That Goldman Sachs Guy, Robert Rubin

William D. Cohan has a lot of fun "Rethinking Robert Rubin" in an article in Bloomberg Businessweek.  He tells a neat story about Rubin here; shows Rubin's "wisdom and tranquility" there; describes how so many demand his presence; touts his intellectuality, and so on.  The whole thing becomes a very schizophrenic exercise in listing Rubin's pros and cons.

But when Cohan says:  "He (Rubin) also regularly meets with congressmen and foreign leaders and has access to the Obama administration through Timothy Geithner and other protégés" it sends a chill down one's spine.

Please do not rehabilitate Robert Rubin.  He is what he has done:

NASSIM TALEB: Former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin Represents Everything That's Bad In America
By Matthew Boesler - Business Insider
. . . .
Cohan continues:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb doesn’t know Rubin personally. He admits that his antipathy, like that of so many Rubin critics, is fueled by symbolism. “He represents everything that’s bad in America,” he says. “The evil in one person represented. When we write the history, he will be seen as the John Gotti of our era. He’s the Teflon Don of Wall Street.” Taleb wants systemic change to prevent what he terms the “Bob Rubin Problem”—the commingling of Wall Street interests and the public trust—“so people like him don’t exist.”

Read the whole article here