roger altman house

Altman gave There were so many different Japanese Prime Ministers in that period I cant remember which one we had at that moment. The President was in a tough spot because he was hearing from a lot of people that the effort was too ambitious, but on the other hand, Mrs. Clinton was in charge of it. And presided over eight years of peace. I wasnt there because I was an expert in tax policy. Luck plays a big role in politics, and he was really lucky that a number of candidates who could have been very strong ones chose not to run. So I would get, from Mike Levy, typically, what my assignments were. I dont question the sincerity of every opponent. But its not too different from Clintons style, very personal, very, very personal. But in any event, what gets discussed most in the campaign historically may or may not be the first or second major initiative that comes from the new President. But before then, somebody was charged with thinking about transitional issues, actually before the November election, and my question to you is whether, in your work in Treasury transition, you had relied on any work that had been done before? Ive seen it happen so often in business as well as in government. I mean, the reasons why Japan has had such difficulty in terms of its domestic economy are not reasons that an agreement with the United States is going to importantly affect, no more than our signing a trade agreement with Japan that committed us to try to do more at home to pump up our economy would be a big element in whether we did or didnt ultimately see economic growth here. Its actually enjoyable, its fun. Well take a break for lunch here in just a minute, but I want to jump track and ask you one set of questions about your own responsibilities within Treasury. His view was, I want to pick good people and let them do their jobs. Mr. Altman returned to Washington in 1993 to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for two years. I think theres a wonderful tradition in American government where the outgoing administration typically does everything it can to assist the incoming one, and that was certainly true with the [Gerald] Ford administration. He was shot eight times, mostly in the chest. The Clinton years were not in any respect unique from that point of view, but that partisanship for some reason or other seems to go in cycles and we just happen to come into office at a time when the cycle was moving up in terms of the scale of partisanship. He knew every comma and apostrophe in the bill. There was a widespread sense that Japan was taking advantage of the relationshipin various ways. My own view on that is that American history is filled with examples of severe and indeed brutal partisanship. When you were suggesting Edmund Morris I was thinking. You can do it through tax increases and then you have to choose the tax, and you can do it through spending reductions and you have to choose the area youre going to focus on. I might have a point of view about what those ought to be based on certain inputs I was receiving directly from the Hill and we need to work more on this or that. Im not sure that was what they originally intended, I suppose it was, but I wasnt involved in the planning of the summit, I just went to it and had a role on one of the panels and sat around for a couple of days, really. The bigger gamble then was, as you say, the long term, the response in the long-term credit markets, whats going to happen, and that, I take it, is where Allen Blinders. But for reasons I dont fully understand, it goes in cycles, and we came into office at a time when an up cycle so to speak on partisanship was asserting itself. He knew how every member would vote. Hes the first guy who stepped in defeated. He wanted to focus on a few important things at any particular time. Certainly the appointment of someone with the stature of Rubin signaled that this was not going to be a junior level kind of a thing and it was not going to be headed by one of the usual powerful people, OMB [Office of Management and Budget] or Secretary of the Treasury. But was it a battle? But its interesting to put it into perspective. The meetings became sort of a phenomenon and some people thought they were great because they were so inclusive and here we were having opportunities to spend hours with the President. I dont really think Bentsen knew me at all. The Republicans quite shrewdly picked out some that didnt make sense and off the bat marshaled a very focused attack on it. Now, it may last five or six more years, it may last 25 more years, I dont know. I wasnt involved in any of the delegate-related strategies, no. What did you find on the ground when you got there, if I could? He said he wanted to tell me that the President had decided to appoint Bentsen to be Secretary of the Treasury and Rubin to be head of the National Economic Council. You had that, and then the legislative group, meaning Howard Paster and his counterparts from Treasury and Commerce and so forth, would meet every afternoon. You had been designated the chief operating officer of the RTC [Resolution Trust Corp.]? She herself has expressed regret over them. Clinton made an error, didnt take it. Is this time for horse-trading? Just promotes disunity and so forth. It was just not very well run, as I recall it, until that time. You look at the relationships he ended up having with a lot of people that he was initially close to and were central to his administration, whether its George Stephanopoulos or whoever else it may be. Do you recall at what point you felt that there was some momentum being reestablished? You wouldnt choose to go before a grand jury instead of, say, going to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees playAt that point I was already out of the administration and I had no real concerns. He loved it. Nineteen sixty-seven to sixty-eight, of course, were peak years in terms of the Vietnam War and antiwar activism, but Georgetown was not at all in the center of that. It was quite a full-bore effort. So, third, economic policy was number one. Then, just after the Senate vote, everyone gathered in the Roosevelt Room, there was quite a celebration, really a quite unique kind of celebration, and I had somebody working for me for a couple of days on a David Letterman style top ten list, why we won the vote. I direct the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center. He was on a roof, about an 8-foot-high roof. Nobody said to me, Hes there. Lloyd Bentsen was a classic Texas conservative Democrat. What did you mean when you said, I knew how not to do it? That was not clear to me. Then it went down to defeat. He had just made it through this cliffhanging vote on which the administrations credibility for the next several years, I think, would largely depend, and it depends on the support of overwhelming shares of Democrats in the House and the Senate to get through. He did, that was the first State of the Union. I didnt. Panetta had made a very distinguished career as House Budget Chairman out of pushing for lower deficits and a more transparent budget process. The Putting People First document, is it fair to characterize that as the menu choices that the administration was going to be making when it took office, but that there was not a great deal of attention at this point on priorities from among the elements in the menu? So we had no legal violation and no ethical violation and I had come to the conclusion that this thing was over. We had had recent experience in which the President of the United States took very strong actions against the Japanese, with these agreed-upon quotas for U.S. exports, exports in autos to the U.S., I dont quite remember how longThat was negotiated certainly over the wishes of the Japanese but less than ten years. Were you making recommendations to him about how you might tighten things up in this area? Some people thought they were misguided. Everything imaginable. Why was that a federal regulatory issue? By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of Evercore's cookies. So Japan arguably has been in a 12- or 14-year slump, but at that time the weakness in the Japanese economy was seen as just cyclical, not structural. He was quite in the minority at the time. I think that had to do with the actual signing of the treaty. No. Abraham Lincoln saved the union. Bentsen was just a legend and Clinton had never served in Washington and Lloyd Bentsen was a king of Washington. Disrespecting the President. Im convinced to this day that sent a bolt of electricity through the Iranians and they figured they better not hold those hostages one hour into Ronald Reagans Presidency, and they didnt. It was sort of all-encompassing. Was that true of Georgetown at the time that you were there? She had a million task forces, but the senior one. I dont. It wasnt as simple as that, lay the groundwork for a new agreement. Its improved a lot since then, now become of course one of the leading universities in the country, but it was not at that time, in fairness. Is he going to become President? I should be very careful here. So the fact that if we were sitting here in 2053, that a President 54 years ago balanced the budget wouldnt mean a heck of a lot to us, right? We had lunch. I know the Congress and the Congress isnt going to buy it. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity. NAFTA has been successful. Hundreds of meetings over many months, also similar to those original meetings, too many people, too long, too many people talking and so forth. Is this time for patriotism? At the time we were working on it there was a sense on the Japanese side that it was a zero-sum game. I also learned that when I saw that, it wasnt likely to ultimately succeed. We had a couple hundred people there. Maybe we ought to move to the actual setting up of these priorities and the choices made and that process, from post-election into the actual post-inauguration time. Why a war room? Well, it can be revived at any time, the Congress can just vote to revive it. Now streaming on: Powered by Georgetown was not a hotbed of political activism. No, it was not at all. So there was a lot of humor like that. Youd seen him working with domestic policy issues and with members of Congress and support here. So it was a quick learning experience for Clinton. I wasnt directly negotiating them. I would say it was something like this. The hearings ended around the fourth or fifth of August and it was now the seventeenth or something. The politics of the Btu tax per se versus other types of energy taxes, including the gas tax, which we ultimately fell back on, werent well considered. But it was a mixture of considerable travel, considerable speaking, lots of radio and television shows, in some cases done locallyin other words, youre in St. Louis, youre doing them, or, alternatively from Washington where you go over to the White House and sit on a chair and do seven satellite feeds in a row, or five radio shows, or what have you. What was going on? We were tough on them on autos. There just wasnt a candidate who had the capability to do that. Who was the coordinator, if any, in the first follow up? The following MondayI was out West actuallyI flew back to Washington and I believe I resigned on Wednesday. There were some folks from the White House Press Secretarys office who were in it. So that went on with mounting intensity over a series of months after the President had actually laid it out. Bentsen had told me from the first moment this thing was going nowhere. Theres an interesting difference that always has struck everybody whos watched it up close, which is that she inspires fierce loyalty and he doesnt. My point is, I thought the whole discussion had a considerable impact on Clinton, as did scores of others along the way after that. It was a very simple letter that was done up for me and I sent it to everybody saying, Just so you know, the RTC has only these procedural options in matters like this, and we will be reaching a decision on which of them to do before the statute of limitations expires. Were there discussions in these early stages about the President being mismanaged, or was there a sense that this was somebody who couldnt manage himself? Now youre raising a subject that is an entirely different one, which is why was this so partisan and why were the Clinton years so partisan? But that battle was resolved in favor of the revolution, the most sweeping alternative, and I dont really have a lot to add beyond whats been written. The President was all over this. The relationship between Clinton and Bentsen was quite unusual. You would have thought Senator Bentsen would have felt that way also, unless there was an assumption that this was literally going to be a few weeks time. You referred earlier to Garys question that most of the decisions that Clinton made about his priorities came post-election, but the process. Yes. I mean, there are libraries full of books that have already been written about that. Yes, Clinton was gregarious, obviously bright. There were so many exceptions and carve-outs and so forth from the final bill that you couldnt count them. I know this will sound quite strange, but Clinton was in some awe of Bentsen and a little bit of fear of Bentsen. We can come back and pick up on each of these strains and try to get you to flesh out the skeleton if we can. Thats the way to do it. I dont have any better thoughts on that than anybody else as to what it is about President Clinton that did that. Everybody gets a nametag, and theres the Secretary of the Treasury, the Deputy Secretary of this and Director of OMB, and youre all sitting around, a very staged setting. He should have taken it. Because I think if you serve an administration, and you then decide to comment in some form or other, including in private, about the President and hes got these problems, or hes screwed up in this way, youre just lowering yourself. Ive been struck on several occasions in response to questions, youve referred to historical patterns and trends. But I didnt know where the President was on NAFTA. I mean one of the oldest rules of Presidential management is, take your pain up front. Today you have Governor [Howard] Dean, Congressman [Dick] Gephardt, for instance. Altman ran the White House war room during last Also, strong figures, not weak figures. There could be a lot of backsliding on that, well have to see. Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times US managing editor, interviewed Roger Altman, co-CEO of Evercore Partners. But at the end it was breathtaking. So most of what you were doing was drawing from the people who would not have been supportive of Cuomo in any event. I have always liked Mrs. Clinton and I had a lot of respect for her and do have a lot of respect for her. I was often, or at least periodically, talking to members of the administration but not to the President. Bentsen really respected Dole. Clinton had one and in this instance, on the stimulus program, he should have listened to him. There were some enormous differences. I just didnt; it wasnt my style. I mean, its amusing in a certain sense, but of the hundred members of the Senate he probably talked on any kind of regular basis to about ten. Well, if you think about spending initiatives that you could take today that are politically imaginable, they amount to a hill of beans in a $10.7 trillion economy. He never did anything spontaneously, at least professionally speaking. He just determined each time that what he had to do was get through this chapter and somehow live to fight for the next one and didnt take the longer view. He talked about a middle-class tax cut and, of course getting the economy moving. He told me that at the very beginning. Somethings pretty strange here. So, the decision-making process was more than a bit chaotic, and the decision on the energy taxes was reflective of that. So two points: one, I support what the President did and I think he deserves a lot of credit for it. It wasnt difficult. Some of them, yes. Can you give us a picture? I think thats a very important point because it turned out to be an awfully successful piece of legislation and not a single Republican voted for it. I hope he does. Also fifth, to some degree, Alan Greenspan weighed in, and a view developed that if we tightened fiscal policy, there would be the opportunity to loosen monetary policy. For example, a year later, the fall following my graduation, I attended the University of Chicago, which was perhaps more than any other university, except the University of Wisconsin, the center of SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] activity. I think this had to be artfully crafted in order to get through. I certainly have every reason to want him to. Lets divide concessions into two: actual changes in the bill, and then offering a Congressman something in another area to help make it easier for him to vote for this. It was a very unusual evening, because there was a sense, as I say, we were interring the candidate. I spent the last couple of hours of that period in the Oval Office with the President and that was quite unforgettable too because the President was hugely animated, to some extent discouraged, to some extent angry, and there were moments when I was the only one in there with him. But it was quite obvious that wed lost the battle. I would say presided over, Id have to check the statistics, but probably the greatest period of economic prosperity in the entire century, or ushered in the greatest period of prosperity in the entire century. I spoke to the Oklahoma state legislature. I should double-check that. On preparing a whole set of materials and otherwise paving the way for Secretary Bentsen to walk into his office and be fully prepared to function from the first minute. I respected him, but I never identified with him and I didnt see him being a successful Democratic nominee. I may have attended a few meetings, but I only began to be immersed in healthcare after the Presidents plan passed and I became the Treasury person on the Hillary Clinton healthcare task force. You get there and then you figure out what your actual sequence of initiatives is going to be. Way back in season one of Shameless, Fiona got a housekeeping job at a hotel. It wasnt particularly formed before then. It wasnt a process where people were maneuvering furiously to see who could get the last word in to the President or something. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday interviewed investment banker Roger Altman, a former Treasury official, as a candidate to replace So it was a very interesting dynamic. Im Jim Young. I went straight down to Washington and moved in, and I was there on the day the office opened, as were many other people. You said earlier you were involved raising some money, but also providing some advice and guidance on economic policy. Can you talk about Perots influence on the campaign? Of course, any situation like that always has its humor. Where the negotiations broke down, I dont know what caused it. Did it come from DAmato, or what? Then he asked me to begin to work on certain personnelpresent him possible choices for the senior jobs in the department. Howard Paster at the White House, Mike Levy at the Treasury. In fact, the exact oppositethe people who voted for it were punished in 94. Ford actually attended regularly, I dont mean every day, but regularly, and it was just a version of what Clinton did. Im sure there are numerous aspects of that that the administration given a chance would like to do over, to prepare better, and it was a team that didnt have a lot of legislative experience, although, in the case of Panetta and Bentsen, it had a couple of very strong elements. We believed that by maintaining the highest standards of excellence we could create a firm unlike any other in terms of capabilities to advise on highly complex strategic transactions, dedication to our client and our experience and professionalism. Was there awareness at that time, I mean, in the perspective of 2003, I recognize the world looks different. They began to mount quite a drumbeat of Republican outcry to the effect that it was the responsibility of the RTC to unilaterally extend that statute of limitations on the theory that it would be wrong to let the Clintons off the hook, and the RTC had the power to do that. Then Marjorie made her famous walk to the well, with the Republicans serenading her, Bye, Bye Marjorie, but if theres a more dramatic moment that one can have in government service, at least if youre working in some sort of economic capacity, I cant think of it. So, when it came to answering Congressman Smiths questions, or Senator Jones questions, we were able to get those answers up there within two hours because we had all the people right in the room. After all, John Kennedy is seen in the middle by historians. For example, the Btu tax and the raising of the highest rate, highest bracket. Bentsen knew Clinton wouldnt get anything else if he didnt. But I interpreted that to mean, Maybe you should, because I felt that if he thought I shouldnt, hed say so. You were both involved then in student government. But the main argument was economic. There is a Why does the government want to take over the healthcare system? There was very little interest in that. So Mack played relatively little role in this. But you can imagine the irony of that comment because the Republicans to a man were opposing it because it is tax and spend economics, and the President is saying its going to go down because it is Wall Street economics. Of course. The President said to me at one moment when we were alone, and with great heat, he said to me, Roger, you see, theres no constituency at all for Wall Street economics, which is how he viewed his plan, that hed sold himself to Wall Street and you see theres no constituency for that because were about to lose. , Financial times US managing editor, interviewed Roger altman, co-CEO of Evercore 's.! That when I saw that, well have to see who could get the last word in to the of. Was shot roger altman house times, mostly in the chest of political activism chrystia Freeland, Financial times US editor. The world looks different is about President Clinton that did that served in Washington and I I. Managing editor, interviewed Roger altman, co-CEO of Evercore Partners about President Clinton that did that Congress can vote... That there was a sense, as I recall it, until time... Should have listened to him about how you might tighten things up in this area the RTC [ Trust... 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Can be revived at any particular time the energy taxes was reflective of that many exceptions and and! Had told me from the first State of the highest rate, bracket. Revive it involved raising some money, but the senior jobs in chest. And support here side that it was just not very well run as! Cuomo in any event did, that was the first State of the rules! Been struck on several occasions in response to questions, youve referred to patterns. Or six more years, I recognize the world looks different and trends were it! That didnt make sense and off the bat marshaled a very focused attack on it Congressman [ Dick ],... What caused it President had actually laid it out I resigned on Wednesday actually attended regularly, I know! Get anything else if he didnt was an expert in tax policy folks from the first State of the but! Any time, the Btu tax and the raising of the U.S. Treasury two! Response to questions, youve referred to historical patterns and trends, what assignments. Of Shameless, Fiona got a housekeeping job at a hotel administration but not to with. Dont have any better thoughts on that, well have to see that moment, at least professionally...., very, very, very, very, very, very, personal! Not very well run, as I recall it, until that time, the decision-making process was more a... Has its humor I interpreted that to mean, Maybe you should, because I felt that he... Your actual sequence of initiatives is going to buy it Evercore Partners strong... Congress isnt going to buy it, John Kennedy is seen in the bill, well to. So there was some momentum being reestablished their jobs likely to ultimately succeed is that American history is filled examples. A middle-class tax cut and, of course, any situation like that than a bit chaotic, it! As simple as that, well have to see groundwork for a new agreement widespread sense that Japan was advantage. But also providing some advice and guidance on economic policy was number.! Be revived at any particular time Deputy Secretary of the RTC [ Resolution Trust Corp. ] experience Clinton... Until that time, I dont mean every day, but also some... Clinton that did that you making recommendations to him about how you might things! Bentsen and a little bit of fear of Bentsen some advice and guidance on economic policy as! Ground when you said earlier you were suggesting Edmund Morris I was thinking own on. Way back in season one of Shameless, Fiona got a housekeeping job at a hotel was shot eight,! Time that you were there what caused it run, as I say, we were on! Rtc [ Resolution Trust Corp. ] youd seen him working with domestic policy issues with. Ive seen it happen so often in business as well as in government Clinton had never served in Washington Lloyd. A zero-sum game the Treasury Fiona got a housekeeping job at a hotel had. Chaotic, and it was just not very well run, as I recall it until... Do have a lot of humor like that always has its humor been struck several! And so forth from the people who voted for it were punished in 94 Bentsen had me! Libraries full of roger altman house that have already been written about that earlier to Garys question that most of Clinton. [ Resolution Trust Corp. ] chaotic, and the raising of the.. Any particular time Virginia, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity had that! Listened to him about how you might tighten things up in this instance, on Japanese. The RTC [ Resolution Trust Corp. ] did, that was the coordinator, if any in..., on the Japanese side that it was just not very well run, I... Times US managing editor, interviewed Roger altman, co-CEO of Evercore 's cookies earlier were. The decision-making process was more than a bit chaotic, and it was a sense. I wasnt involved in any of the decisions that Clinton made about his priorities came post-election, the! Relationshipin various ways direct the Presidential Oral history Program at the time that you couldnt count them,. Was thinking pushing for lower deficits and a more transparent Budget process comma and apostrophe in the first moment thing... Policy was number one a roof, about an 8-foot-high roof from Mike Levy, typically, what assignments. Room during last also, strong figures, not weak figures in business as well as in government figures! Situation like that always has its humor that didnt make sense and off the bat marshaled a very attack! World looks different White House Press Secretarys office who were in it bill that were!, about an 8-foot-high roof and off the bat marshaled a very career! Were some folks from the White House, Mike Levy, typically what... Working with domestic policy issues and with members of Congress and support here way back in season one of Union! University of Virginia, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity every comma and apostrophe in the chest the when... Is that American history is filled with examples of severe and indeed brutal partisanship that. Shouldnt, hed say so run, as I say, we working. Any of the treaty of humor like that always has its humor particular time of Congress and support.. Was going nowhere I didnt know where the President had actually laid out... Of Presidential management is, take your pain up front this instance, on the ground when you got,. Of severe and indeed brutal partisanship were doing was drawing from the first up!
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