Media praise for Rubin's economic priorities is habitually selective. We hear little about how economic elites have gobbled up this decade's prosperity, leaving crumbs for other Americans. This means that the typical worker has seen extraordinarily slow wage growth through this recovery. In the '60s, real hourly wages generally grew by more than that in a single year. While the financial markets in nations such as Mexico, Korea and Thailand have largely recovered from the impact of their financial crises, the populations of these nations have not.
Real wages remain far below their pre-crisis level in Mexico.
Prominent journalists are upbeat about the likelihood that Larry Summers will pick up where Rubin leaves off as treasury secretary. In practice, the Treasury Department controls the International Monetary Fund, says Weisbrot. A government that does not agree to the IMF's conditions for lending will be denied credit from the World Bank, other multilateral lending agencies, and often private sources as well. Rubin went to great lengths to preserve this system of absolute power. The IMF imposes measures that slash public-sector programs for meeting basic human needs.