NEW YORK — As if investors needed more bad news, the greatest corporate confession of all time is about to begin.Dozens of once-hyper-acquisitive companies are expected to admit publicly in coming days that they gambled and lost billions on big deals executed at the height of the bull market.The final price tag could exceed $1 trillion."We are going to get confirmation that hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder capital has been wasted or destroyed," says David Tice, manager of the Prudent Bear fund, which makes bets that certain stocks will fall."Wall Street will say don't worry about it,...