Finance & economics | Friends in high places

Michael Milken receives a presidential pardon

The junk-bond king gets a ratings upgrade

ON FEBRUARY 13TH 1990 Drexel Burnham Lambert, which only a few years earlier had been America’s most profitable investment bank, filed for bankruptcy. Its death knell had sounded ten months earlier when Michael Milken, who created the junk-bond market on which the bank’s success was founded, was indicted for fraud. He would plead guilty to six counts and serve 22 months in prison.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Friends in high places”

Big tech’s $2trn bull run

From the February 22nd 2020 edition

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