R. Glenn Hubbard Advocated Policies That Led to Financial Crash
One of my favorite documentaries is "Inside Job" the 2010 Oscar-winning film in which the root causes of the world-wide 2008 banking and financial crash are discussed.
This morning, I read the following detailed New York Times Business Section article in which "Romney's Go-To Economist" is profiled and I immediately recognized the lead character, R. Glenn Hubbard.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Mr. Hubbard was the Chief Economic Advisor to President Bush and was a strong advocate of the deregulation that led to the economic crash that is still plaguing the world. As Dean of Columbia Business School, Hubbard was also quite cozy with many of the financial firms involved in the financial crash, receiving income as an outside advisor.
The NYT article itself confirms Mr. Hubbard's advocacy of deregulation and his cronyism:
Mr. Hubbard also brings to this job a certain amount of baggage. He appeared briefly in “Inside Job,” a scathing and Oscar-winning 2010 documentary about the financial crisis. The film has a segment about high-profile professors who blessed many of the financial instruments that led to the fiasco. Enter Mr. Hubbard, who is presented as a leading thinker far too cozy with industries he ought to be assessing at a critical distance.
“You have three more minutes,” he tells an interviewer who is pressing for the names of his consulting clients. And then, as his face contorts with rage, he adds, “Give it your best shot.”
Here's a short clip from the documentary that is referenced above:
http://www.youtube.com/...
The NYT article continues re. Mr. Hubbard's role today:
Mr. Hubbard has helped to draft many of Mr. Romney’s economic and tax policies, and, at least implicitly, lent his imprimatur to others he did not conceive. The benefits are potentially mutual. If Mr. Romney is elected, Mr. Hubbard is considered a strong candidate for the job of Treasury secretary and even, after Ben S. Bernanke’s term expires, chairman of the Federal Reserve…
After having watched "Inside Job", I find it inconceivable that one of the major Presidential candidates is close to someone as despicable as R. Glenn Hubbard. But apparently Mitt Romney has made him his top economic advisor.