Follow the Money: Who Controls New York City Mayors

New York, NY, April 15, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Author Lynne Weikart puts a human face on each of New York City’s fiscal crises, analyzes their historical patterns, and compares the tenure of several mayors. This timely book, Follow the Money: Who Controls New York City Mayors, has become an invaluable book for those interested in the future of American cities at a time of the nation’s severe financial crisis.

Through the history of politics, Weikart reveals how financial elites in New York City have exploited recurring fiscal crises and sharply curtailed the range of choices open to mayors in setting priorities and implementing fiscal policy. In the face of enormous pressure during a fiscal crisis to defer programs and compromise promises to constituents, however, committed mayors from Fiorello LaGuardia to Michael Bloomberg have at times managed to overcome obstacles and achieve progressive goals.

Weikart concludes: “As the world center of financial services, New York City is an informative case study of the power that financial elites exert over the political leadership and how mayors can push back to assert their own political agendas. In the final analysis, although some mayors do achieve their own policy initiatives, their choices are significantly limited by these powers of the financial interests particularly during times of fiscal crisis.”

This book is available through SUNY Press.

For more information: http://www.followthemoneyus.com

To Purchase this book goto: Amazon Books

###