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News

Giuliani flunks school-voucher test
Instead of helping the poor, he aims to dynamite public education.
By Samuel G. Freedman
[05/12/99]

Why the Chinese embassy was bombed
A senior intelligence official says the CIA team in charge of choosing targets has no recent Belgrade experience.
By Jeff Stein
[05/12/99]

Refugees protest treatment by Macedonians
Kosovar Albanians are clashing with police as refugee camps reach their saturation point.
By Rob Mank
[05/12/99]

Miami's vice
Crack cocaine is almost dead in many cities, but immigrants, suburbanites and teenagers have kept it alive in South Florida.
By Art Levine
[05/11/99]

Cracked up
How did a drug whose addictive properties were once compared to potato chips become the scourge of America?
By Maia Szalavitz
[05/11/99]

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But when word finally came down Wednesday that Rubin was returning to the private sector, markets reacted with what has become their typical equanimity. The Dow mourned briefly, with a 200-point fall, before ending the day back above 11,000, not quite 26 points down for the day, while tech stocks rallied.

In short, Wall Street took the news of the departure of one of its own from Clinton's inner circle with little more than a sigh. The unflappable market simply went about its business.

"The markets didn't react because everybody knew this was coming," said Michael Murphy, founder of the California Technology Stock Letter. "He probably would have left a year ago if not for the impeachment stuff. But that would have been seen as bailing on the president."

Rubin will leave Washington July 4 and be replaced by his deputy, Lawrence Summers. Though early indications are that Summers will sail through the Senate confirmation process, there may be more skepticism on Wall Street.

Wednesday quickly turned into a Rubin lovefest among the overwhelming majority of political pols and market watchers alike. "Bob has been acclaimed as the most successful Treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton, and I think that acclaim is well deserved," Clinton said. "I will miss his cool head, steady hand and kind heart."

Greenspan eulogized Rubin as "one of the most effective secretaries of the Treasury in this nation's history." Even conservative Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, offered a backhanded compliment, saying of Rubin: "Of all the officials in the Clinton administration, he has had more credibility with me, and I think with Congress, than any other."

Even Robert Reich, who as Labor secretary during Clinton's first term was a consistent agitator from Clinton's left flank for lowering interest rates and increasing government spending, praised his former colleague. "I think he did a good job," Reich said of Rubin.

Reich and Rubin often clashed in the early years of the Clinton administration, with vastly divergent economic philosophies. Ultimately, Clinton sided with Rubin and Greenspan, and Reich left the White House to teach at Brandeis University and be a commentator on public radio.

Though he offered praise of Rubin's tenure at Treasury, Reich added there is an "unfinished agenda," in terms of Clinton's economic policy, to "expand the circle of prosperity so the working and lower class can share in this bounty," he said. "We should expand the earned income tax credit, raise the minimum wage and ... give everybody in the bottom half a chance to get on the escalator," of upward mobility.

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