By Robert E. Rubin

I discussed the equity market outlook for 2024 with several fellow advisers to an investment fund a few weeks ago. They were optimistic about the prospects of the U.S. economy achieving a soft landing. Like many Wall Street economists I speak to, they based their view on a conventional analysis of a range of economic factors, from Federal Reserve policy to consumer spending. I think the outlook is more complicated.

Interview on CNN’s Smerconish

Having learned in college that there are no certainties, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin realized that people need "to try to identify a number of possibilities, and then try to make judgments of the probabilities of each of those materializing."

By Robert E. Rubin and Rob Portman

The Barrister Apartments in downtown Cincinnati, slated to open early next year, are a housing policy success story. Financed with federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, it is the first investment in affordable housing in the city’s central business district in more than two decades.

By Robert E. Rubin

Robert Rubin has led both the US Treasury and Goldman Sachs, which gives him a rare perspective on interactions between the financial and political systems. His recent book The Yellow Pad lays out his approach to thinking and decision-making, drawing on those and other experiences from his life and career.

By Robert E. Rubin, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, and Michael Froman

In a conversation with two of his former chiefs of staff, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin discusses his decision-making process and how policymakers should think about economic issues including the national debt, trade, and inflation.

Q&A with Bob Davis and Robert E. Rubin

The Clinton-era Treasury Secretary and banker discusses why investors should steer away from China and the issues with linking trade and human rights.

By Robert E. Rubin

The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Chairman David Rubenstein interviewed Robert E. Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs, and author of the recently published book The Yellow Pad: Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World.

By Robert E. Rubin and Hank Paulson

From growing up in the Midwest to leading Goldman Sachs and then serving his country as Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson offers a unique point of view and a life experience unlike many Americans. With Straight Talk, Hank brings this experience to his conversations with the world’s prominent leaders and thinkers, exchanging a lifetime of stories and lessons from both the private and public sectors. Each episode reveals compelling viewpoints, topical discussion, and behind-the-scenes stories.

By The New York Times

The former Treasury secretary, whose new book is “The Yellow Pad,” says that Ken Auletta’s “The Underclass” convinced him that “trying to break the cycle of poverty through policy and through private efforts is not just right for moral reasons, but is enormously in the interest of all.”

By Robert E. Rubin

Robert Rubin speaks with CNN's Bianna Golodryga about decision-making, fiscal policy, banking, and the U.S. and global economies at the Council on Foreign Relations Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium.

By Robert E. Rubin

By now the scenario is familiar, but at the time it was unprecedented: House Republicans, having recently won a majority in the midterm elections, threatened to force the United States to default on its debt unless a Democratic president acceded to their demands.

By Robert E. Rubin

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, author of the new book "The Yellow Pad," and, perhaps most important, veteran of the debt ceiling wars, offers a commentary about this past week's debt ceiling showdown in Washington.

By Robert E. Rubin and Jacob J. Lew

If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he might update his famous aphorism: The only certainties in life are death, taxes — and partisanship. And right now, a fight that combines two of those certitudes is brewing in Washington.

Video with Greg Robb and Robert E. Rubin

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin doesn't see a soft landing for the economy.

By Robert E. Rubin and Jacob J. Lew

We both served as secretary of the Treasury, and we have been associated with economic policies that are fiscally responsible and invest in our future. It is our strong view that Congress should act this year to ease the financial strain on low-income families raising children and that these policies should be paid for in a package that reduces the deficit. This is not just morally right but is also a critical investment in our nation’s economic future.

By Robert E. Rubin

H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, are commonly framed as bills to reform our democracy. But they’re also key to our economic future.

By Peter R. Orszag, Robert E. Rubin, and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Orszag, Rubin, and Stiglitz outline a new fiscal framework that they argue would better equip policymakers to face deep uncertainties about future interest rates (which, they say, may not remain low forever), hard-to-predict global shocks, and climate risks.

By Robert E. Rubin and David Miliband

The coronavirus has hit the poorest the hardest, but until recently, they have mostly been in wealthy countries. Now, even as the pandemic continues to claim lives in high-income countries — and especially the United States — it’s spreading with ferocity in lower- and middle-income countries. The virus has infected at least 1.5 million people in Brazil and claimed more than 60,000 lives there. India ended June with around 600,000 cases; it started the month with just under 200,000.

By Robert E. Rubin

At a panel I recently moderated in New York about our country’s unsustainable fiscal outlook, someone asked a simple question: So what? Nothing bad has happened despite immense fiscal deterioration — our debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled in less than 20 years, from 33 percent in 2000 to 78 percent today, and is on course to reach nearly 100 percent in 10 years and continue rising — so why worry now?

By Robert E. Rubin

When I arrived at Harvard in 1956 as a freshman, I felt overwhelmed academically. Unlike many of my classmates who had gone to rigorous private schools, I graduated from a Florida public school that in those days rarely sent kids to elite colleges in the North. Even after four years of high school French, I couldn’t pass the exam to get out of the entry-level class at Harvard. In math, I was relegated to the remedial course.