Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) is an American retired banking executive, lawyer, and former government official. He served as the 70th

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

during the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

. Before his government service, he spent 26 years at

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

, eventually serving as a member of the board and co-chairman from 1990 to 1992. Rubin is credited as a major force behind Clinton-era economic prosperity, including the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act and

Balanced Budget Act of 1997 The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 () was an omnibus legislative package enacted by the United States Congress, using the budget Reconciliation (U.S. Congress), reconciliation process, and designed to balance the federal budget by 2002. This act wa ...

. However, critics of Rubin have since argued that the bank-friendly policies he supported contributed to the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

. As of 2022, Rubin is active in several organizations, including as a co-founder of

The Hamilton Project The Hamilton Project is an economic policy initiative within the Brookings Institution. It was originally launched in April 2006 by a combination of public policy makers, business people, academic leaders, and other former Clinton administration ...

, as co-chair emeritus of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

, and as a senior counselor at

Centerview Partners Centerview Partners is an American independent investment banking firm. Centerview operates primarily as an investment banking advisory firm. Centerview has 60 partners and 300 professionals with expertise across a wide range of industries, ge ...

Early life and education

Rubin was born on August 29, 1938, in New York City to Jewish parents Sylvia (née Seiderman) and Alexander Rubin. He moved to

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...

, at an early age and graduated from

Miami Beach High School Miami Beach Senior High School (Beach High, MBSH) is a secondary school located at 2231 Prairie Avenue Miami Beach, Florida, across from the Miami Beach Convention Center and Botanical Garden. It is located at the corner of Prairie Avenue and ...

. In 1960, Rubin graduated with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' in economics from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

. He then attended

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

for three days before leaving to see the world. He later attended the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and received an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

in 1964.

Early career

Rubin was an attorney at the firm of

Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (known as Cleary Gottlieb) is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide. History The ...

in New York City from 1964 to 1966 before joining

in 1966 as an associate in the

risk arbitrage Risk arbitrage, also known as merger arbitrage, is an investment strategy that speculates on the successful completion of mergers and acquisitions. An investor that employs this strategy is known as an arbitrageur. Risk arbitrage is a type of even ...

department. He later served as co-

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

, and became co-senior partner and co-chairman in 1990. Rubin served as New York finance chairman for the

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...

presidential campaign in 1984 and headed the host committee for the 1992

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...

in New York. He served on the board of directors of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

, the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

Market Oversight and Financial Services Advisory Committee, and advisory panels for New York Gov.

Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as t ...

and Mayor

David Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enterin ...

Clinton administration

From January 25, 1993, to January 10, 1995, Rubin served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. In that capacity, he directed the National Economic Council, which

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

created after winning the presidency. The National Economic Council, or NEC, enabled the White House to coordinate closely the workings of the Cabinet departments and agencies on policies ranging from budget and tax to international trade and alleviating poverty. The NEC coordinated policy recommendations going into the President's office, and monitored implementation of the decisions that came out.

Robert S. Strauss Robert Schwarz Strauss (October 19, 1918 – March 19, 2014) was an influential figure in American politics, diplomacy, and law whose service dated back to future President Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he ...

credited Rubin with making the system work. "He's surely the only man or woman in America that I know who could make the NEC succeed," Strauss said in 1994. "Anyone else would have been a disruptive force, and the council wouldn't have worked."

1993 Deficit Reduction Act

Rubin encouraged Clinton to focus on deficit reduction and he was "one of the chief architects" of Clinton's 1993 Deficit Reduction Act plan. Supporters said the Act helped create the late 1990s budget surplus and strong economic growth, while opponents noted it raised taxes. As officials deliberated the deficit reduction plan, Rubin advocated for tax increases on those in the upper-income tax bracket. ''The Baltimore Sun'' said that the budget deal "was critical" and "convinced nervous bond traders that the new Democratic president was serious about the deficit, lowering long-term interest rates, spurring economic growth and, ultimately, helping to balance the budget."

Secretary of the Treasury

Clinton nominated Rubin as Treasury secretary in December 1994. On January 10, 1995, Rubin was sworn in as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury after the U.S. Senate confirmed him in a 99-0 vote. Rubin's tenure with the Clinton administration, especially as the head of Treasury, was marked by economic prosperity in the U.S. Rubin is credited as one of the main individuals behind U.S. economic growth, creating near full-employment and bullish stock markets while avoiding inflation. From the time he joined the White House until he announced his resignation from Treasury in 1999, U.S. unemployment fell from 6.9 percent to 4.3 percent; the U.S. budget went from a $255 billion deficit to a $70 billion surplus, and inflation fell. Rubin was succeeded in early July 1999 as Treasury secretary by his deputy,

Lawrence Summers Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist who served as the 71st United States secretary of the treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as pre ...

. According to ''CNN Money'', Rubin was "one of the architects of the Clinton administration's economic policy, and is often credited—along with Federal Reserve Chairman

Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...

—for the booming eight-year economic expansion, the second-longest in U.S. history". Senator

Chuck Hagel Charles Timothy Hagel ( born October 4, 1946)

1990s international crises

Upon being sworn into office as Treasury secretary in January 1995, Rubin was confronted with the

Mexican peso crisis The Mexican peso crisis was a currency crisis sparked by the Mexican government's sudden devaluation of the peso against the U.S. dollar in December 1994, which became one of the first international financial crises ignited by capital flight. ...

, which threatened to result in Mexico defaulting on its foreign obligations. President

, with the advice of Rubin and Greenspan, provided $20 billion in U.S.

loan guarantee A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the d ...

s to the Mexican government through the

Exchange Stabilization Fund The Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) is an emergency reserve fund of the United States Treasury Department, normally used for foreign exchange intervention. This arrangement (as opposed to having the central bank intervene directly) allows the US ...

. Mexico recovered and the U.S. Treasury made a $580 million profit as a result of the loan agreement. In 1997 and 1998, Rubin, Greenspan, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Summers worked with the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

and others to promote U.S. policy in response to financial crises in Russian, Asian, and Latin American financial markets. On the cover of its February 15, 1999 edition, ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' dubbed the three policymakers "The Committee to Save the World".

Balanced budget agreement

Early in the Clinton administration, Rubin touted a balanced budget and a strong dollar as a way for the Fed to lower interest rates. He also argued that a balanced federal budget's broad benefits to society outweighed concerns that one group could benefit more than others. Rubin was the Clinton administration's chief negotiator with a Republican-controlled Congress on the balanced-budget deal. The

has been referred to as the "capstone" of Rubin's tenure as Treasury secretary.

Regulation of derivatives

In 1998, Rubin and

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

chairman

opposed giving the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options. The Commodity Exchange Ac ...

(CFTC) oversight of over-the-counter

credit derivatives In finance, a credit derivative refers to any one of "various instruments and techniques designed to separate and then transfer the ''credit risk''"The Economist ''Passing on the risks'' 2 November 1996 or the risk of an event of default of a cor ...

when this was proposed by

Brooksley Born Brooksley Elizabeth BornCalifornia Births, 1905 - 1995Brooksley Elizabeth Born/ref> (born August 27, 1940) is an American attorney and former public official who, from August 26, 1996, to June 1, 1999, was chair of the Commodity Futures Trading ...

, then head of the CFTC. Rubin and other senior officials recommended Congress relieve the CFTC of regulatory authority over derivatives in November 1999. Over-the-counter credit derivatives were eventually excluded from regulation by the CFTC by the

Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) is United States federal legislation that ensured financial products known as over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives remained unregulated. It was signed into law on December 21, 2000 by President ...

. According to a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

'' report, derivatives played a key role in the

. Arthur Levitt Jr., a former chairman of the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, has said in explaining Rubin's strong opposition to the regulations proposed by Born that Greenspan and Rubin were "joined at the hip on this. They were certainly very fiercely opposed to this and persuaded me that this would cause chaos."Goodman, Peter S. (October 8, 2008)
"Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy"
''The New York Times''. However, in Rubin's autobiography, he notes that he believed derivatives could pose significant problems and that many people who used derivatives did not fully understand the risks they were taking. In 2008, ''The New York Times'' reported that the proposal in 1997 would not have improved oversight of derivatives. Rubin said the financial system "could benefit from better regulation of derivatives". However, "the politics would have made this impossible," he said. Rubin said he had been concerned about derivatives' potential to create systemic risk since his time at Goldman Sachs. In an interview on ''ABCs '' This Week'' program in April 2010, former President Clinton said Rubin was wrong in the advice he gave him not to regulate derivatives, which was by then seen as one of the underlying causes of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Clinton adviser

Doug Band Douglas Jay Band (born October 28, 1972) is an American businessman and lawyer. He is a founding partner and former president of Teneo, a multinational C-suite advisory firm and investment bank. Previously he was Deputy Assistant to Preside ...

later said Clinton "inadvertently conflated an analysis he received on a specific derivatives proposal with then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's arguments against any regulation of derivatives". He said Clinton still wished he had pursued legislation to regulate derivatives while confirming that he still believed he had received excellent advice on the economy and the financial system from Rubin and others during his presidency.

Urban policy

Rubin was a leading advocate for investment in distressed rural and urban communities in the Clinton administration, from his time with the NEC, leading the effort to expand the

Community Reinvestment Act The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA, P.L. 95-128, 91 Stat. 1147, title VIII of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to hel ...

, to his time at Treasury, where he advocated for more

community development financial institution A community development financial institution (US) or community development finance institution (UK) - abbreviated in both cases to CDFI - is a financial institution that provides credit and financial services to underserved markets and populations, ...

s (CDFI) to invest in inner cities and increase the CDFI Fund. Addressing the needs of the urban poor was a top priority for Rubin during his tenure in the Clinton administration. Rubin also assisted with the Clinton administration's plan to increase

empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

and

enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

zones across the U.S. The initiative offered tax breaks for businesses investing in those zones.

The Decline of the Glass-Steagall Act

As Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin was on the record for stating that the Glass-Steagall Act was obsolete and outdated, and indeed its provisions had become less effective over time. However, it was not until the late 1990s that the Congress and the Clinton administration finally came round to repealling the act. This resulted in part from lobbying pressure exercized by

Sanford I. Weill Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill (; born March 16, 1933) is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions from 1998 until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, re ...

on Congress and the White House to repeal the Act, and so allow the mega-merger he had organized between Travelers Group and Citicorp in 1998 to stand. Rubin resigned from the Clinton administration in July 1999. In October 1999, Rubin joined the leadership at Citigroup. Glass–Steagall was eventually repealed by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act under Rubin's successor, Lawrence Summers, and was signed by Clinton in November 1999.

Post-government career

Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Upon leaving the Clinton administration, Rubin joined the board of the

Local Initiatives Support Corporation The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is a US non-profit community development financial institution (CDFI) that supports community development initiatives across the country. It has offices in nearly 40 cities and works across 2,100 r ...

(LISC), the nation's leading community development support organization, as chairman. Reflecting on his decision to join an institution devoted to bringing economic activity to neglected areas of the country, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' said the following in an editorial: "Even before he became Bill Clinton's treasury secretary, during his days as a high-powered Wall Street executive, Rubin was passionate about fostering business investment as the way to fight poverty in depressed city and rural areas. That made him somewhat unusual among Democrats, who generally emphasized government anti-poverty programs."

Citigroup

Rubin joined

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

in 1999 as chairman of the executive committee of the board. In 2001,

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

, a major client of Citigroup, faced a credit ratings downgrade as a result of the

Enron scandal The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then on ...

. Rubin called a ranking Treasury Department official, unsuccessfully seeking the Bush Administration's help in forestalling the downgrade. A subsequent staff investigation by the

Senate Governmental Affairs committee The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland s ...

cleared Rubin of having done anything illegal. Rubin later maintained that he had acted both as a Citigroup executive protecting his company's position and as a former Treasury official concerned about the impact that Enron's failure might have on the larger economy. Rubin rejected criticisms of a possible conflict of interest and has said that if faced with the same choice, he would do it again. Rubin briefly became chairman of Citigroup's board of directors from November 2007 to December 2007. According to ''The New York Times'', Rubin's role at Citigroup focused on meeting with clients and government and business leaders, bringing in business, and serving as a sounding board to bank leadership. As the ''Times'' reported in 2007, Rubin "has said publicly since he came to Citigroup in 1999 that he had no interest in running the bank". ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported Rubin joined Citigroup as a board member and as a participant "in strategic managerial and operational matters of the Company, but ..no line responsibilities". The newspaper called this mix of oversight and management responsibilities "murky". Following the 2008 financial crisis, critics argued Rubin increased risk-taking at Citigroup, thereby exposing the bank to greater losses, and that economic policies he promoted as Treasury secretary exacerbated the situation. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Rubin has stated that "he wasn't alone in failing to foresee the severity of the crisis that would emerge". Other industry observers criticized the lack of clarity about Rubin's role within the bank. The federal government spent $45 billion to acquire a stake in Citigroup in 2008 through the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President G ...

. Citigroup repaid $20 billion of the

bailout A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...

money in December 2009 and the Treasury sold its remaining stake one year later, for a total net profit of $12 billion. In December 2008, investors filed a lawsuit contending that Citigroup executives, including Rubin, sold shares at inflated prices while concealing the firm's risks. Citigroup settled the lawsuit in 2012, paying $590 million to claimants and denying any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Rubin resigned from Citigroup in 2009. Between 1999 and 2009, Rubin received total compensation, including

employee stock option Employee stock options (ESO) is a label that refers to compensation contracts between an employer and an employee that carries some characteristics of financial options. Employee stock options are commonly viewed as an internal agreement prov ...

s, of $126 million from Citigroup."Rethinking Bob Rubin From Goldman Sachs Star to Crisis Scapegoat"

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

His compensation was criticized, with writer

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively ''Nessim ''or'' Nissim''; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist whose work concerns problems of randomness, ...

noting that Rubin "collected more than $120 million in compensation from Citibank in the decade preceding the banking crash of 2008. When the bank, literally insolvent, was rescued by the taxpayer, he didn't write any check—he invoked uncertainty as an excuse." In 2010, the

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) was a ten-member commission appointed by the leaders of the United States Congress with the goal of investigating the causes of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The Commission has been nicknamed t ...

interviewed Rubin as part of their investigation into the causes of the

and concluded that Rubin "may have violated the laws of the United States in relation to the financial crisis" related to his role at Citigroup. The commission unanimously voted to refer him to the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

for further investigation; however, the DOJ did not pursue any further investigation or actions against Rubin.

Other work

In 2001, Rubin received an honorary doctoral degree from Harvard University, and on July 1, 2002, he became a member of

Harvard Corporation The President and Fellows of Harvard College (also called the Harvard Corporation or just the Corporation) is the smaller and more powerful of Harvard University's two governing boards, and is now the oldest corporation in America. Together with ...

, the executive governing board of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He served as a member of the Harvard Corporation board until June 2014 and continues to serve on its finance committee. Rubin has written a memoir, ''In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington'' (), co-written by

Jacob Weisberg Jacob Weisberg (born 1964) is an American political journalist, who served as editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. In September 2018, he left Slate to co-found Pushkin Industries, an audio content company, w ...

. It was a ''New York Times'' bestseller as well as one of ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''s ten best business books of 2003. Rubin had been suggested as a possible appointee to a cabinet post for President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. Rubin, alongside

Austan Goolsbee Austan Dean Goolsbee (born August 18, 1969) is an American economist and writer. He is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

and

Paul Volcker Paul Adolph Volcker Jr. (September 5, 1927 – December 8, 2019) was an American economist who served as the 12th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. During his tenure as chairman, Volcker was widely credited with having ended the ...

, was one of Obama's economic advisers. In January 2014, Secretary Rubin joined former Senator

Olympia Snowe Olympia Jean Snowe (; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became known for her ability to influence the outcom ...

, former Education Secretary Donna Shalala, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Henry Cisneros, Gregory Page the Chair of Cargill, and Al Sommer, the Dean Emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health as members of the U.S. Climate Risk Committee. They oversaw the development of an analysis of the economic risks of

climate change in the United States Climate change in the United States has led to the country warming by 2.6°F (1.4°C) since 1970. Due to climate change, the climate of the United States is shifting in ways that are widespread and varied between regions. From 2010 to 2019, the U ...

that was published on June 24, 2014. In an address at the Climate Leadership Conference on March 4, 2015, Mr. Rubin spoke about the economic effects of climate change and the costs of inaction. Calling climate change "the existential threat of our age," he called for the adoption of three proposals – revising estimates of the Gross Domestic Product to reflect climate change externalities, disclosure to investors by companies of the costs of carbon they emit that they might be required to absorb, and including in the U.S. government's fiscal projections the future costs of dealing with climate change – to help catalyze a more active response to climate change risks. He first outlined the proposals in a Washington Post op-ed column titled "How Ignoring Climate Change Could Sink the U.S. Economy." In April 2016, he was one of eight former Treasury secretaries who called on the United Kingdom to remain a member of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

ahead of the June 2016 Referendum. As of 2020, Rubin is actively engaged as a founder of

, an economic policy think tank that produces research and proposals on how to create a growing economy that benefits more

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

. He is co-chairman emeritus of the

. Rubin also serves as chairman of the board of the

, a community development support organization. He serves as a trustee of

Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is a hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Health System is structured around eight hospit ...

. Additionally, Rubin serves as a senior counselor at

, an investment banking advisory firm based in New York City. And he has been member of the advisory board of the

Peter G. Peterson Foundation The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is an American foundation established in 2008 by Peter G. Peterson, former US Secretary of Commerce in the Nixon Administration and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, an American financial-services company. ...

Personal life

Rubin and his wife, Judith O. Rubin, have two grown sons together, James Rubin (not to be confused with the former diplomat and journalist

James Rubin James Phillip Rubin (born March 28, 1960) is an American former diplomat and journalist who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Clinton Administration from 1997–2000. He wrote a regular column on foreign aff ...

who served under President Clinton), and Philip Rubin. The Rubins were long time members of Temple Beth Sholom on Miami Beach.

References

Sources

The White House - Office of the Press Secretary

External links

Profile
at

* * * * * , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Robert Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations 1938 births 20th-century American politicians Alumni of the London School of Economics Jewish American bankers American chief executives American chief operating officers Businesspeople from New York City Chairmen of Goldman Sachs Citigroup people Clinton administration cabinet members Harvard Law School alumni Harvard College alumni Living people Jewish American members of the Cabinet of the United States Presidential Citizens Medal recipients United States Secretaries of the Treasury Yale Law School alumni People associated with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Politicians from New York City