Citigroup CEO Resigns, Replaced by Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
November 5th, 2007“Such a tight relationship between politicians and business in the making of policy has probably not existed in the United States since the time of the “robber barons” in the late nineteenth century.”
—The Democratic Facade by Daniel Hellinger and Dennis R. Judd Brooks
To understand the nature of power in the United States, one has to look at the subgovernment—the network of iron triangles, revolving doors and corporate/government rat lines.
Americans sometimes get their knickers in a twist over the separation of church and state.
But what about the separation of Wall Street and state?
Not so much.
This Rubin situation at Citigroup is just the latest example of the gruesome blur of interests that I call the American Corporate State. Recall, of course, that Henry “Hank” Paulson, the current U.S. Treasury Secretary, is a former CEO of a little mom and pop operation called Goldman Sachs.
So, we’ve got the former head of the most powerful financial black ops firm in the world as the sitting Treasury Secretary and a former Treasury Secretary taking the reigns of Citigroup, one of the very largest corporations in the world—which also happens to be in deep, DEEP trouble.
How are these pricks going to pull the fat out of the fire this time?
Via: Yahoo / AP:
Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company’s billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, resigned Sunday and is being replaced as chairman by former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin.
The nation’s largest banking company announced Prince’s widely expected departure in a statement following an emergency meeting of its board. Citi also said Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a Member of the Citi management and operating committees, would serve as interim CEO. Rubin, a former co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., has served as the chair of Citi’s executive committee, and it was also expected he would take a greater role in leading the company.
In a separate statement, Citi, which took a hit of $6.5 billion from asset writedowns and other credit-related losses in the third quarter, said it would take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion in writedowns.
“It was the honorable course, given the losses we are now announcing,” Rubin said of Prince’s resignation in an interview with The Associated Press.
Prince AlWaleed bin Talal loses $4 bil.