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| SECRETARY RUBIN RESIGNS | |
 May 12, 1999
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After serving as Secretary of the Treasury for more than four years, Robert Rubin has announced he is leaving his post to return to private life. Rubin has been credited with many of the economic policies that have spurred growth during his tenure.
--Posted 5:10 pm EDT |
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"It is very hard to leave, because I feel very deeply committed to this administration, to the people with whom I've worked, to the issues with respect to which so much has been accomplished," Rubin said of his time in the Clinton administration. "But this almost six and a half years has been all-consuming, and I think it is time for me to go home to New York and to do whatever I'm going to do next." President Clinton announced Rubin's departure this afternoon at a Rose Garden ceremony. "He built a spirit and a belief that we could actually make this economy what it ought to be for our people," Clinton said. "That will be his enduring achievement, along with the fact that everybody believed as long as he was secretary of the Treasury, nothing bad could happen." The influential Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, also spoke highly of Rubin's work. In a statement released today, Greenspan said, "He has been one of the most effective Secretaries of the Treasury in this nation's history." The stock market dropped some 200 points immediately following the announcement, but rebounded and by the end of the day closed slightly higher. Economists and investment bankers said Rubin had played a key role in the explosive economic growth during the Clinton administration. "[Rubin] has led us through the global crisis," David Jones, chief economist at Aubrey G. Lanston and Co. in New York, told Reuters. "We've seen a golden age of development under his leadership. It will be difficult to replace him." Rubin, who first headed the National Economic Council before taking the top spot at Treasury, urged the fiscal discipline and budget cuts that set the nation on the path to a balanced budget. Before joining the Clinton administration, Rubin had spent 26 years as an investment banker at the prestigious Goldman Sachs and Co. There he amassed considerable wealth, estimated to be worth a $26 million. The secretary never quite committed to the Washington political world. He kept a suite in a downtown hotel and commuted home to New York almost every weekend. During the ceremony to honor Robert Rubin, President Clinton plans to announce the nomination of Deputy Secretary Lawrence Summers to replace him. "Rarely has any individual been so well prepared to become secretary of the Treasury," Clinton said. "He has the rare ability to see the world that is taking shape and the skill to help to bring it into being." Summers has worked closely with Rubin during his tenure and in the last year and a half he headed efforts to stabilize the Asian economic crisis. "Fortunately, the President has chosen Larry Summers to succeed [Sec. Rubin]," Greenspan said. "He is a person of extraordinary talent and judgment, who will continue the important work Bob Rubin initiated." Stuart Eizenstat, the undersecretary of state, was slated to replace Summers as second in command at the Treasury Department. Eizenstat has worked on several international economic issues, including Swiss banks' complicity in the confiscation of Jewish assets during World War Two.
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