Putting on the Spitz: Eliot’s Brain Trust

When State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sat down to breakfast with storied financial consultant Felix G. Rohatyn at the Regency this January, he was so eager to pick his guest’s brain—and so intensely solicitous—that he barely had time to touch the food on his plate.

He needn’t have worried.

“I said to him, ‘Look, you Read More

Putting on the Spitz: Eliot’s Brain Trust

When State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sat down to breakfast with storied financial consultant Felix G. Rohatyn at the Regency this January, he was so eager to pick his guest’s brain—and so intensely solicitous—that he barely had time to touch the food on his plate.

He needn’t have worried.

“I said to him, ‘Look, Read More

Cold-Eyed Pataki Discards Allies, Impresses Bush

A month into his third term, Governor George Pataki unveiled a budget that has won him acclaim in national Republican circles for its strict adherence to a pro-growth, no-new-taxes philosophy. At the same time, he has deferred many tough budgetary choices, plugging the state’s $10 billion budget gap with temporary measures that will leave the Read More

A Union Man Saves the City

A couple of weeks ago, a friend suggested that I call Jack Bigel, a forgotten hero of the city’s torturous crawl from the abyss of bankruptcy in the mid-1970′s. I hadn’t spoken with Mr. Bigel in over a decade-in other words, since the city’s last fiscal crisis-so I wrote a note to myself to renew Read More