License to Steal: The Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation Hardcover – 1 Oct. 1992

Unlike Dan Stone's book "April Fools", Benjamin J Stein's take on the rise and collapse of Drexel Burnham, and it's puppet-meister/Svengali Michael Milken, does not view the events in this period of financial sleight of hand, through rose coloured spectacles. To the contrary it is a very harsh and scathing account and indictment of the convoluted and highly dubious methods adopted to extract billions of dollars from mainly institutional investors and pension funds, a good part of which was to line the pockets of the 'chefs' of the plethora of junk offerings that were 'cooked' up at Drexel Burnham .The author does, however, give a most informative insight into the whole scenario of raising money through bond issuances, the marketing of the bonds, and most pertinently the methodology and ruses cleverly devised by Michael Milken and his cohorts to create an illusory and non-substantive secondary bond market to bolster up the deception of worth in the Junk Bond Jamboree. Worthless financial guarantees were also mixed into the equation that allowed Milken's Junk Bonds to be purchased by institutions, otherwise prohibited from owning such risky investments.And where does the truth lie? Was Michael Milken a dark, dangerous and highly undesirable financial influence or a breath of fresh air that opened up the raising of capital for those companies previously unfulfilled? My inclination is to go along with something in between these two extremes but perhaps a bit closer to Stein's rather allegatory view than Stone's somewhat more forgiving demeanour.