The year NYC went broke

纽约城破产之年

Planet Money

2025-10-15

31 分钟
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In 1975, New York City ran out of money. For a decade it had managed to pay for its hundreds of thousands of city employees and robust social services by taking on billions of dollars in debt. But eventually investors were no longer willing to lend the city any more money. New York teetered on the edge of bankruptcy — the city shuttered more than a dozen firehouses, teachers went on strike and garbage piled up in the streets. Rescuing the city required the cooperation of the state of New York, the banks, the city workers unions, giant property owners and … the White House. But President Gerald Ford was adamantly opposed to bailing out NYC, prompting the famous New York Daily News headline — “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” On today’s show, the story of a group of private citizens who were deputized by the state of New York to try to save the city’s finances. Led by investment banker Felix Rohatyn, the group had to put together a grand bargain that everyone would be willing to agree to, and to come up with the billions of dollars the city needed to survive. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. Today’s episode of Planet Money was hosted by Keith Romer and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Julia Ritchey. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Debbie Daughtry and Cena Loffredo. Our executive producer is Alex Goldmark. Special Thanks: Denis Coleman, David Schleicher, Liall Clarke, Kevin Hennigan and everyone at Classical King FM in Seattle. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • This is Planet Money from NPR.

  • Every Tuesday morning,

  • this very easy to overlook but incredibly important thing happens on the street where I live in Brooklyn.

  • Three employees of the City of New York roll up in a giant truck and take away all the garbage for the people in my apartment building.

  • Those guys in their stained Deglo green t-shirts,

  • they are just one part of this vast army of workers who make a city like New York even possible to live in.

  • Now or so after these sanitation guys roll through,

  • my daughter packs up her bag and heads out to her public middle school.

  • Bye sweetie.

  • Bye.

  • where she will be educated by yet more city employees.

  • Those sirens you are hearing,

  • those are because just down the street from where my daughter catches her bus each morning,

  • there is a fire station.

  • And by, you guessed it, city employees.

  • Altogether, more than 300,000 people work for the city of New York.

  • 300,000 people who make it possible for the city to function.

  • And this marvel of social coordination, like...

  • So many things in our world is made possible by money.

  • Yeah, my family pays city income tax and property tax and sales tax.