Michael Milken: The World's Most Evil Billionaire

In this deep-dive video, we explore the infamous Michael Milken Junk Bond scandal. From his meteoric rise as the junk bond king and the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert, to his pardon by former President Donald Trump, we unravel the complexities behind one of Wall Street's most shocking stories.

0:00 - 2:54 Intro
2:55 - 8:04 Becoming the king
8:05 - 12:16 The fraud
12:17 - 17:34 The final act
17:35 The aftermath



#Wallstreetmillennial

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[Thommyn]

Some people have a face only a mother could love.
Milken's got a face only a Stockbroker could love.

[wolfheadedconjuror]

Tip: do not give your genetic data to a shady company who will sell it on to insurance companies etc

[mdquaglia]

The fact that Milken was allowed to keep a nickel after his crimes is absurd, disgusting and disheartening.

[jburron]

The sad part is younger folks think that he’s some sort of Messiah. One should see where the money came from (Nobel, Rhodes) before they became a “pillar of the community”.

[tovsteh]

When the fines are smaller than their earnings, its just means that the rich can pay their way out of justice.

[jameskwon]

This was big news in the '80s and the inspiration for the movie Wall Street from Oliver Stone (Gordon Gecko was an amalgam of Boesky and other nefarious Wall Street types. The book Den of Thieves also describes this insider trading ring.). I still can't believe Milken has been so "rehabilitated" like this. He was the face of greed in the late '80s. But he made a lot of people rich, and that is being paid back I guess.

[TomLisankie]

Had never heard of this guy before. Thanks for raising awareness

[Mesozoic_mammal]

Ah! "Drain the swamp" meant to pardon the financial swamp in prison and let it flow back into society

[Joybuzzard]

No surprised to see that The Milken Institute is a high level member in the WEF.

[mrrolandlawrence]

in the uk we have the insurance "miss-selling" scandal. in essence $40bn fraud. which the banks made as hard as possible to get money back from. people are willing to do whatever it takes in return for billions in profit. i have no idea why people are continually surprised by bad things happening.

[jburron]

Connie Bruck’s “Predator’s Ball” is another great book on this.

[johnstirling]

He may have earnt billions, but you would think that he could afford a decent toupee on the way up.

[jpanda]

A lot of these billionaires claim to be moral paragons yet are the slimiest people

[scooby]

I guess you could say he was Milken them junk bonds

[Midashk]

A few years ago I was the sound assistant at the Milken Global conference... I was responsible for putting microphones on all of the billionaires before they went on stage. Most were too busy talking to their friends to give me 30 second of their time s to put their mic on... one even complained about having to wear a mic... Michael Milken was the exact opposite, he was friendly and always took a minute from his conversation with the other billionaires to allow me to put his microphone on.

[thesoutheastprincess]

There is a old book called “den of thieves” that talks about Michael, Ivan and other key players it’s a really good book

[Piedog]

He’s another member of the bad hair club. I wonder if there’s a correlation between suspiciously bad hair and suspicious business dealings.

[jmitterii]

Wow, never knew about this one.
And the last portion is partly why.
Aristocracy has become once again become beyond parasitical to downright dangerous.

[andrewphilips]

I have a friend that knows Milken quite well.
He helped them out immensely when others were slime balls. This was a height of his supposed evil period. Actually they had nothing against Milken after years of trying to prosecute, and he only agreed to their plea because they then came after his elderly parents and family and blackmailed him to accept plea.
To say he's more evil than drug lords or pharmaceutical companies that started the opiod crisis is interesting.

[TheSuavest]

Until the Lion has a historian tales of the Hunt will only glorify the hunter

-Unknown