NEW YORK: Last-Minute Bailout Of a City on the Brink

Both sides claimed a victory, and both had a point. Finally offering a federal loan to New York City, President Ford denied that he had bailed out the municipality he had so often reprimanded for profligacy. "New York has bailed itself out," he declared. And he added with self-congratulation: "If we had shown any give, I think they wouldn't have made the hard decisions they have made."

New York officials took a different view. They thought they had finally convinced the country — and through the country the President — that New York had to be rescued. Governor Hugh Carey...