Nassim Taleb Identifies 'The Teflon Don Of Wall Street'

Bloomberg Businessweek contributor William Cohan has a big feature on Robert Rubin on the magazine's website. In the piece, he interviews Nassim Taleb, who has some choice words for Rubin, President Clinton's former Treasury Secretary and former Citigroup executive. Here is what Taleb had to say: “Nobody on this planet represents more vividly the scam of the banking industry,” says Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan. “He made $120 million from Citibank, which was technically insolvent. And now we, the taxpayers, are paying for it.” Cohan continues: Nassim Nicholas Taleb doesn’t know Rubin personally. He admits that his antipathy, like that of so many Rubin critics, is fueled by symbolism. “He represents everything that’s bad in America,” he says. “The evil in one person represented. When we write the history, he will be seen as the John Gotti of our era. He’s the Teflon Don of Wall Street.” Taleb wants systemic change to prevent what he terms the “Bob Rubin Problem”—the commingling of Wall Street interests and the public trust—“so people like him don’t exist.” More