How was the general public deceived in the case of Michael Milken?
Harvey Silverglate: The prosecutors, along with a very compliant and equally ignorant news media, labeled Milken the disciple of the new greed, a master criminal whose deals were riddled with fraud. No one at the time (with the exception of just a couple of columnists and academics) bothered to closely analyze Milken’s deals and come up with the conclusion—absolutely clear in retrospect—that he was a visionary and not a swindler. Indeed, the irony about the Milken saga is that Milken posed a challenge to the economic powers-that-be—the bankers and the heads of large corporations—by enabling young upstart entrepreneurs to obtain financing from non-traditional sources. Milken’s coterie of investors thus challenged the established banking system, while the start-up companies’ finances challenged the entrenched but self-satisfied and often ossified industry giants. For example, without Milken there would not have been a Cable News Network to challenge the monopoly enjoyed by the then-three
