:: I hope they brought enough for everyone ::

Sunday, November 02, 2003

Milken "Community" High School is spitting distance from my house in Los Angeles. It used to be called Stephen S. Wise High School, until junk bond king Michael Milken found out he had cancer, had a crisis of conscience, and donated enough money to rename the school in his honor (or alternatively to feed the entire nation of Uganda for a couple years, but I guess that didn't enter his laughably-obvious-toupee-wearing head). I guess you get what you pay for. It's a school funded by junk bonds, morals (or tact, or discretion) have no place within its walls.

Posted by morland @ 03:00 PM

:: Comments ::

Morland, your moral rectitude and principled ethics are a breath of fresh air. I for one am glad to see at least one blogger with the courage to stand up for his convictions. Also, I am glad that the abovementioned qualities led you to erase the picture of my penis from your camera on Friday night.

Posted by: Alexis on November 2, 2003 03:37 PM

Junk bonds (aka high yield debentures) are a perfectly acceptable financing vehicle for companies that probably couldn't get capital otherwise. We all owe Milken some serious praise for popularizing these securities, which allowed numerous underfunded small-to-mid cap companies grow in the eighties and ultimately set the stage for the longest boom period since WWII. Milken is not a bad man. He is a hero. So what if he got rich doing it.

Posted by: The banker on November 3, 2003 03:07 PM

I have no problem with his getting rich, I happen to think Milken was a financial genius and a spectacular manager. It just so happens he was also an unctuous salesman and a raging egotist who engaged in questionable tax-manipulation at best (though that wasn't what he was convicted for). I don't buy the correlation between the market he helped create and the boom of the latter 1990's nor do I think his reputation amongst those in the finance industry as a martyr is wholly without a self-preservationist agenda. His punishment, though, was far worse than he deserved.

And he was a hell of a lot better than, say, Ivan Boesky. The story of how Boesky tricked the SEC into giving him a slap on the wrist in exchange for "information" on Milken is as riveting as it is appalling.

Posted by: morland on November 3, 2003 07:16 PM

He He. Two Guys and a girl got it *ON*!

Posted by: Anna on November 4, 2003 09:34 AM

Morland, by which of the following methods did you discover the linked-to article:
(1) Searching for "junk king",
(2) Searching for "sex videos",
(3) Searching for "spitting distance",
or (4) Searching for "Milken High School"?

Knowing you, my money's definitely on (4), but I had to ask anyhow.

Posted by: Grenergy on November 4, 2003 11:17 PM

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