During the 1980s, Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert was the Billionaire Junk Bond King. He invented such things as “the highly confident letter” (I’m highly confident that I can raise the money you need to buy company X) and “the blind pool” (Here’s a billion dollars: let us help you buy a company), and he financed the biggest corporate raiders—men like Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman.   And then, on September 7, 1988, things changed. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert with insider trading and stock fraud. Waiting in the wings was the US District Attorney, who wanted to file criminal and racketeering charges. What motivated Milken in his drive for power and money? Did Drexel Burnham Lambert condone the breaking of laws? The Predators’ Ball dramatically captures American business history in the making, uncovering the philosophy of greed that has dominated Wall Street in the 1980s.Prologue: The Ball Part One: Spreading the Gospel 1. The Miner's Headlamp 2. Dr. Feelgood 3. Transformation 4. Merge with Mike 5. The Cloister at Wilshire and Rodeo 6. The Air Fund Part Two: Pawns Capture Kings 7. Triangle—National Can: Kingmaker 8. Icahn-TWA: From Greenmailer to Manager-Owner 9. Pantry Pride—Revlon: The Crucial Campaign Part Three: The Zenith—and the Fall 10. Drexel is like a god... 11. Proven Prophet—So Far 12. Milken's Money Machine 13. The Enforcer 14. Sovereign Privileges 15. Boesky Day 16. The Center Cannot Hold 17. The Humbling Afterword Acknowledgments IndexConnie Bruck&l³k
![The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the JunkBond Raiders [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/7/5/7/2_7087358.jpg "The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the JunkBond Raiders [Paperback]")