License to Steal: The Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation - Hardcover

Stein, Benjamin J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671742728 ISBN 13: 9780671742720

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1992

Synopsis

Reveals how Michael Milken sold $200 billion of junk bonds, turned corporate America upside down, killed dozens of S&Ls, cost the taxpayers billions, and gave America a push towards the longest recession in history. 50,000 first printing. National ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

By revealing the full scope of the damage that Michael Milken's junk-bond empire inflicted on the U.S. economy, Stein ( Financial Passages ) forcefully refutes the notion that Milken's scam increased national productivity. This concise, punchy expose is the best and clearest guide yet to the workings of Milken's money machine. Stein, an economist and lawyer who reported on Milken for Barron's, shows that insider trading was merely a lucrative sideshow for the Milken team at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Milken, he states, also earned millions by churning (trading clients' accounts to increase commissions), by "sucking the blood of captive S & Ls like a vampire" and by taking a hefty cut of the greenmail paid by besieged companies to Drexel-backed corporate raiders. The Securities and Exchange Commission knew in the early 1980s of Milken's stupendous price fixing but did nothing, a lapse Stein blames on Reagan-appointed SEC officials. He also shows how the Milken claque rallied moguls, accountants, the Harvard Business School and the New York Times to its cause.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Milken is the corporate villain America loves to hate. Unlike Jesse Kornbluth, who was sympathetic toward the former junk bond king in his recent Highly Confident , Stein wastes no time in going for the jugular. He feels that Milken was very much in charge of the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond operation in its heyday in the 1980s and knew that he was selling a product that was based on deeply flawed financial analysis. By misrepresenting the bonds' default rates, he was in effect creating a classic Ponzi scheme, resulting in losses of billions of dollars not only for Drexel clients but also for insurance companies and savings and loans (S&Ls) that had bought junk bonds for their investment portfolios. As a result, many of these institutions were driven into insolvency, leading to the federal bailout of the S&Ls. If current headlines are any indication, this sad scenario will be with us for years to come. A topical addition for all business collections.
- Richard Drezen, Merrill Lynch Lib., New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0671742728
• ISBN 13: 9780671742720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 219