DISAPPEARANCE – The former United States ambassador to France, known to have avoided a financial crisis in the metropolis, died on Saturday at the age of 91.
By Maurin Picard
For his French friends, he was this charming ambassador of the United States who officiated in Paris from 1997 to 2000. For his American compatriots, he was «Felix the fixer», the man who saved New York City from the worst financial crisis in its history. And so it will pass to posterity Felix Rohatyn who died on December 14 at his home in Manhattan, at the age of 91 years.
Even the Republican enemies of this generous philanthropist and donor of the Democratic Party concededly recognized the scope of the feat: resuscitating a bloodless megalopolis, when President Gerald Ford himself refused to contribute the slightest federal share to his bailout, inspiring the famous One of New York Daily News October 30, 1975: “Ford at the town hall: go to hell!” Richard Nixon’s replacement would later admit that this murderous headline helped precipitate his defeat at the polls in 1976. Rohatyn reverses a compromised situation: bombed at the head of the all-new
