Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the economic challenges facing the United States and called for what he said is a more pragmatic approach during a speech Thursday in Gaston Hall.

Rubin, who is the current director and chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup, Inc., delivered the speech as the Mortara Center for International Studies’ 2005 Goldman Sachs distinguished lecturer.

“This is a period of very special uncertainty and very special complexity,” Rubin said during the speech. He warned that the United States must be willing to make tough decisions prior to distress and will suffer serious consequences if these issues are left unaddressed.

Rubin identified four “bread baskets” into which the current challenges fall: fiscal imbalance, the competitive nature of the global economy among states, national security and a catch-all “other” category.

Focusing mainly on the first category of fiscal imbalances, Rubin described the potential for a bleak outlook for the next decade, and placed much of the blame on the Bush administration.

“The heart of this problem is the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts,” he said. According to Rubin, these tax cuts should have been short-term and directed at low- and middle-income workers.

Rubin also weighed in on the current debate over the future of Social Security, saying that the Bush administration’s plan for privatization would actually increase the system’s debt. Savings would begin slowly and would only show up in the second decade, he said.

Rubin also addressed the question of competitive challenges from foreign powers, mainly China and India. He said that the best course for dealing with these rising economic powers was that followed by former President Clinton, in whose Cabinet Rubin served from 1995 until 1999.

Clinton’s policy was a combination of trade liberation with a powerful domestic agenda, Rubin said. He predicted that the highly contrasting Chinese and American cultures would have to do some getting used to each other.

On national security, Rubin admitted a lack of expertise, but did not brush the issue aside. “[National security threats] are extraordinarily complicated,” he said, “and in many ways unprecedented.”

The last of Rubin’s categories of challenges facing the United States included a series of distinct problems, both economic and not. He called for an energy policy that utilizes alternative sources to oil, saying that these sources could be built up by the government in the same way that the Internet was developed before independent businesses came in.

Having identified these four categories of challenges, Rubin presented an analysis of the situation as the Bush administration is currently handling it.

“We are currently on the wrong track on almost all fronts,” he said.

The first requirement for making good decisions, he said, was to recognize the complexities of the issues and to understand that good policy is “not about absolutes or dogma.” He expressed his dismay at the lack of public understanding of current economic issues, a lack that he hoped might be repaired through education and a more comprehensive presentation of the issues by the media.

Rubin also said that there are no right answers, but insisted that some form of action is imperative.

“What I don’t think anyone can reasonably do is to ignore these risks or wish them away,” he said. But he emphasized the opportunities currently facing the modern world, asserting that he was concerned about the challenges before the United States, but not overwhelmed. His take on the situation was not bleak, but “buoyant.”

During the question and answer period that followed his speech, Rubin was asked if he would consider running for president. Rubin laughed and said that his wife doesn’t like the District.