Michael Milken is a very smart, very driven and very flawed human being. He started dealing in junk bonds and took a good idea too far. His competitive juices and obsession with control led him to do sleazy things. When the market was small no one cared what he was doing, but when it was big, that changed. The problem is, as I said, his business model has been so successful for so long now that people are starting to get tired of it. If junk had stayed a backwater -- and if either the enforcers at the Securities and Exchange Commission or Milken's alleged superiors at Drexel Burnham Lambert reined Milken in -- he wouldn't be going to jail. Milken was brilliant, but he had no sense of how others perceived him. He didn't blame himself for his problems, but blamed the media. Now he has lost everything.
Michael Milken is a very smart, very driven and very flawed human being. He started dealing in junk bonds and took a good idea too far. His competitive juices and obsession with control led him to do sleazy things. When the market was small no one cared what he was doing, but when it was big, that changed. The problem is, as I said, his business model has been so successful for so long now that people are starting to get tired of it. Milken was brilliant, but he had no sense of how others perceived him. He didn't blame himself for his problems, but blamed the media. Now he has lost everything.