Sunday, April 11, 2010

A Reputational 180 (Off Topic)

Frank Rich's NYT op-ed today - about the diminished reputations of Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin, among other topics - brings to mind Michael Hirsh's June 30, 1997 mash note of a Newsweek article (linked below). Hirsh's article was to the effect that Alan Greenspan's and Robert Rubin's contributions to the American economy were multiples greater than, say, the labor of 100 million Americans who get out of bed to go to work. Excerpts:

-" ...what so many of [Rubin's] admirers in Washington and on Wall Street now say - that he may be the best U.S. Treasury secretary in memory ... ."
-"Many think [Greenspan and Rubin] have got the world pretty much figured out ... . Wall Street vets both, Rubin and Greenspan have an unmatched feel for matching policy to market indicators."
-"No one can take credit for anything as vast and complex as a $7 trillion economy ... . But it's also natural to wonder who's running things back in the engine room. And increasingly, appreciative eyes are turning to Rubin and his monetary counterpart, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan."
-"The fact is, Rubin and Greenspan together constitute the most formidable economic management that the United States has had in memory, gushes Jeffrey Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management."

An ironic Hirsh observation in the article: "[c]learly, Rubin believes it's far too early to write his legacy.”

Hirsh's Newsweek article: www.newsweek.com/id/95894

Today's Rich New York Times op-ed: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11rich.html

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