Biography of Jacob J.Lew, Former Treasury Secretary

Biography of Jacob J.Lew, Former Treasury Secretary Jacob Joseph Jack Lew (born Aug. 29, 1955) served as the 76th United States secretary of the treasury from 2013 to 2017. Nominated by President Barak Obama on Jan. 10, 2013, Lew was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 27, 2013, and sworn in the next day to replace the retiring Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Before his service as treasury secretary, Lew served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the administrations of Obama and President Bill Clinton.  Lew was replaced as secretary of the treasury on Feb.13, 2017, by President Donald Trump’s nominee ​Steven Mnuchin, a banker and former hedge fund manager. Fast Facts: Jacob J. "Jack" Lew Known For: 76th U.S. Treasury Secretary under former President Barak Obama, also served as chief of staff under Obama and director of the Office of Management and Budget under both Obama and former President Bill ClintonAlso Known As: Jacob Joseph. Jack LewBorn: Aug. 29, 1955 in New York CityParents: Ruth Turoff and Irving LewEducation: Harvard University  (BA, 1978), Georgetown University  (JD, 1983)Awards and Honors: Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (Georgetown University, 2014)Spouse: Ruth SchwartzChildren: Shoshana, IsaacNotable Quotes: The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations. ... In my last tour of duty here in the 1990s, we made the tough, bipartisan decisions needed to bring our budget into surplus. Once again, it will take tough choices to put us on a sustainable fiscal path. Early Life and Education Lew was born on Aug. 29, 1955, in New York City to Irving Lew, a lawyer and rare book dealer, and Ruth Turoff. Lew attended New York City public schools, graduating from Forest Hill High School, where he met his future wife Ruth Schwartz. After attending Carleton College in Minnesota, Lew graduated from Harvard University in 1978 and from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983. Government Career While involved in the federal government for nearly 40 years, Lew has never held an elected position. At just 19, Lew worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) from 1974 to 1975. After working for Rep. Moakley, Lew worked as a senior policy adviser to famed Speaker of the House Tip ONeill. As an adviser to ONeill, Lew served as executive director of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Lew also served as ONeills liaison to the 1983 Greenspan Commission, which successfully negotiated a bipartisan legislative solution extending the solvency of the Social Security program. In addition, Lew assisted ONeill with economic issues, including Medicare, federal budget, tax, trade, spending and appropriations, and energy issues. Clinton Administration From 1998 to 2001, Lew served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level position under President Bill Clinton. At OMB, Lew headed up the Clinton administrations budget team and was a member of the National Security Council. During Lews three years as head of the OMB, the U.S. budget actually operated at a surplus for the first time since 1969. Since 2002, the budget has suffered an ever-increasing deficit. Under President Clinton, Lew also helped design and implement the national service program Americorps. Between Clinton and Obama Following the end of the Clinton administration, Lew served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University. While at NYU, he taught public administration and handled the universitys budget and finances. After leaving NYU in 2006, Lew went to work for Citigroup, serving as managing director and chief operating officer for two of the banking giants business units. From 2004 through 2008, Lew also served on the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, chairing its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee. Obama Administration Lew first joined the Obama administration in 2010 as deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. In November 2010, he was confirmed by the Senate as director of the Office of Management and Budget, the same office he held under President Clinton from 1998 to 2001. On Jan. 9, 2012, President Obama selected Lew as his White House chief of staff. During his time as chief of staff, Lew acted as a key negotiator between Obama and Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner in attempts to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, the $85-billion forced budget sequestration and tax increases for wealthy Americans. In a 2012 article written for the HuffPost, Lew explained the Obama administrations plan for reducing the U.S. deficit as including: cutting $78 billion from the Department of Defense budget, raising the income tax rate for the top 2% of income earners to what they were during the Clinton administration, and reducing the federal tax rate on corporations from 35% to 25%. In my last tour of duty here in the 1990s, we made the tough, bipartisan decisions needed to bring our budget into surplus, wrote Lew. Once again, it will take tough choices to put us on a sustainable fiscal path. After Washington After Lews service in Washington, he returned to Wall Street to join a private equity firm. He is also a much-sought-after commentator on cable news shows, on issues ranging from the state of the economy to economic relations with China. Sources â€Å"Jacob J. Lew.†Ã‚  Jacob J. Lew | Columbia SIPA.Meredith, Sam. â€Å"More Bumps in the Road before US-China Trade Deal, Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Warns.†Ã‚  CNBC, CNBC, 26 Mar. 2019.Mittelman, Melissa. â€Å"Jack Lew Goes Back to Wall Street.†Ã‚  Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 20 Nov. 2017.Nottingham, Melissa. â€Å"Ruth Schwartz- Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lews Wife.†Ã‚  WAGPOLITICS.COM, 1 Oct. 2013.

Understanding Confidence Intervals

Understanding Confidence Intervals Inferential statistics gets its name from what happens in this branch of statistics. Rather than simply describe a set of data, inferential statistics seeks to infer something about a population on the basis of a statistical sample. One specific goal in inferential statistics involves the determination of the value of an unknown population parameter. The range of values that we use to estimate this parameter is called a confidence interval. The Form of a Confidence Interval A confidence interval consists of two parts. The first part is the estimate of the population parameter. We obtain this estimate by using a simple random sample. From this sample, we calculate the statistic that corresponds to the parameter that we wish to estimate. For example, if we were interested in the mean height of all first-grade students in the United States, we would use a simple random sample of U.S. first graders, measure all of them and then compute the mean height of our sample. The second part of a confidence interval is the margin of error. This is necessary because our estimate alone may be different from the true value of the population parameter. In order to allow for other potential values of the parameter, we need to produce a range of numbers. The margin of error does this, and every confidence interval is of the following form: Estimate  ± Margin of Error The estimate is in the center of the interval, and then we subtract and add the margin of error from this estimate to obtain a range of values for the parameter. Confidence Level Attached to every confidence interval is a level of confidence. This is a probability or percent that indicates how much certainty we should be attributed to our confidence interval. If all other aspects of a situation are identical, the higher the confidence level the wider the confidence interval. This level of confidence can lead to some confusion. It is not a statement about the sampling procedure or population. Instead, it is giving an indication of the success of the process of construction of a confidence interval. For example, confidence intervals with confidence of 80 percent will, in the long run, miss the true population parameter one out of every five times. Any number from zero to one could, in theory, be used for a confidence level. In practice 90 percent, 95 percent and 99 percent are all common confidence levels. Margin of Error The margin of error of a confidence level is determined by a couple of factors. We can see this by examining the formula for margin of error. A margin of error is of the form: Margin of Error (Statistic for Confidence Level) * (Standard Deviation/Error) The statistic for the confidence level depends upon what probability distribution is being used and what level of confidence we have chosen. For example, if Cis our confidence level and we are working with a normal distribution, then C is the area under the curve between -z* to z*. This number z* is the number in our margin of error formula. Standard Deviation or Standard Error The other term necessary in our margin of error is the standard deviation or standard error. The standard deviation of the distribution that we are working with is preferred here. However, typically parameters from the population are unknown. This number is not usually available when forming confidence intervals in practice. To deal with this uncertainty in knowing the standard deviation we instead use the standard error. The standard error that corresponds to a standard deviation is an estimate of this standard deviation. What makes the standard error so powerful is that it is calculated from the simple random sample that is used to calculate our estimate. No extra information is necessary as the sample does all of the estimation for us. Different Confidence Intervals There are a variety of different situations that call for confidence intervals. These confidence intervals are used to estimate a number of different parameters. Although these aspects are different, all of these confidence intervals are united by the same overall format. Some common confidence intervals are those for a population mean, population variance, population proportion, the difference of two population means and the difference of two population proportions.