Drop Dead: How a Coterie of Corrupt Politicians, Bankers, Lawyers, Spinmeisters, and Mobsters Bankrupted New York, Got Bailed Out, Blamed the President, and Went Back to Business as Usual (And It Might Be Happening Again)

NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1970S WAS A CULTURE OF OPEN CORRUPTION.

EVERYONE WHO WAS ANYONE WAS IN ON THE GRIFT.

Ford to City: Drop Dead It’s the most famous tabloid headline of all time (with apologies to “Headless Body in Topless Bar”).

It also supplied the narrative that came to be accepted as truth regarding the New York City fiscal crisis of 1975—an uncaring, hapless, accidental President Ford abandoning America’s greatest city in its hour of maximum need.

This narrative—honed in 1975 by wil...