Payback

According to James Stewart's Den of Thieves, what happened on Wall Street in the '80s was really simple. Due to the crimes of Michael Milken and others, Stewart states: "the ownership of entire corporations changed hands, often forcibly, at a clip never before witnessed," "[h]ousehold names ... vanished in takeovers that spawned criminal activity and violations of the securities laws," "thousands of workers lost their jobs," "profits were sacrificed," and "bondholders and shareholders lost many millions more." "These," he writes, "are the costs of greed coupled with market power." But according to Daniel Fischel, this popular view is completely wrong. In his revolutionary book Payback, Daniel Fischel blows away the conventional wisdom on Michael Milken and the myth of the "decade of greed." Countering the press reports, prosecutors' statements, and denouncements by corporate boards, Fischel shows how Milken's innovative ideas overthrew a generation of inefficient corporate managers and injected a much needed dose of adrenaline into a lethargic Wall Street. Indeed, Fischel argues, Milken himself was wrongly accused and in reality committed no crimes.