A look at Wall Street's history, unvarnished
In one of recent history's more glaring ironies, prostate cancer survivor Rudy Giuliani wrote President Clinton a letter in January 2001 calling upon the president to pardon prostate cancer survivor Michael Milken in light of all Milken had done for cancer research since his release from prison.
Giuliani's entreaty, of course, went unheeded. And Milken remains unpardoned. But the very fact that Giuliani made the request is noteworthy, considering all Giuliani had done to help send Milken to prison.
Veteran financial journalist Eric J. Weiner underscores that ironic shift of perspective in his captivating new Wall Street retrospective ''What Goes Up." Throughout ''Greed Is Bad," the chapter devoted to insider trading and manipulations scandals of the 1980s, Weiner had portrayed Giuliani, former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, as one of those most determined to put Milken behind bars for as long as possible. Giuliani said of the 10-year sentence Milken did receive:
''When you look at it compared to other sentences, it is higher. But it should be. Because his involvement and the scope of his criminality was greater, before you even get to analyzing the lack of cooperation. Just based on the scope of the criminal activity, it was the correct sentence."
Milken, former head of Drexel Burnham Lambert's high-yield bond department, however, didn't think he had done anything that bad. In his view, he was just led astray by that bad, bad Ivan Boesky:
''It was obviously a terrible mistake ever doing a single trade with him. But people forget that in the 1980s Boesky was celebrated by the media. Just about every investment house on Wall Street dealt with him, and those that didn't mostly wanted to."
Milken, Weiner reminds us, ultimately served only two years of his sentence in a federal prison. But he paid a total of $1.1 billion in fines and restitution.
He survived prostate cancer while in prison. Since then he has devoted most of his time and a considerable amount of his treasure to philanthropic efforts to find a cure for the disease.
Giuliani, Weiner writes, has come around to the position that the junk bond king needs to have his record expunged for those good deeds.
''Greed is Bad" is the climax episode of this delightedly different approach to telling the Wall Street story.
Weiner offers an opening summary of the developments focused upon in the chapter, and he then allows a cast of characters consisting of people who were involved to varying degrees tell what happened from their different perspectives.
Each chapter unfolds in similar fashion. Extended quotes from interviews with scores of former and current Wall Street insiders and close observers propel the narrative line from the midpoint of the last century to the present.
The candor of many of the quotes is often surprising and refreshing. Weiner has done an excellent job of letting the history unfold from the mouths of those who made it.
