Interviews

Annelise Anderson
Associate Director, OMB, 1981-1983

Bert Carp
Deputy Assistant for Domestic Affairs for President Jimmy Carter, 1977-1981

Alan Cohen
Economist, Senate Budget Committee, 1983-1993
Senior Advisor, Dept. of Treasury, 1993-2001
Senior Budget Advisor, Senate Finance Committee, 2001-present

Tom Daschle
Senator (D-SD), 1987-2005

Christopher Edley
Associate Director, OMB,
1993-1995

John Hilley
White House, Director of Legislative Affairs, 1996-1998

William G. Hoagland
Staff Director, Senate Budget Committee, 1986-2003

Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Director, CBO, 2003-2005

James McIntyre
Director, Office of Management and Budget, 1977-1981

Jim Miller
Director, OMB, 1985-1988

Joseph Minarik
OMB, Associate Director for Economic Policy, 1993-2001

June O'Neill
CBO, Director, 1995-1999

Rudolph Penner
Director, CBO, 1983-1987

Robert Reich
Secretary of Labor, 1993-1997

Robert Reischauer
Director, CBO, 1989-1995

Alice Rivlin
Director, CBO, 1975-1983 Director, OMB, 1994-1996

Robert Rubin
Secretary of the Treasury, 1995-1999

Warren Rudman
Senator (R-NH), 1980-1993

James Sasser
Senator (D-TN), 1976-1994

Charles Schultze
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 1977-1981

John Sununu
White House Chief of Staff, 1989-1991

John Taylor
Member, Council of Economic Advisors, 1989-1991 Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs, 2001-2005

Robert Rubin

Robert Rubin was born in 1938. In 1966 he began working for the investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs. He retired from the firm in 1992, at which point he served as co-chairman of the board of co-senior partner. Rubin was a senior economic advisor to Governor Bill Clinton during his 1992 run for the presidency and continued to play a key role on Clinton’s transition team following his election. Rubin was appointed the first director of the National Economic Council in 1993 and then served as United States Treasury Secretary from January 1995 through July 1999. After departing the Clinton Administration, Rubin served as the chairman of Citigroup and then the chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In this interview, Secretary Rubin discusses the formulation of Clinton’s economic policy and his decision to focus on deficit reduction. The interview also covers key economic events in the 1990s, including the 1995 government shutdown and the emergence of budget surpluses near the end of the decade.

Read the oral history transcript