BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 5, 2001 ISSUE
COVER STORY

Five Treasury Secretaries Who Mattered


ANDREW MELLON
Treasury Secretary for three Presidents--from Harding to Hoover. A highly regarded financier when he took the job, Mellon first cut tax rates in the face of big surpluses. Later, he pushed fiscal restraint and tax hikes as the economy slipped into depression. Alcoa founder.

DOUGLAS DILLON
A Wall Streeter and aide to Eisenhower, he was chosen by JFK. Republican Dillon became the architect of Kennedy's ''a rising tide lifts all boats'' tax cut, then helped sell it to a Democratic Congress.

JAMES A. BAKER III
A Houston lawyer, and Bush Family confidant, Baker became the prototypical activist Treasury Secretary. Stabilized the dollar but believed policy could trump currency markets in the long term. Failed to fix looming S&L crisis.

NICHOLAS BRADY
A close friend of the first President Bush, Brady was another Wall Streeter. Cleaned up the S&L mess and, by issuing Brady bonds, helped settle crises in Mexico and Latin America. But his relationship with Greenspan soured early.

ROBERT E. RUBIN
Yet another denizen of the Street, Rubin was a fund-raiser for Clinton. Along with Clinton's first Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, he persuaded the Prez to abandon promised tax cuts and focus on deficit reduction.



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