Seems like you could get a very similar phenomenon in lavishly funded hot startups.

The company's stock is the product. The product only has to be good enough to look plausible. Growth can be bought by selling $1 bills for $1.50 and by plowing money into marketing. The most important thing is to keep the hype up and raise the next round and make sure it's not a down round, or even if it is who cares... the execs just pay themselves fat salaries or work side sales of stock into there to cash out even if the main stock price is underwater.

You get inherent problems when you're selling a promise or a certificate not a product.