Everything Starts Out as Junk, Says Michael Milken

Philanthropist and former financier Michael Miken tells David Rubenstein about his regrets during his finance career.. (Source: Bloomberg)

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By Nikolaj Gammeltoft

October 31, 2018 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

America’s erstwhile high-yield-bond king has news for you: Everything starts out as junk.

“Almost every person is high-yield junk,” Michael Milken said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “When things started coming from Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, everyone said they were junk. And then all of a sudden we felt by the 1980s the quality of their products and cars was better. Everything coming out of China was junk.”