|
Editorial Review Product 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.
From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more Customer Reviews (62) 
will miss this book...
i wasn't sure what to expect from this 400pg hard read, but since it had good references, i delved into it.
This book is amazing, in it's depth, honesty and insights nowhere else to find ;-) During the whole book Mr.Rubin comments various political and commercial events of his lifetime, from his perspective -- which is immensibly valuable and is the core motive of the book. He demonstrates his process of decision making, taking into account extensive side effects of many grades ahead, giving examples of analysis of these effects and then showing how he understands the dynamics of the whole system. Afterall, he shows us how he uses probabilities to assess the best options -- which he admits, not always to be found.
second, this book was educational also from historical point of view, since it rehearshes the major political events (such as financial crisises) of past decades, giving also an insight why things happend as happend.
third, what i valued is his objectivity -- a lot of space is given in the book to depict (objectively) opinions of others, which he than carefully dissects and puts into the context.
fourth, i was happy to learn about how economy works, and how it is intertvened with politics in many areas. the author gives large space to discuss trade-liberalization, effect of market-based economy and market-openness.
In some areas he gives a technical dissection of why crisises happend (fixed foreign currency against dollar causing foreign reserves exhaustion, weak monetary policies, ...) and also why the solution worked out.
fifth, there is a singificatn lessons about management -- of people, companies (from CEO/board perspective), sometimes to such a degree as how to call meetings and how to deal with difficult managerial sitations (like winning people over to your side, balancing various intersest-parts, ...).
And most importantly, the book is written in an enteraining, drama-like way.Sometimes it's just hard to put the book down.
Overally, i admire Mr.Rubin's integrity, intelligence and honesty demonstrated in this book. I learned much from him by reading his book.
A relaxing quick read
Relative to Irrational Exuberance, which received much acclaim, The New Financial Order was not given the same sort of thumbs up. I'm a bit biased having seen him speak and thinking that many of his ways of looking at the world are quite unique.A huge fan of Shiller, I was taken aback to find that the reviews of the book were very mixed.Of course i had to read it and have my own say.
Shiller's book which proposes a "New Financial Order" does in fact provide his preliminary thoughts on how that should look.He discusses several newer financial instruments with which he has significant involvement, including his housing indices, the user of swaps as climate hedging instruments, and the IMF's attempts to get developing countries to work harder to implement the use of such derivative instruments.
Where I think the book looses its steam is in the writing.Shiller's first book was really artful in its ability to coherently and orderly express irrational exuberance.In this regard, it was a single phenomenon that was introduced and explicated using examples throughout history.
This particular book attempts to show a future of risk management that is much broader in scope.As a result, the examples are from a multitude of places to the point of seeming almost random and off point.At once he is discussing derivative, swaps, and futures in the context of climate of multinationals and unemployment.At the same time he is showing historically what has existed in those nations.The transitions are just not smooth.
The meat of what he is saying was fantastic.It truly is the case that risk is evolving and the world is innovating to a place where the sheer number of identifiable risks that exist have increased dramatically.It definitively is the case that data allows us to measure and identify these risks in ways that never before were available.And Shiller absolutely points out an important change in the advent of financial instruments that have been created to meet these demands.He even begins to show methods in which capitalism to create markets which would improve income distribution.
However, he does it in a manner that is not nearly as organized as his first book.I think this may be why the critiques of the book miss both his major points and why this book is actually unique for this time.I have to doc it points for style and suggest those that are avid fans to keep his main points in mind and dig through the pages to find the gems that Shiller is attempting to articulate.
The 10 most unethical people in business
Robert Rubin was chosen by Marketwatch as one of the The 10 most unethical people in business (Jan 15 2009)He left Citigroup where "he has been awarded more than $126 million in cash and stock over the past decade"
NYT (Jan 9,2009)
Useful historical document for understanding Panic of 2008
Now that the emperor has no clothes this will be a useful book for understanding the hubris of men like Rubin that led directly to the Panic of 2008.Self-serving from front to back.
A book on decision making and policy making.Excellent.
This book is by former President Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin.Robert Rubin, was previous to his role at Treasury, co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, a position he rose to through the ranks over about twenty years.His specialty was risk arbitrage, involving multimillion decision making on placing bets or investments on whether or not a merger or acquisition would ultimately go through (or close) or not.
No matter what you think of President Clinton or his administration.Robert Rubin was a key decision maker in the economic sphere.He participated and directed policmaking in the Asian financial crisis and financial crisis in Latin America, etc.
The book is about his views on decisionmaking and the process of policymaking and is excellent.He discusses his view about "optionality" and the complexity of decisionmaking under uncertainty.
The book is excellent and I highly recommend it if you are interested in decisionmaking, policmaking, economic policy, Wall Street, and leadership.
... Read more |
