Friday, June 06, 2008
The George Gilder crime community
So I can't begin this without saying that, notwithstanding the below, I have a warm spot in my heart for George Gilder. I get him, and I really like him. Plus I owe him big time; my first paying gig out of AT&T was writing up The Stupid Network for Gilder's newsletter. He's been a generous soul to me, even after it became obvious that his politics, which came from the wing-nut right in the first place, turned right again after the Stupid Network while mine resumed course towards the left.
The recent dual indictment of Broadcom CEO Henry Nicholas, who I met at Gilder's Telecosm, made me look back and realize that I've never been in such a thick den of thieves as Telecosm. The criminals (and alleged crooks) I met there included not only Nicholas, but also Michael Milken, Charles Keating, Joe Nacchio, and Gary Winnick.
I think George would say they were indicted for "financial creativity," especially Milken (see Gilder's eloquent defense here), except, maybe, for Nicholas' second indictment, which included charges of spiking the drinks of unsuspecting customers and employees with psychedelic drugs. This latter is an offense I equate with rape.
I can't remember which Telecosm I met Nicholas at, but I remember that I violently disagreed with his centralized conception of how networked content creates value. George felt called to intervene in our hallway argument as a large crowd gathered, and did it graciously. But I didn't like Nicholas from the git-go.
After Global Crossing crashed in 2002, Gilder called it Global Double Crossing. A few years before, though, I vividly remember its founder, Gary Winnick, mesmerizing an after-dinner Telecosm crowd with tales of optical pulses flying around the world with nary a legacy telco in sight. Not only did I remember, I bought! I helped finance about $20,000 of Winnick's ill-gotten loot.
Charles Keating was a regular Telecosm attendee, but I don't think he ever spoke there. I never spoke to him either, I just glared at him when he got close to me. He was the chairman of the Lincoln Savings Bank, the corrupt showpiece of the S&L crisis of 1989, which moved savings out of the accounts of widows, orphans and retirees, and into the pockets of corrupt bank officials. Keating is also the namesake of the Keating Five, a group of four Democratic Senators and one maverick Republican (guess who!) who were caught improperly influencing federal bank investigators to go easy.
I served on at least two Telecosm panels with Joe Nacchio. Nacchio was a bad guy when he briefly headed my business unit at AT&T; we actively resisted his imperious top-down edicts. Then he became a good guy when he took over at Qwest. Then he became a bad guy when Qwest bought ailing ILEC US West, but then he became a good guy again because he managed the merged entity well through the Bust. Then he became a bad guy again when he sold his Qwest stock even as he touted it in public. And now he's a good guy again -- in my book, for sure -- because he was the only telco exec with enough balls to tell the NSA domestic spying guys to come back with a warrant. But he's still under indictment, slippery as a banana on appeal.
Of the five -- Nicholas, Milken, Keating, Nacchio and Winnick -- Winnick is the only one I've ever heard George Gilder renounce. Yet he's the only one (as far as I know) to escape indictment. The other four have been found guilty at least once, and Milken and Keating are alumni of this nation's institutions of higher punishment.
None of them were very scary. The four who exposed their thinking to me (all but Keating) were smart, articulate and fascinating. Yet I'm reminded of Woody's verses from Jesse James:
The recent dual indictment of Broadcom CEO Henry Nicholas, who I met at Gilder's Telecosm, made me look back and realize that I've never been in such a thick den of thieves as Telecosm. The criminals (and alleged crooks) I met there included not only Nicholas, but also Michael Milken, Charles Keating, Joe Nacchio, and Gary Winnick.
I think George would say they were indicted for "financial creativity," especially Milken (see Gilder's eloquent defense here), except, maybe, for Nicholas' second indictment, which included charges of spiking the drinks of unsuspecting customers and employees with psychedelic drugs. This latter is an offense I equate with rape.
I can't remember which Telecosm I met Nicholas at, but I remember that I violently disagreed with his centralized conception of how networked content creates value. George felt called to intervene in our hallway argument as a large crowd gathered, and did it graciously. But I didn't like Nicholas from the git-go.
After Global Crossing crashed in 2002, Gilder called it Global Double Crossing. A few years before, though, I vividly remember its founder, Gary Winnick, mesmerizing an after-dinner Telecosm crowd with tales of optical pulses flying around the world with nary a legacy telco in sight. Not only did I remember, I bought! I helped finance about $20,000 of Winnick's ill-gotten loot.
Charles Keating was a regular Telecosm attendee, but I don't think he ever spoke there. I never spoke to him either, I just glared at him when he got close to me. He was the chairman of the Lincoln Savings Bank, the corrupt showpiece of the S&L crisis of 1989, which moved savings out of the accounts of widows, orphans and retirees, and into the pockets of corrupt bank officials. Keating is also the namesake of the Keating Five, a group of four Democratic Senators and one maverick Republican (guess who!) who were caught improperly influencing federal bank investigators to go easy.
I served on at least two Telecosm panels with Joe Nacchio. Nacchio was a bad guy when he briefly headed my business unit at AT&T; we actively resisted his imperious top-down edicts. Then he became a good guy when he took over at Qwest. Then he became a bad guy when Qwest bought ailing ILEC US West, but then he became a good guy again because he managed the merged entity well through the Bust. Then he became a bad guy again when he sold his Qwest stock even as he touted it in public. And now he's a good guy again -- in my book, for sure -- because he was the only telco exec with enough balls to tell the NSA domestic spying guys to come back with a warrant. But he's still under indictment, slippery as a banana on appeal.
Of the five -- Nicholas, Milken, Keating, Nacchio and Winnick -- Winnick is the only one I've ever heard George Gilder renounce. Yet he's the only one (as far as I know) to escape indictment. The other four have been found guilty at least once, and Milken and Keating are alumni of this nation's institutions of higher punishment.
None of them were very scary. The four who exposed their thinking to me (all but Keating) were smart, articulate and fascinating. Yet I'm reminded of Woody's verses from Jesse James:
Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
I’ve seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
Technorati Tags: GeorgeGilder, JoeNacchio
Comments:
I cannot comprehend how the author of the Stupid Network fails to understand the Stupid Government. Government has exactly one job: protect us from violence. Everything else is peaceful and voluntary and we can handle THAT just fine without government. It's just like the role of the telco is to carry bits. Everything else we can handle just fine without the telco.
It's the same damned thing, David.
It's the same damned thing, David.
David
Deja Vue all over again
I think we first met at Telecom the year Winnick spoke.
Never met Keating or Nicholas
Nicholas (on TV - CNBC etc) always struck me as very over the top
Nacchio at PCForum was classic, the Gilmore/Searls spearing was a hoot
While I never met Milken, I got to know one of his co-workers (counterpart in NYC). Ken was a neighbor in Fla, and over a few cocktails at a few association annual gatherings we explored the demise of Drexel.
My conclusion was that while Mike stepped over the line, there was much to complement him.
Likely we would not have had MCI, Turner Broadcasting and a host of upstarts.
The failure of Drexel came because the shop refused to "share the wealth" with the rest of "the street"
On the whole, it was other shops, latecomers to the party, did the crappy deals.
When Drexel was going down, they asked for help.
The white shoes said "sorry charlie"
I was told Gutfreund (Salomon Bros) got such a hard-on he couldn't stand when Drexel went down.
Note that Salomon was caught trying to rig the Treasuries Market.
So ... call it the good, bad and ugly
Keep up the good work(s)
Post a Comment
Deja Vue all over again
I think we first met at Telecom the year Winnick spoke.
Never met Keating or Nicholas
Nicholas (on TV - CNBC etc) always struck me as very over the top
Nacchio at PCForum was classic, the Gilmore/Searls spearing was a hoot
While I never met Milken, I got to know one of his co-workers (counterpart in NYC). Ken was a neighbor in Fla, and over a few cocktails at a few association annual gatherings we explored the demise of Drexel.
My conclusion was that while Mike stepped over the line, there was much to complement him.
Likely we would not have had MCI, Turner Broadcasting and a host of upstarts.
The failure of Drexel came because the shop refused to "share the wealth" with the rest of "the street"
On the whole, it was other shops, latecomers to the party, did the crappy deals.
When Drexel was going down, they asked for help.
The white shoes said "sorry charlie"
I was told Gutfreund (Salomon Bros) got such a hard-on he couldn't stand when Drexel went down.
Note that Salomon was caught trying to rig the Treasuries Market.
So ... call it the good, bad and ugly
Keep up the good work(s)
