Michael Milken

Your Sept. 13 editorial, “In the Case of Michael Milken,” listed six crimes he committed. You could have noted that his mistake was in being so massively active he made it impossible not to be caught. For years Richard Ney has cited chapter and verse of investment activities that cheat investors--to the accompanying ho-hums of government regulators.

Milken could probably have made a case that those ho-hums were in fact invitations to him to expand on and improve the existing ways to grift the legit.

Whatever else Milken and Ivan Boesky et al get away with, they should not be allowed to duck responsibility for the losses of workers and pensioners who have been and will be hurt by second- and third-wave action of junk bonds. I’m persuaded that some of the bonds were issued only after careful analysis assured that the lives of employees would not be disrupted. But it seems obvious that for the most part little or no thought was given to that aspect; the media and what passes for government regulation have paid far too little heed to it.

WILLIAM HANZLIK

Seal Beach