“James Ling and the Craft of Financial Alchemy”
by Steven Adelson
Steven Adelson has written his third article for FINANCIAL HISTORY MAGAZINE, titled “James Ling and the Craft of Financial Alchemy.” The article details the rapid rise and meteoric fall of one of one of Wall Street’s first “masters of the leveraged buy out” using derivatives and debt financing to expand a company through acquisition. James Ling started with $2,000 as founder of a Dallas home writing company (Ling Electric) and in the space of 20 built a company called Ling-Tempco-Vought into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate involved in military electronics, missiles, jet fighter aircraft, sporting goods, meat packing, pharmaceuticals, electronic industrial equipment, steel manufacturing, insurance and banking.
Taken from THE WRITE WORD, the newsletter of The Society of Southwestern Authors Vol 42, No. 1 February/March 2013
The Brainpan 