Born September 4, 1958, Hubbard was raised in Apopka, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. His father taught at a local community college and his mother taught at a high school. Hubbard's younger brother, Gregg, is a member of the country-pop band Sawyer Brown. Hubbard is an Eagle Scout. A member of the chess team, he was a stellar student who graduated at the top of his class. He scored well enough on his College Level Examination Program to enter the University of Central Florida with enough credits to graduate with two degrees in three years. He obtained his B.A. and B.S. degrees summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida in 1979, and his masters and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1983.
Hubbard was Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1991 to 1993. From February 2001 until March 2003, Hubbard was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush. A supply-side economist, he was instrumental in the design of the 2003 Bush Tax cuts —an issue which split the economics profession on ideological lines, with those leaning left opposed and those leaning right supportive. See Economists' statement opposing the Bush tax cuts. He was tipped by some media outlets to be a candidate for the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve when Alan Greenspan retired, although he was not nominated for the position.
Political advisor
Hubbard served as economic advisor to the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, a position he also held during Romney's 2008 presidential campaign. In August 2012, Politico identified Hubbard as "a likely Romney :wikt:appointment|appointee as Federal Reserve chairman or Treasury secretary". Hubbard was an economic advisor for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign. After Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, Hubbard was mentioned as a potential Treasury secretary, and also as a potential Fed chair, a role expected to become open in February 2018. Hubbard had been critical of both Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including after Bush had suspended his campaign. In August 2016, Hubbard declined say which candidate he supported in the general election, but did say that Trump's taxation plans and their impact on economic growth were in a "direction" somewhat better than Clinton's plans. Hubbard criticized Trump's plans on trade and immigration for their predicted economic impact.
On January 8, 2019, he was appointed to become MetLife's non-executive chairman of the board as of May 1, 2019, upon the retirement of Steven A. Kandarian.
''Inside Job'' interview and aftermath
Hubbard was interviewed in Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary film, Inside Job, discussing his advocacy, as chief economic advisor to the Bush Administration, of deregulation. Ferguson argues that deregulation led to the 2008 international banking crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch. In the interview, Ferguson asks Hubbard to enumerate the firms from whom he receives outside income as an advisory board member in the context of possible conflict of interest. Hubbard, hitherto cooperative, declines to answer and threatens to end the interview with the remark, "You have three more minutes; give it your best shot." After the release of the film, Columbia ramped up ongoing efforts to strengthen and clarify their conflict of interest disclosure requirements. One of Hubbard's consulting contracts was examined in a deposition in 2012. His work for Countrywide Financial for $1200/hr, attesting that the lender's loans were no worse than a control group of mortgages and not fraudulent, was examined by an attorney for MBIA. MBIA was suing Countrywide over its mortgage practices.
Books
Hubbard is the author of a number of economic and socioeconomic texts, with a focus on deregulation, conservative fiscal policy and taxation. In 2009, he wrote and published The Aid Trap with economist William Duggan Columbia University Press, criticizing the aid system provided by NGOs in western countries as preventing internal growth in poorer nations. In 2013, he published Balance with former intelligence officer and economist Tim Kane.
Hubbard is also frequently featured in skits by Columbia Business School's "Follies" group, ranging from videos of him monitoring students on classroom video cameras to songs about his relationship with Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Hubbard has also publicized his dissatisfaction with Ben Bernanke's nomination as Chair of the Federal Reserve with his comedic YouTube parody of The Police's "Every Breath You Take", titled "Every Breath Bernanke Takes".
