Citigroup director Robert Rubin, Clinton's treasury secretary, fields questions about the economy from Al Hunt of The Wall Street Journal.

Robert Rubin, U.S. treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, spoke at SAIS on Dec. 1 at the start of a book tour for his new memoir and to discuss the past, current and future state of the nation's economy. Al Hunt, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, moderated the discussion, which covered such topics as NAFTA, globalization, the 1990s financial crisis in Mexico and Asia, tax cuts, job outsourcing and the Clintons.

Rubin's memoir, In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington (Random House, $35), was released on Nov. 18 and currently ranks 20th on The New York Times' best-seller list and 65th on Amazon.com's.

The predominantly serious, but oftentimes playful, discussion between Rubin and Hunt, who spoke at the 2001 undergraduate commencement for the Krieger and Whiting schools, led to several eruptions of laughter from the roughly 350 in attendance at SAIS' Nitze Building in Washington, D.C. One such moment came when Hunt asked Rubin, who is currently director and executive committee chairman of financial conglomerate Citigroup, whom he would endorse among the field of Democratic Party candidates for the Oval Office. "I can tell you with a strong level of certainty," Rubin said wryly, "that you won't leave here with an answer to that particular question."
— Greg Rienzi

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