Bailout

The Sith Lord revealed!

By Felix Salmon

Thousands of people have wondered over the years who on earth Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne was talking about when he started muttering darkly about a “Sith Lord” orchestrating a devious conspiracy of short-sellers. Well, Max Abelson has finally found out who it is, from Byrne’s lieutenant Judd Bagley:

The Sith Lord turns out to be Sith Lords. ?It?s Steven Cohen and Mike Milken, though I?ve never said that to a reporter,? says Patrick Byrne, Overstock?s CEO.

So there you have it: one guy who makes most of his money from high-frequency algorithmic trading, and another guy who’s pretty much a full-time philanthropist at this point. But maybe those public profiles are just covers for their nefarious conspiracy!

A bit further down in the piece, Patrick Byrne flouts Regulation FD by telling Abelson that Overstock is about to report its first annual profit. I wonder which accounting firm will ratify them.

Full post as published by Macroprudential on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).