30 / CHRONICLESnSupreme Court nominee Ginsburg attemptednfor Harvard Law. And if youndon’t trust Mark’s account of drugsnand sex in the MBA program, keep innmind that this is the book Harvardnrefused to sell in its own bookstore,ngiving banned in Boston a new meaning.nLurid prose and sensationalismndetract from Mark’s expose, but theyndon’t invalidate his point. The facultyncares more about a consulting bucknthan anything else, while the aim of itsnconsulting is a permanent retainer.nThe famous case method is exploitednfor consulting purposes, and studentsnare used as shills in the quest for fees.nAll they learn is that a fast buck is thenfastest way to the top.nWith an education like’ that whatncan you expect? The answer is spellednout in Douglas Frantz’s Levine & Co.,na fully documented account of thenlargest Wall Street insider trading scandalnever. Levine’s was the fall thatntripped up big-time financier IvannBoesky, whose prosecution continuesnBOOKS IN BRIEFnto shake the street. Boesky was wirednby the Feds and disclosed insider trading,nstock price manipulation, unlawfulntakeover activity, brokerage firmnundercapitalization, false bookkeeping,nfailure to disclose controlling interests,nand hiding stock to cover up a takeovernattempt by parking it with cooperativenbrokers. Boesky “revealed that rampantncriminal conduct has permeated thensecurities industry” — millionairesnstole to become hundred millionaires!nIn the 70’s only 12 percent of thenHarvard Business School graduatesnwent into investment banking. But bynthe mid-80’s more than a third of thengraduating class was entering that field.nMergers and acquisitions were wherenthe biggest action is. For every billiondollarntakeover in the 70’s, five werendone deals (as the M&A boys likensaying) in the 80’s. Traditionally securitiesnfirms make their money on bothnsides of the street. They charge corporatencustomers for investment banking,nmeaning arranging financing for ex-nJustifying State Welfare: The New Right Versus the Old Left by David Harris,nOxford and New York: Basil Blackwell; 181 pp. Harris provides a careful account ofnBritish welfare state theory and surveys the criticisms of the Thatcherites, albeit with lessnsympathy. While he has done a good job of analysis, Harris’ own attempt to reconstruct annew theory on the ashes of Titmuss and Marshall is less than convincing.nThe Immigration Time Bomb by Palmer Stacy and Wayne Lutton, Monterey, YA:nAmerican Immigration Control Foundation; 148 pp. Ever since its publication inn198 5, the little book has been making waves. The updated new edition could not come at anbetter time. Stacy and Lutton take a hard look at the real problems posed by uncontrollednimmigration and offer devastating refutations of the liberal reassurances being provided bynconservative politicians.nThe Authoritarian Family and Political Attitudes in 17th Century England:nPatriarchalism in Political Thought by Gordon J. Schochet, New Brunswick, NJ:nTransaction Books. This reprinting of Schochet’s important study of Filmer andnpatriarchal political theory includes an introduction that puts the current war against thenfamily in the proper context of the continuing struggle against all forms of naturalnassociation.nThe Supreme Court’s Constitution: An Inquiry Into Judicial Review and Its Impactnon Society hy Bernard H. Siegan, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books; 214 pp.nSiegan, a distinguished professor of law at the University of San Diego, argues from thenhistorical record that the Supreme Court has come to be the maker, not the interpreter ofnAmerican constitutional law.nThe People, the Sovereigns by James Monroe, with an introduction by Russell Kirk,nCumberland, VA: James River Press; 1?2 pp.; $19.95. President Monroe did not live toncomplete his essay on representative government, but what he did write reveals thenseriousness of which our politicians were once capable. Monroe shows himself more thannconversant with the great political theorists and, what is more, capable of applying what henhas learned to ancient examples of republican government: Athens, Sparta, and Carthage.nIt is the best sort of civics lesson one could imagine.nThe Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a Media Event by Hugh Winebrenner,nAmes: Iowa State University Press; 173 pp. Winebrenner offers a clearly written analysisnof the nation’s political flea circus, pointing out the serious distortions caused by the media.nnnpansion, acquisitions, hostile takeovers,nand new issues. And they make commissionnprofits when they sell thatnfinancing (as bonds or shares) to investors.nBut when commission profitsndried up as negotiated rates replacednWall Street’s fixed fees, spawning discountnbrokerage, investment bankingnmushroomed.nTraditionally, a so-called ChinesenWall separates the investment bankingnand brokerage functions of securitiesnfirms. Levine, Boesky, and companynturned that wall into a leaky dike andneventually bulldozed right through it.nTo appreciate the passions at work innthe insider trading scandal you have tonunderstand just how logically thenmegabucks operators turned the currentnfinancial mania to their own advantage.nIn a typical insider tradingnsituation involving a takeover, someonenwho knows about the deal innadvance — a corporate insider, investmentnbanker, merger lawyer, securitiesnanalyst, legal printer, or cab driver withna good ear — uses what he knows tonmake a sure buck. That’s done bynbuying up stock in the takeover targetncompany while it’s still cheap becausenthe deal’s a secret, and then selling itnafter the price has skyrocketed on thenannouncement of the takeover.nSince it all begins with a takeover,nthe first important development is conceptualizingnnot a simple acquisition,nnor even a hostile one, but the possibilitynthat the investment bankers themselvesncould, in their words, put ancompany into play. It’s one of thenrevelations of the story told by Frantznthat an ordinary company showing itsnbooks to the street because it wantsnfurther financing can turn out to be antakeover target months later, when itsnbankers have sold it down the river tona corporate raider. Levine andncompany’s first refinement on typicalninsider trading was to create their ownntarget company. In other words, insteadnof waiting for a large corporationnto swallow another, it saves time if younfinance a raider to launch a takeover,nand all the better if you’ve alreadynaccumulated a substantial holding innthe unaware target in advance.nWhile greenmail payoffs and overvaluingna target company’s assets help,nwhat really swells a raider’s saddlebagsnare high-risk, big-coupon bonds thatnpromise to return your capital with an
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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