New York came within hours of bankruptcy 40 years ago, weighed down by its debt, the crisis and uncertain management. An unthinkable episode today from which she will take 20 years to recover.
In the fall of 1975, the economic capital of the country engaged in contortions to avoid default. The accumulation of deficits for several years and the absence of effective financial measurement instruments have been exacerbated by the oil crisis.
New York can no longer borrow on the markets since April, the big banks have slammed the door in its face. The mayor, Abraham Beame, a democrat with a social fiber, never inspired them with confidence.
The crisis has already taken to the streets. Tons of waste piled up in the heat during a strike by garbage collectors, worried about their wages.
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But United States President Gerald Ford, a Republican, doesn’t want to know. On October 29, he is already talking about filing for bankruptcy and ensures that he will veto any emergency plan eventually voted by Congress.
“President Ford wanted to make New York an example. He refused to help them until the last minute“, believes Robert Polner, co-author of the book”The man who saved New York: Hugh Carey” (“The man who saved New York“).
French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt will have to urge him to act so that the lines move. The president finally grants $ 2.3 billion in federal aid to New York on November 26.
But for New York, the Stations of the Cross have only just begun. Thousands of municipal workers are laid off, new taxes are passed, capital spending is frozen.
“The city did not come out of this spiral until the 1990s, where you could still see the deterioration of parks, roads, schools, the health system.“, considers Robert Polner.
After 1975, New York, whose social model, heavily invested in education and health in particular, had been a pioneer, has never been governed in the same way. Today, “New York is a great city, but for whom? Well-off and very well-off people.“
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