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.