"Rubin leaves Citi on a low note" from the Wall Street Journal is clearly an understatement. Here is one of the alleged titans of our economy as Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, head of Goldman Sachs and adviser to the now very troubled Citi whom the taxpayers have injected with oodles of cash - and with them still having yesterday to part with a key asset to have the money on hand the Feds think they need.
Rubin, who bagged a cool $115 million for his bad advice - and told the Wall St. Journal in November that he could have earned a lot more elsewhere - says the following in his swan song letter to Citigroup:
The former Treasury secretary was credited with helping control two big financial crises during his time in Washington: the Mexican peso devaluation and the Asian financial meltdown. But he acknowledges that he underestimated the scale of the current financial crisis.
In his resignation letter to Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, Mr. Rubin wrote that his "great regret is that I and so many of us who have been involved in this industry for so long did not recognize the serious possibility of the extreme circumstances that the financial system faces today."Mr. Rubin, who most recently served as a Citigroup director and senior counselor, was also an economic adviser to Barack Obama's campaign. He wrote in his resignation letter that he wants "to intensify my engagement with public policy."
He could start by returning some of his undeserved pay and could reconsider the role of advisers who have no responsibility in advisory capacities at big financial houses.
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