Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Not the ol’ fade-away

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 11:46 a.m.

OLD GENERALS never die, they just fade away.

So now we know what happens to generals when the wars are over and their countries no longer need them (at least, that's what many in this country hope happens to our war horses). Have you ever wondered what happens to others who have captivated the news or shared the headlines?

I am thinking specifically of junk bond financier Michael Milken, whose rise to international prominence and incredible financial success symbolized the fast times of the 1980s and whose equally sharp decline from the top of the Wall Street heap and into federal prison symbolized some of the excesses, too. In that one person, practically an entire decade of American economic activity -- with most of the good and some of the bad -- has reposed.

So whither goest Mr. Milken and what, if anything, is he doing now?

It has been said in song, in books and in conversations since the beginning of time that you can't keep a good and thinking man down. We know the government tried its best to keep him out of the securities business. And out he has stayed. And we know, regretfully, that prostate cancer has done its level best to knock him out of the box. Happily it has not been successful and Mike continues to defy the odds and live a healthy life. And just as importantly, his founding of CapCure, a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for prostate and other cancers, has been a direct result of Mike's own illness and his efforts to make sure he is the last to be threatened by that horrid disease.

The half a million man march on Washington last year -- a gathering led by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and former Sen. Bob Dole, among others -- resulted in an increased awareness by the federal government of the needs of the cancer-fighting community and directly resulted in an increase in federal funding for breast and prostate cancer research to the tune of $500 million.

As much as that is, it is not nearly enough to find the cures and treatments needed to halt the inexorable advance of cancer upon the aging baby boomer generation. If we think that cancer's impact on the health care system of the United States is too high now, just wait until we start adding to that cost the cancers that my generation will attract as we continue the aging process. I have heard as much as $40 billion a year for the next 30 years. I am not good at counting but I do know that that's an awful lot of money over time. It is also far too much agony and pain for people to have to endure just because we can't find the dollars needed to make the cure a reality.

Beating cancer and making sure CapCure is successful is a full-time job. Add to those efforts Mike's longtime involvement with education and his now-famous educator awards, and you would think that should be enough for any person, even one with Mike's drive, determination and brainpower. Well it's not.

Today in Los Angeles, more than 1,000 leaders of industry and government are coming together for the Milken Institute Global Conference. There they will be treated to an incredible array of Nobel laureates, government economists, business leaders and educators in an effort to understand what challenges the future will bring us from around the globe and here at home.

There will be global overviews and their relation to the status of the United States in the coming century. The attendees will also learn more than they ever knew about Japan and East Asia, Euroland and the Euro and China and Taiwan. Russia and the CIS and Brazil, Mexico and Latin America are also topics which experts from around the world will opine upon for the benefit of those who are fortunate enough to attend the conference. And after the audience hears from California Gov. Gray Davis about the Golden State's place in the global economy, will come the piece de resistance.

That's when Mike Milken and four Nobel laureates in economics will square off to share their ideas about where we are going and how soon we will get there. Will that be the place to be? Without a doubt.

I remember the Drexel Burnham Bond Conferences in the 1980s. As much as has been written about them negatively, there was so much more that was positive in the information, insights and ideas that sprang from the collective minds there assembled. Mike Milken did all that.

And it sounds like he is doing it all again. Not in a securities venue, because he can't. But in an arena that will have far greater impact on this country and our allies in the coming decades.

It is a good thing that Mike is not a general, because he would then be compelled to fade away. Instead he's doing everything but disappear and we will all be better off for his efforts.

Whether it is cancer research, educational dominance or international involvement from a global perspective, Mike Milken will continue to be a force with which to be reckoned. Having learned a valuable lesson a decade ago, Mike is full-speed ahead for all the good that he can do.

I wish him well.

It sounds like Michael Milken is doing it all again. Not in a securities venue, because he can't. But in an arena that will have far greater impact on this country and our allies in the coming decades.