What Exactly Did Robert Rubin Do To Earn $115 Million?

WSJ is asking:

Was Mr. Rubin to be primarily a member of the board overseeing management, or a part of the management reporting to the board? Things became even murkier when Messrs. Weill and Reed described Mr. Rubin's job: "Bob will participate in strategic managerial and operational matters of the Company, but will have no line responsibilities."

As a great man of finance, Mr. Rubin would be paid CEO money -- a total of $115 million since 1999, not including stock options -- but without having to run a business or be accountable for the results. For years, journalists tried to figure out exactly what Mr. Rubin's job was at Citigroup, and perhaps even his fellow Citi directors weren't entirely sure.

Then WSJ reaches the only conclusion possible. He was the fixer. As former Treasury Secretary and former head of Goldman Sachs, he's the man with the insider hook-up:

Mr. Rubin was reportedly critical to securing the latest federal bailout of Citi -- $20 billion in preferred shares plus taxpayers taking on most of the risk in a $306 billion portfolio of dodgy assets. This is on top of the $25 billion in Citi preferred shares that taxpayers bought in October. Giving Mr. Rubin the benefit of the doubt that he is the fixer who delivered the federal cash, this could make his paycheck appear more reasonable to many shareholders.

Former Treasury Secretary and former Goldman CEO Rubin cut a deal with current Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson for billions in taxpayer money and guarantees. Cute, eh?

Oh, to be the head of Goldman Sachs and a Treasury Secretary, this is a club you want to get into.

Citi wasn't stupid paying Rubin what they paid him. That's how insiders operate. Many, many years ago I worked for a money manager of sorts, who had this high powered white shoe law firm on his payroll. Month after month, he sent this firm a pretty big check. I never saw any of them and they certainly weren't doing any work for the firm. At the time, I didn't understand it. Why was my man sending this firm this huge check, which it appeared he had been doing for years? Then one day a knock came on the door and my man appeared to be in, shall we say, a little trouble. My man called the law firm he had been sending checks to for years, and they came over and sat down with the people who knocked on the door, all like true gentlemen, the white shoe lawyers all wore suspenders and horn rimmed glasses, and they all discussed this "misunderstanding" .

Something that usually doesn't go away very easily, completely went away. The door knockers went to knock on other doors of those who didn't have a downtown law firm on retainer.

That's what Rubin is there for at Citi, so that if a problem arises, he can sit down like a gentlemen, solve sticky problems and rape taxpayers when necessary.