DealBook reports that junk bond king Mike Milken is trying to defend securitization. Despite pleading guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud and conspiracy, paying $600 million in fines and spending 22 months behind bars, Milken is still quite highly regarded. But the defense he offers of securitization is pretty thin gruel.
Milken and I both studied under the same professor at Wharton -- making me feel a bit like Forrest Gump. After he taught Milken, the management professor told me that he concluded Milken would either make enormous amounts of money or land in jail. The professor's prediction proved correct -- except that Milken did both.
Milken's defense appears to be that securitization and surgery are alike. DealBook quotes Milken as saying that criticizing securitization - the slicing and dicing of debt that he helped popularize - is "like condemning scalpels because a few unqualified surgeons have injured patients."
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