Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 25)

Interview Robert Steel Steel As undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance, former Goldman Sachs vice chairman Robert Steel has displayed calm under fire in dealing with the subprime market meltdown. By Richard Meyer Steel’s performance was impressive. Rather than being didactic or defensive, the onetime Goldman Sachs Group vice chairman came across as balanced and reasonable as he tried to convince Frank and the other committee members that the Treasury Department was taking the crisis quite seriously. Steel resisted the call for radical solutions and regulations but evinced great empathy and assured the representatives that steps would be taken to keep America’s homeowners whole. These include the president’s plan, announced August 31, to support struggling homeowners with a combination of tax breaks, counseling and Federal Housing Administration support. By the end of the session, the committee appeared satisﬁed. “We have had some market challenges, but it is in the context of a very strong global market and a very strong global economy,” Steel later told Alpha in an exclusive interview. “We will be focused on helping homeowners and will try to be constructive to the capital markets.” For the 56-year-old Steel, who celebrates his one-year OCTOBER 2007 • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR’S ALPHA • 25 Nervesof S eptember 5 could have been a really bad day for Robert Steel. With credit markets gridlocked and homeowners suffering, the U.S. undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic ﬁnance was testifying before a House of Representatives committee on the subject of subprime loans. The Wall Street veteran — and proxy for the pro-market, anti-intervention administration of President George W. Bush — was in for a potentially rough time. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, opened by suggesting that regulation hadn’t kept up with financial innovation. The administration had acted too slowly in responding to the turmoil in the markets, committee members went on to say, bemoaning the plight of the homeowner and the potential for systemic collapse. As momentum built over the grueling three-hour-plus session, outrage bubbled to the surface, and Steel and the administration took most of the broadsides.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007 Contents Letter from the Editor Longs & Shorts Pension Corner: Applied Knowledge The Good Guys: Autism Advocate Interview: Nerves of Steel Cover Story: Ivy League Education Alpha Awards: Top Service Providers: Trying Times Strategies: Passage to India Profile: The Oracle of Irvine Alpha Bytes: Futurama Research Center: Funds of Funds 50 Unhedged: Commentary: Crisis? What Crisis?

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007

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