Milken got off light. He is still well off (google says $2.1B in 2007), has written books, he's doing much better than the folks doing their work by the rules who lost their jobs because of his 'errors'. He was on Martha recently touting his cookbook, making the rounds at parties in the Hamptons. Sigh. Every time we see some arse like Milken or Lahde, we have to remember that not only have they gotten rich at the expense of others (wealth that some of them manage to hang onto at least in part), but they've cost law abiding co-workers their livelihood.
The difference is that Milken broke the law. This guy merely beat the system set up by the crooks and elitists on Wall St.
I trade so I have an idea of what he did and I do it every day, except on the much smaller scale.
There are financial vehicles that get driven too high or low based on fear or greed. He merely took advantage and cashed in. It is not easy to cash in, many never do it and are only wealthy on paper...as in many are 40% poorer now after not allocating their 401Ks properly.