Skip to main content

The Perfect Storm and the Turning Point

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Atlantic Metropolis

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in American Economic History ((AEH))

  • 321 Accesses

Abstract

A combination of macroeconomic, industrial, and political circumstances—a perfect storm—brought New York City to brink of bankruptcy in October 1975. The years after 1975 marked the nadir of the City’s postwar economic contraction. The subsequent recovery began almost imperceptably, but it did begin.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The difference between New York and the other metropolitan regions is real and substantial, but the chart may overstate the case somewhat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes monthly employment statistics for all metropolitan areas and for a few large central cities, one of which is New York. Because, in comparison with other cities, New York is large relative to its metropolitan area in terms of land area, population, and employment the metropolitan area statistics for this region may reflect the impact of the central city urban crisis of the 1960s and 1970s more than, say, the data for metropolitan Philadelphia or Chicago.

  2. 2.

    These include Morris (1980), Roberts (2010), Brecher, Horton, Cropf, and Dean (1993), and Shefter (1992).

References

  • Bahl, R. W., Campbell, A. K., & Greytak, D. (1974). Taxes, Expenditures, and the Economic Base: Case Study of New York City. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berne, R., & Stiefel, L. (1993). Cutback Budgeting: The Long-Term Consequences. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 12(4), 664–684.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloom, N. D. (2008). Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brecher, C., Horton, R., Cropf, R. A., & Dean, M. M. (1993). Power Failure: New York City Politics and Policy Since 1960. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). TB Incidence in the United States, 1953–2016. Retrieved from Tuberculosis (TB) https://www.cdc.gov/tb/statistics/tbcases.htm.

  • Collins English Dictionary. (2018). Perfect Storm. Retrieved from Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/perfect-storm.

  • Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. (2018). Download, Graph, and Track 527,000 US and International Time Series from 87 Sources. Retrieved from FRED Economic Data https://fred.stlouisfed.org.

  • Freudenberg, N., Fahs, M., Galea, S., & Greenberg, A. (2006). The Impact of New York City’s 1975 Crisis on the Tuberculosis, HIV, and Homicide Syndemic. American Journal of Public Health, 96(3), 424–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greytak, D., Gustely, R., & Dinkelmeyer, R. (1974). The Effects of Inflation on Local Government Expenditures. National Tax Journal, 27(4), 583–598.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heclo, H. (2005). Sixties Civics. In S. M. Milkis & J. M. Mileur (Eds.), The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism (pp. 53–82). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, C. R. (1980). The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment, 1960–1975. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Academy of Engineering; Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems. (1983). The Competitive Status of the U.S. Fibers, Textiles, and Apparel Complex: A Study of the Influences of Technology in Detrmining International Industrial Comparative Advantage. Washington: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Bureau of Economic Research. (2018). U.S. Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/cycles.html.

  • N.Y.S. Department of Taxation and Finance. (n.d.). Enactment and Effective Dates of Sales and Use Tax Rates, Publication 718-A. Albany: State of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, J. (2015, October 18). The Night New York Saved Itself from Bankruptcy. The New Yorker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips-Fein, K. (2017). Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics. New York: Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayre, W. S., & Kaufman, H. (1960). Governing New York City: Politics in the Metropolis (p. 777). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalala, D. E., & Bellamy, C. (1976). A State Saves a City: The New York Case. Duke Law Journal, 6, 1119–1132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shefter, M. (1992). Political Crisis, Fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tanzi, V. (1977). Inflation, Lags in Collection, and the Real Value of Tax Revenue. Staff Papers (International Monetary Fund), 24(1), 154–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018a, July 25). Create Customized Tables: State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings—Seasonal. Retrieved from Data Tools: Create Customized Tables https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv?sm.

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018b). State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings. Retrieved from Create Customized Tables https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv?sm.

  • U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. (2018). Interactive Data. Retrieved from https://www.bea.gov/itable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=70&step=1#reqid=70&step=31&isuri=1&7022=20&7023=7&7024=non-industry&7025=4&7001=720&7029=20&7090=70.

  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (1977). Staff Report on Transactions in the Securities of the City of New York. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gurwitz, A. (2019). The Perfect Storm and the Turning Point. In: Atlantic Metropolis. Palgrave Studies in American Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13352-8_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13352-8_16

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13351-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13352-8

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics