Why Praise Rubin? He Watched Citi Crumble

Mind you, Rubin has been doling out advice at Citigroup since 1999. Considering the breathtakingly bad condition of the company, it is safe to say that Rubin has not succeeded everywhere he went.

We then hear about how the company was built by Weill and that the problem became "so deep" under Prince, but, uh, no mention of Rubin in relation to Citigroup until this line:

"That Rubin was named chairman and not interim chairman suggested a degree of urgency."

What is at stake? The future of Citigroup (true 'dat) and "the reputation of Rubin as an executive with a Midas touch."

Again, I am a big Rubin fan overall, but if he can still be said to be an executive with a Midas touch, then The Business Press Maven can be said to have a tree limb growing out of his ear lobe.

We are then told that Rubin "has experience navigating crisis."

But look at those bad loans, bad trades, huge costs, bad structure as a financial supermarket -- in this one case, Rubin had a hand in creating, not navigating, a crisis. At this point in his career, Rubin was willing to take $15 million a year to nap.

In perhaps the only head nod in this direction, the article posits that the offer to become chairman was one that Consigliore Rubin could not refuse, while shareholders, said a quoted analyst, were "frustrated" that he was "speaking to think tanks and not to them at a company that has been so underperforming."