Robert Rubin, former Treasurer to Bill Clinton, former Chair of Goldman Sachs, former CEO for Citigroup that awarded him more than $126 million in cash and stock over the past decade and yes this would be the exact same Robert Rubin who 1997, together with then-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, Rubin strongly opposed the regulation of derivatives, when such regulation was proposed by then-head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Brooksley Born. Overexposure to credit derivatives of mortgage-backed securities was a key reason for the failure of US financial institutions Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, American International Group, and Washington Mutual in 2008.
Rubin was highlighted in a Public Broadcasting Service FRONTLINE report, "The Warning." Yet now, he is standing up and telling the 'world' that no body saw it coming, the financial catastrophe that has ruined out nation, when people were not only 'warned,' but 'silenced,' (Brooksley Born) to name but one person. I find Mr. Rubin's statements to be a slap in the face adding insult to injury when all available proof out there now indicates the exact opposite: Robert Rubin did every thing he could to push Security Fraud, most especially for his pals at Goldman Sachs.
- The Executive Branch Rejects Financial Derivative Regulation
Financial derivatives are unregulated. By all accounts this has been a disaster, as Warren Buffet's warning that they represent "weapons of mass financial destruction" has proven prescient.2. Financial derivatives have amplified the financial crisis far beyond the unavoidable troubles connected to the popping of the housing bubble. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has jurisdiction over futures, options and other derivatives connected to commodities. During the Clinton administration, the CFTC sought to exert regulatory control over financial derivatives. The agency was quashed by opposition from Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and, above all, Fed Chair Alan Greenspan. They challenged the agency's jurisdictional authority; and insisted that CFTC regulation might imperil existing financial activity that was already at considerable scale (though nowhere near present levels). Then-Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told Congress that CFTC proposals "cast a shadow of regulatory uncertainty over an otherwise thriving market."
http://www.stwr.org/...
Now this 'Wizard of Wall Street' is acting as if he was just an 'innocent by stander' - literally rewriting history, and blatantly lying as to his responsibility in the worst financial catastrophe and following 'Great Heist of 2008, where he and his pals cleaned up and left the American taxpayers in shambles.
The man is a fucking pig and should be in a cell in solitary confinement for the rest of his miserable life.
Robert Rubin, the former Clinton-era Treasury Secretary and noted champion of deregulation, told a New York City audience last night that "virtually nobody" -- himself included -- foresaw the financial meltdown.
In a discussion at the 92nd Street Y cultural center, Rubin touched on the financial crisis, Obama's economic policies and America's potential in the new global economy -- but not on financial reform or the deregulatory agenda of the 1990s. The former Citigroup director, gloomy about the country's short-term economic prospects, cautioned against taking too seriously some recent positive economic indicators -- such as the country's 5.9 percent growth last quarter.
Rubin, who has also served as chairman of Goldman Sachs, said that while he became concerned about market "excesses" in 2005 and 2006, he failed to take account of all of the factors that would coalesce into the crisis. During his time at Citigroup, Rubin reportedly pushed the financial behemoth to take riskier bets, including investing in the subprime mortgage market, which imploded in 2007 and instigated the crisis. Next month, Rubin will be grilled by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is investigating the causes of the economic slump, notes Bloomberg News.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
I'm always amazed when somebody like Rubin comes out and starts this total 'lying fest' and actually not only 'gets away with it,' but somehow Mr. Rubin seems to forget or not realize that every single financial website worth its weight in salt, has all the proof necessary to actually show (in documents, in evidence, in video - you name it) that 'shows' not only was Robert Rubin one of the 'top crooks and enablers' but that he ended up with jillions of dollars as a result of his own nefarious activities.
The Ponzi Scheme that Robert Rubin has going made Bernie Madoff's 'rip off' seem like nothing............only the media black out, never went after Rubin because 'Rubin' is one of the 'protected Goldman Sachs' Golden Boy Club Members.
Rubin had been touted as a possible appointee to a cabinet post for President Barack Obama. Rubin, alongside Austan Goolsbee and Paul Volcker, is one of Obama's economic advisers.
I wonder what kind of 'advise' Robert Rubin is giving President Obama these days? Well since absolutely 'nothing' in the way of any real reform has been placed into action since the financial meltdown, it appears that Mr. Rubin along with Treasurer Geithner and Larry Summers are still in the same 'risky venture' business, since now, that the government has figured out a way to use the 'taxpayers' to prop up the Millionaires Bailout Society in perpetuity, then these 'Wizards of Wall Street,' are continuing holding our entire nation 'hostage' as they allow the Economic Terrorism full rein.
So feel free Mr. Rubin to spew your lies, but unfortunately there is such a thing as the 'net roots' and we have the 'goods' on just how complicit and what a first class crooks you really are:
A new Citigroup scandal is engulfing Robert Rubin and his former disciple Chuck Prince for their roles in an alleged Ponzi-style scheme that's now choking world banking. Director Rubin and ousted CEO Prince - and their lieutenants over the past five years - are named in a federal lawsuit for an alleged complex cover-up of toxic securities that spread across the globe, wiping out trillions of dollars in their destructive paths.
Investor-plaintiffs in the suit accuse Citi management of overseeing the repackaging of unmarketable collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that no one wanted - and then reselling them to Citi and hiding the poisonous exposure off the books in shell entities.
The lawsuit said that when the bottom fell out of the shaky assets in the past year, Citi's stock collapsed, wiping out more than $122 billion of shareholder value. However, Rubin and other top insiders were able to keep Citi shares afloat until they could cash out more than $150 million for themselves in "suspicious" stock sales "calculated to maximize the personal benefits from undisclosed inside information," the lawsuit said.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/...
Rubin may have 'cashed out' but he isn't fooling anyone.
He's just another sleazy low life 'Pig at the Trough' who should have been hauled away, but instead is being protected by his 'friends' at the highest levels of our completely corrupt government.
Don't think you're fooling anyone Mr. Rubin. You're just another scumbag who 'ruined our nation' knowing exactly what you were doing, and no body believes your fucking lies.
Thanks.