Detox: Curtain Ready to Fall on Conseco

The end is now in sight at Conseco (CNC Quote).

After a brutal struggle for survival, the Carmel, Ind., insurer and lender as much as gave up the ghost Friday, saying it would miss upcoming interest payments on its massive parent company debt and that it would enter talks with its lenders over restructuring the troubled enterprise.

This latest bombshell nearly ensures that Conseco stock, already down more than 90% this year amid doubts about its ability to service its debt load, will soon be worthless. A bankruptcy filing will at last end a lurid saga in which a onetime highflier was brought down by the missteps and misdeeds of overpaid bosses, including accounting chicanery, absurdly glossy projections and a taste for acquisitions and debt. ...