Talk:Robert Rubin
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[edit] Be more precise, more accurate, replace nick-names with actual names if possible
The article say that Mr. Rubin worked in the risk arbitrage unit of Goldman Sachs in 1966 and perhaps after that. I would suggest changing "risk arbitrage" to "merger arbitrage", if there was a unit that had that name, otherwise i would change it to the actual name it had in the accounting or other official documents. My feeling is that risk arbitrage may be a popular name of any job within what is now called Trading and Principal Investments or Trading and Capital Markets, for example the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC), [1], Principal Strategies Group [2] or Global Special Situations Group (GSSG) [3]. Currently the merger arbitrage desk is in the Principal Strategies Group, and merger arbitrage is called "situation/event-driven strategies" on the website [4]. If there was a Principal Strategies Group back in 1966 the best thing would be to write that he became an associate in the Principal Strategies Group, and more precisely the situation/event-driven strategies desk in 1966. -- 19:36, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Foreign Currency Crisis Management
Rubin was esp noteworthy for triggering near collapses in 5 separate international currencies by utter, bizare ineptitude for a US Secretary of the Treasury. The Rubin style -
1) have Wall street pals & and your firm viciously attack the currency to create 1st a faux, then a real crisis ,
2) then announce loudly & publically that there would be NO US Aid to suport the currency in crisis ,
3) then bail out resulting collapsing positions caused by Wall Street pals for huge profits by switcherooing to massive US Aid.
The Ruben psychotic management of global currency crises were esp in crises for the following:
Thai Baht
Detail of the "Rubin style" - to set up fake currency crises
Indonesian rupiah/rupee/ruppee
[http://www.nimbupani.com/blog/blog-entry/asian-financial-crisis-1997.html 1997
Crisis in Indonesian rupiah / rupee which fell 80% v. the US dollar ]
Argentian peso
Argentine Peso Crisis of 2001
Mexican peso crisis
called "$50 billion bailout for Goldman Sachs friends
& Mexican drug lords"
see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_economic_crisis_in_Mexico
1994 Mexican Peso crisis]
and see Managing Peso crisis by Prof DeLong
Russian ruble
1998 Russian ruble collapse
Of course as mentioned, instead of near or perfect insanity, the above Rubin sytle could be thought of as a "playbook" to make billions for your "former" firm on Wall Street - a Goldman Sachs playbook likely carefully studied by new nominee Henry Paulson.
And , or it could be viewed as a US policy targeting and even profiteering on weaker 3rd world countries, led by Secretary of US Treasury. BUT, the massive mushroom cloud of todays' US Debt rapidly increasing by Iraq war and out of control other spending (not even 100s of billions but trillions) makes this strip mining of very small $10s of billions from 3rd world, a sorry sad policy that torpedoes the lives of millions of the poor.
{64.12.116.6Market Pro64.12.116.6}
These claims are ridiculous. Note that the Russian default crisis triggered the collapse of LTCM, which severely strained world financial markets. Contrary to your allegations that the "Rubin sytle could be thought of as a 'playbook' to make billions," Goldman actually suffered one of the worst quarters in its history as a result of the LTCM debacle. The idea that Rubin would have orchestrated a "fake crisis" that Wall Street could exploit is nonsensical.
What Rubin's policies did do was significantly reduce the fallout from the financial crises you mention. And yes, Wall Street did beneift from his policies. But what is wrong with that? Wall Street is a major driver of economic growth. Without investment banks, venture capitalists, private equity firms, etc. firms would find it nearly impossible to raise capital, for example. One of the key benefits of Rubin's economic program was that he maintained fiscal discipline, which kept interest rates low. Maybe Rubin saved you a few thousand dollars on your mortgage. Maybe he indirectly made you a few thousand dollars in the stock market, which performed remarkably well under his tenure at Treasury. You also forget that everybody, not just the rich, got richer during the 1990s, due in no small part to Rubin's attention to issues like education and the inner cities. Rubin expanded the EITC, for example, and unemployment fell from 5.6% when he was sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury to 4.2% when he resigned. Home ownership hit a record high during the Clinton years. So Wall Street was by no means the only beneficiary.
By the way, Rubin was supposed to have had a 5% stake in Goldman when he left for Washington. Were he still at Goldman today, that stake would be worth over $4 billion. But Rubin did not stay at Goldman--he put his money in a blind trust, went to Washington, and steered the U.S. economy through one of the strongest periods in its history.
Stochastic 13:48, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Clinton Record
Added citation needed - I believe, but don't have time at this moment to verify, that many of the claims made regarding the Clinton economic record are at the very least no longer correct, and perhaps even were overstated when written. Especially regarding record low unemployment - believe that record has been superseded. Hope to return to this later, but if anyone else wants to take a look of course... (Also added Citigroup board membership to bio - he's currently on the board of directors.) LAEsquire 01:36, 26 October 2007 (UTC)LAEsquire
[edit] CitiGroup Record
Rubin has been named Chairman of Citigroup as their CEO Charles Prince resigned after writing down $11 billion in losses due to their exposure to subprime mortgages. His first job as chairman is to find a replacement for Prince as there is no clear successor. (Rueters article Mon Nov 5, 2007 5:34 AM GMT: Citigroup Chief Executive Quits
[edit] Financial Deregulation
Did Robert Rubin's work to deregulate the financial industry lead to Citi Groups trouble with predatory, lending sub prime mortgages, and junk securites that he was hired to solve ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by J23 (talk • contribs) 13:40, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
