in pumping this dreck, appears to be back to pushing the notion that unseen market forces were responsible for NovaStar's demise (and not all that stuff I just mentioned about profits and the ice age).

Responding to a post poking fun at the naked shorting conspiracy nuts, Saunders posted as follows on the Investor Village message board:

Always nice to see the whole gang out. Congrats. You did well on this one. Never play against the house when they control all the cards, right? 4.7 years of being wrong, but guess what? If the guys running the boat decide to run it onto the rocks for reasons unknown, you win.

Wonder why they ran it onto the rocks? What's your guess?

Saunders reminds me of the fellow I wrote about in Born to Steal, superbroker Lou Pasciuto, who never let the facts get in the way of a good sales pitch. That has been the sustaining principle of the Baloney Brigade.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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