Robert Rubin seemed an unusual choice to join the Clinton administration. His boss, Bill Clinton, won the presidency by running a populist campaign and Rubin, as co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, was hardly a populist. But the urbane, talented Rubin played an essential role in the new administration, first as the founding director of the National Economic Council, which he turned into a White House power center. Then, from 1995 to 1999, he was Treasury Secretary as the administration pressed China to make the economic reforms necessary for the U.S. to back its admission into the World Trade Organization and worked with China to manage the response to the Asian Financial Crisis. After leaving office and joining Citigroup as chairman of the board’s executive committee, his reputation took a hit for not foreseeing the real estate and financial problems that would soon engulf the bank. More recently, he has become a financial adviser and has played leading roles at the Council of Foreig
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