Wall Street doesn't like O'Neill because he is an old-fashioned type who doesn't go in for fancy deals and other flim-flam schemes, which are the primary cause for the current mess in the stock market.
The "other reason" why Government and Wall Street liked Rubin and dislike O'Neil is because Rubin came up with the "scheme" (and I use that word deliberately) to refinace the US debt with short term US notes.
Let's inspect who wins in this plan:
1. Clinton wins because he's paid less each month on debt interest and made the illusion stick that the overall debt was decreasing or was not increasing as fast.
2. Wall Street wins because they are making money in comissions these new bonds to themselves and general public. "Uncle Sam has never defaulted + it's Patriotic", they drone.
3. Crooked Corporations win because their is a now an insitutional interest to A)cook the books and B) keep interest rates down (see below).
How does this scheme suck and why? 1. It kept the natural forces of the Market from consuming the dead-wood of the economy 6+ years. The market must be free to move up as much as down. There is a law of gravity for a reason which Clintonomics cannot ingore. This applies just the same as the damn-fool ecologists and their earth-friendly policies. Eventually, their policies are going to bite the nation in the a$$ and we are seeing the scorching the West.
2. Because of #1, Political forces were kept in check. It's still the "economy stupid". All during the 1992-2000 years, people looked gleefully at their 401k statements and never even bothered to think about what was going on in the White House. I cannot tell you how many times I had this conversation:
Me- Did you her about Clinton and Monica Lewinski?
Friend- Monica who? Hey, let me tell you about this hot stock...
3. There was a considerable governmental and institutional need to keep the interest rates down and forcast growth in the economy. If interest rates start to climb, the scheme falls apart. The much shorter term of the bonds increases the risk exposure to interest rate fluctuation and the Clintons had to do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. If they were issuing standard 30-year US Treasuries, who cared if XYZ-Co's earnings were on a given quarter? Since everything Clinton did was fast and loose, they put the country at extreme financial risk to make their numbers. He was no different than Ken Lay et. al. 4. We have seen the growth of a corprate "gangsta" culture. Outside of the rum-runners and other gangsters, I don't believe we have seen such a level of organized criminal activity in our nation. This crime differs from the mob in that all the crimes are on paper and generally non-violent. The impact however, are more far-reaching that the most powerful crime family. Al Capone never had the power to put thousands out of work or destroy billions of dollars of investments.
4. The perception of the economy greatly influences peoples' preception of politics. Learning from the Romans, Clinton gave the people bread and circuses. That's one of the reasons why he didn't get impeached. The people didn't want their "golden goose" killed. Too bad he wasn't laying anything golden at all.
In my opinion, these are some really troubling concerns about our economy and politics. There are some really good researchers here on FR to verify these assertions for those who think I'm full of B$.
Have a happy day,
jriemer
PS- For full disclosure, I've been out of the market since 2000 except for my non-taxable accounts.