An insightful portrait of junk-bond powerhouse Drexel Burnham Lambert and infamous financier Michael Milken, âone of the most brilliant minds ever to have been dedicated to Wall Street's money games.â (The New York Times).
Milken is purported to have offered to pay award-winning journalist Connie Bruck to stop work on this book, the fascinating story of how a singularly brilliant and intensely private investment banker essentially masterminded the creation of the junk bond market, generating billions of dollars in profits for his clients and himself before ultimately being brought down by charges of insider trading, stock manipulation, and fraud under the RICO Act. Bruckâs in-depth narration of the phenomenal career of the man nicknamed âthe Junk Bond Kingâ spans Milkenâs early dealings in high-yield bonds as well as numerous corporate raids and hostile takeovers guided by tactics that were undoubtedly revolutionary, if sometimes unethicalâand occasionally outright illegal. Standing alongside other blockbuster tales of business malfeasance such as Liarâs Poker and Too Big to Fail, The Predatorsâ Ball is a shocking, bemusing, and enlightening portrait of an era when it seemed anything was possible on Wall Streetâas long as Michael Milken was in your Rolodex.