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Publisher's description: Robert Rubin was sworn in as the seventieth U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in January 1995 in a brisk ceremony attended only by his wife and a few colleagues. As soon as the ceremony was over, he began an emergency meeting with President Bill Clinton on the financial crisis in Mexico. This was not only a harbinger of things to come during what would prove to be a rocky period in the global economy; it also captured the essence of Rubin himself--short on formality, quick to get into the nitty-gritty. From his early years in the storied arbitrage department at Goldman Sachs to his current position as chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup, Robert Rubin has been a major figure at the center of the American financial system. He was a key player in the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. With In an Uncertain World, Rubin offers a shrewd, keen analysis of some of the most important events in recent American history and presents a clear, consistent approach to thinking about markets and dealing with the new risks of the global economy. Rubin's fundamental philosophy is that nothing is provably certain. Probabilistic thinking has guided his career in both business and government. We see that discipline at work in meetings with President Clinton and Hillary Clinton, Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers, Newt Gingrich, Sanford Weill, and the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. We see Rubin apply it time and again while facing financial crises in Asia, Russia, and Brazil; the federal government shutdown; the rise and fall of the stock market; the challenges of the post-September 11 world; the ongoing struggle over fiscal policy; and many other momentous economic and political events. With a compelling and candid voice and a sharp eye for detail, Rubin portrays the daily life of the White House-confronting matters both mighty and mundane--as astutely as he examines the challenges that lie ahead for the nation. Part political memoir, part prescriptive economic analysis, and part personal look at business problems, In an Uncertain World is a deep examination of Washington and Wall Street by a figure who for three decades has been at the center of both worlds.… (more)
User reviews
Title: In An Uncertain World
Author: Robert Rubin and Jacob Weisberg
“In An Uncertain World” is certainly a timely book. Robert Rubin, most well-known as Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration, has collaborated with Jacob Weisberg to write an account of his life
Coming from a privileged background, his father is an attorney, he progressed through the public school system., not with any great distinction. Applying to Princeton University he was turned down. With the help of some good connections he was admitted to Harvard. There his academic skills improved and he achieved Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Summa Cum Laude
He wrote the dean of Princeton to tell him that in spite of his opinion he had proved his ability. The dean replied that it was his custom to reject a certain number of qualified students so that Harvard might have a few.
The prime note in Rubin’s philosophy is akin to the famous Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty. Heisenberg, a noted physicist, claimed that nothing could be known in absolute terms, only as a matter of probability. Rubin sees things in terms of probability also.
His apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs, a large financial institution in New York City, was in the arbitrage department. This esoteric area of high finance is spelled out in some detail in order to illustrate Rubin’s use of analytical decision-making. By attempting to quantify the several considerations necessary in making buy-sell choices involving huge amounts of money, he weighs the probabilities of risk vs. reward.
It was interesting to me to read of his development within the financial world as he learned from the “old hands” and progressed up the ladder of success. Broadening his horizons, his wife Judy was in the theatrical world, he became involved in community activities and this eventually led him Into political activity.
The book’s first chapter tells, in detail, how he and his assistant Larry Summers, together with Alan Greenspan, handled In the Mexican monetary crisis. Their critical evaluation of the consequences of allowing Mexico to default led to the action, on the part of the Clinton administration, to support Mexico to the tune of $25 billion.
Rubin is didactic, sometimes to a monotonous degree, in describing his financial dealings and some of the quandaries that troubled the markets at times. From the blurb inside the book- “ with a compelling and candid voice and a sharp eye for detail, Rubin portrays the daily life of the White House, confronting matters, both mighty and mundane, as astutely as he examines the challenges that lie ahead for the nation. Part political memoir in part prescriptive economic analysis, and part personal look at business problems, “In An Uncertain World” is a deep examination of Washington and Wall Street by a figure who for three decades has been the center of both worlds.’
A very thoughtful and incisive look into some of the complexities most of us are blissfully ignorant of.
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