I don’t know the ins and outs of the Milken case, but I did read James Stewart’s criticism of the pardon, which Jack Fowler mentions. In his book Den of Thieves, Stewart had written about the legacy of Milken’s financial maneuvers: “Thousands of workers lost their jobs, companies loaded up with debt to pay for deals, profits were sacrificed to pay interest cost on the borrowings, and even so, many companies were forced into bankruptcies or restructurings. Bondholders and shareholders lost many millions more.”


By this year, the tally had been revised. In Stewart’s post-pardon column, he wrote that Milken’s actions had led to the collapse of the savings and loan industry and to a recession that “cost millions of people their jobs.”

Is it really necessary to point out that this account of the 1990–91 recession is insane?