Robert Rubin's Awkward, Damning Citigroup Crisis Interviews

Last week's New York Times article, which blamed him for bringing down Citigroup and really the entire global economy, must have been difficult for Robert Rubin, who has spent the past twenty-odd years basking in the glow of economic hero worship, to take. And then Citigroup made it even worse, going so far out of their way to distance him from the egregiously bad decisions that led to their current state that he ended up just sounding like kind of a lame duck: "While Mr. Rubin is a member of the Board and plays an advisory and client service role at Citigroup, he was never an 'architect' nor was he a drafter of Citigroup's risk-taking plans," Citigroup vice-chairman Lewis Kaden wrote in a letter to the Times.

And then there was CEO Vikram Pandit on Charlie Rose: "In the eleven months that I've been in this job as I worked with him, it's pretty clear that he doesn't drive the execution decisions." "It's pretty clear"? What is he, a painting on the wall?! Thanks a lot, Vikram. Clearly, Rubin's ego couldn't take it. Like a cocky serial killer on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, his determination to prove he was smarter than his investigators outweighed his common sense, and the former Treasury secretary decided to give two interviews, to The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, to set things right. Naturally, they only made him look even guiltier.

Read the full story here

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Comments

[SEQUOIABISON]

Has everyone forgotten that Bush and Cheney have been at the helm of this economic Titanic these last 8 years, why are we talking about Rubin as though he were still Treasury Secretary?

Lest we forget Rubin guided this nation through one of our most prosperous times in history and left office with money in the bank, a budget surplus, undoubtedly if he were still in charge of the big picture instead of just an adviser to a major bank the country would not be suffering these hardships.

Lets talk about the real villains in this scenario the Greedy Old Patricians of the Bush administration, who gave tax breaks to their rich friends while fighting a war on two fronts and shipped our manufacturing jobs overseas and even got rewarded for their lack of patriotism by getting even more tax breaks.

What the hell does Rubin have to do with the disastrous big mess W and friends got us into.

[jwws007]

Rubin set into motion and implemented alot of the economic policies that the Bush admin has operated under for the last 8 years.

[funkalicious]

How come Congress dosen't demand accountability or a plan from any of these Banking Schmucks.
Rubin is responsible for taking a huge salary over the years enriching himself with generational wealth. He ran Citi into the ground advising them to lend more and more and more money to hedge funds expanding the bad credits department of his bank. Putting the entire company at risk was the only way to pay the bloated salaries of do nothing greedy ego driven executive advisers.

His ubber strong dollar policies during Clinton selling out the American worker to the lowest off shore bidder. The Clinton good times came from the cash they generated by selling labor down the river and he had no clue?? Time to buy a vowel Rob... he is getting a free pass here on Huffpo.

[AurigaRa]

oh gee, I DIDN'T know.

...oughta be sent to jail along with Graham, Greenspan, CHeney and Bush

[inthedesert]

It is just awesomely amazing how these guys are NOW coming out and saying they're sorry....the ultimate of course is Bush......wow, maybe they suddenly REALLY DO UNDERSTAND the concept and ramifications of karma. Karma is real and it WILL GET YOU. Poor GeorgieBoy and the other Rethuglicans....LOL. We reap what we sow in this life......trust me on that.

[franklin opt]

I wouldn't want to be Robert Rubin or Milton Friedman right about now.

Hmmm... Rubin, Friedman, the University of Chicago... I'm getting depressed again.

[PhilipTaylor]

Or Greenspan, or Bush, or Paulson, or Bernake, or the BANKSTERS any of the architects of this MESS!

[motherfather]

I became a fan because you actually mentioned Friedman, the University of Chicago. Thank you for making this day end on a good note. Tomorrow I go back to being depressed but the knowledge that I am not alone in thinking of the eoriginal architects of our current debacle makes me not so depressed as opposed to fully depressed:-).

[ibsteve2u]

Rubin...ahhhh.

I heard a talking head (Peter Morici - "economist") on MSNBC this afternoon say:

"My feeling is the market will improve before the economy does. But the economy will improve in time - we always do."

I laughed, rather bitterly...you would think that ANYBODY who claims a title would remember what EVERY single stock fund out there says; namely, words to the effect that: Past performance is no indicator of future performance.

And an economist who is incapable of factoring in the inequality curve's shift back to 1929 levels and the impact of inequitable free trade and associated job losses and trade deficits?

God, I hope Obama hires smarter people...

[scubafox]

Exactly. What's called "free trade", but isn't, has destroyed the US economy by undermining wages and causing the loss of manufacturing & IT jobs. Since 2001, Colorado Springs has lost 40% of manufacturing jobs and 48% of IT jobs. The US Advanced Technology Products "Trade" Deficit went from a $38.4B surplus in 1991 to a projected $54.5B deficit in 2008 (based on Jan - Sep data). Google "The 9/22/08 Economic Crisis".

[CR46]

The manufacturing and other lost jobs in the US began way back under Reagans "union busting" administration!!!!

[roselaw]

So what WAS Rubin doing for his $15,000,000.00 a year? Or was this just a pay-off for convincing Clinton to go along with the deregulation of the banking industry as well as the market for derivatives, etc.?

Then again, he may have earned that many times over by persuading Uncle Sam to bail out CitiGroup with no meaingful controls over the operation of the business, no change of management, and overall, as a terrible deal for the taxpayers (per Paul Krugman and others).

So I guess maybe Rubin still be the MAN, and with his accolytes firmly in charge of economic policy in the new Obama administration, he'll continue on his merry way, with no accountability, and huge paychecks in his future.

[Rule Of Law]

To quote Randy Quaid in Independence Day--

"Haven't I been saying it? Haven't I been tellin' you all along?"

But NOBODY in the Obama can do no wrong camp wants to hear even verifiable facts. Bob and his acolytes have brought this country to its knees. But they don't call him Teflon Bob for nothing. And he's watching as Obama puts his students into positions to continue the nightmare.

Hey Bob--After you convinced Clinton to repeal Glass-Steagall and allow the merger of Travellers and Citi that has earned you hundreds of millions of dollars (can you say conflict of interest...?) and, according to many right now, is one of the leading causes of this Depression, do you still sleep ok at night, or are you thinking about giving some of that loot back to help make amends for the damage you and your buddies have done?

[ProfessorDuh]

Phil Gramm and the GOP Congress screamed to repeal Glass-Steagall, you may recall. Clinton, threatened with a veto override, just signed it, to his eternal shame.

[EattheRich]

Who knew? They all did!
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11111954?source=rss

[outnow]

Who knew? Bush claims that he didn't know and Rubin claims that he didn't know or could not have changed the course.... I guess they didn't listen to Warren Buffet and Jeff Faux, the economist, and countless others who were calling derivatives financial weapons of mass destruction and predicted the real estate bubble would burst. I was reading published books in 2006 that predicted that the bubble would burst.

All these guys were willing to take that risk. Bush wanted consumers to continue to go shopping while he fought his wars and Rubin and the other CEOs wanted the upfront salaries and bonuses connected with predatory and risky lending.

The war cost more money than anticipated and lending hundreds of thousands to people with no credit and proof of income was not prudent. So huge risks were taken by the Commander-in-chief and by the Wall Street wizards who paid themselves the most extraordinary salaries and bonuses in the history of the world. The perfect storm hit and there should be accountability. Allow the trial lawyers to sue to disgorge the profits and it will never happen again. Punitive damages against Rubin would cure him.