Ribstein on Corporate Governance and Rubin at Citigroup, Inc.

Professor Larry Ribstein ponders here in a thought-provoking post about the corporate governance implications of a former Treasury Secretary such as Robert Rubin who, as a sophisticated and very highly paid member of the board of Citigroup, Inc., either  did not see or did not take action to avoid his company’s exposure to the economic tidal wave that led to the recent near-demise of the gargantuan financial institution known in some circles simply as Citi.

Rubin argues in recent articles linked by the good professor above, that he should not be blamed because, at least in part, he should not be expected to have a "granular" understanding of the operations of the company that he was paid about $12 million a year to–at least in part–manage. Should we buy that argument–from a corporate governance perspective?