"In Asia, they allocate as many resources to supplemental education as they do to housing plus transportation," he added.
"In America, we allocate 25 times as much in a middle-class family to housing and transportation as we do to tutoring and supplemental education of our child. How do you expect to compete long-term?"
Milken also said that 2011 will bring inflation.
“Banks are holding less than 10 percent of loans,” added Milken, who is one of the richest men in the world, according to the latest Forbes list. “So the public/private markets are financing the world.
“The capital markets and commodities markets are telling us that we should expect inflation, we should expect growth.”
“Last week alone $60 billion in corporate bonds were issued at an annual rate of $3 trillion a year,” he added. “Banks are holding less than 10 percent of loans.”
Milken, once called the junk bond king for his role in the development of high-yield bonds, served less than two years of a 10-year sentence in federal prison in the 1990’s on charges of securities and reporting violations. Originally, Milken was charged with racketeering and insider trading, but plead to lesser charges and cooperated with federal authorities in testimony against former colleagues. The presiding judge lessened Milken's sentence for his cooperation and good behavior in prison.
Milken has gone on to engage in philanthropy and other causes. His Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan economic think tank whose scholars publish research papers and conduct conferences on global and regional economies, human capital, demographics and capital markets. Each spring, the institute hosts its Global Conference in Los Angeles.
