The Week

“Peking is . . . openly pursuing a policy of teaming up with imperialism and reaction for the implementation of its great-power schemes” (TASS). One should take advantage of “every opportunity of gaining a mass ally even though this ally be temporary . . . and conditional” (Hua Kuo-feng, quoting Lenin). “I wish I knew a lot more about Chinese history” (Cyrus Vance).

If only New York’s Mayor Beame were a masochist, he would love the summer of ’77. In mid-July there was The Blackout, quickly followed by The Looting. August’s calamity came toward the end of the month with the release of The Report—by the Securities and Exchange Commission—that accused Mayor Beame, City Comptroller Harrison Goldin, and various branches of New York City’s financial community of “deceptive practices masking the City’s true and disastrous financial condition” to help sell City securities. While Comptroller Goldin, who is running for re-election unopposed in New York’s September 8 primary, reacted almost stoically, Mayor Beame, who faces six opponents, fulminated against the SEC “hatchet job.” Explaining why he didn’t give New Yorkers an accurate picture of the City’s bleak financial status, Beame, speaking like a true statesman of the Seventies, said: “No mayor can be expected to speak to his people in the language of an investment prospectus. The City must assure the well-being of its citizens and provide for the future. To turn off this spigot of hope is just as devastating to them as the denial of credit.” When New York Democrats vote September 8, the prediction is now that they will decide to give somebody else a turn at the spigot.

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“Peking is . . . openly pursuing a policy of teaming up with imperialism and reaction for the implementation of its great-power schemes” (TASS). One should take advantage of “every opportunity of gaining a mass ally even though this ally be temporary . . . and conditional” (Hua Kuo-feng, quoting Lenin). “I wish I knew a lot more about Chinese history” (Cyrus Vance).

If only New York’s Mayor Beame were a masochist, he would love the summer of ’77. In mid-July there was The Blackout, quickly followed by The Looting. August’s calamity came toward the end of the month with the release of The Report—by the Securities and Exchange Commission—that accused Mayor Beame, City Comptroller Harrison Goldin, and various branches of New York City’s financial community of “deceptive practices masking the City’s true and disastrous financial condition” to help sell City securities. While Comptroller Goldin, who is running for re-election unopposed in New York’s September 8 primary, reacted almost stoically, Mayor Beame, who faces six opponents, fulminated against the SEC “hatchet job.” Explaining why he didn’t give New Yorkers an accurate picture of the City’s bleak financial status, Beame, speaking like a true statesman of the Seventies, said: “No mayor can be expected to speak to his people in the language of an investment prospectus. The City must assure the well-being of its citizens and provide for the future. To turn off this spigot of hope is just as devastating to them as the denial of credit.” When New York Democrats vote September 8, the prediction is now that they will decide to give somebody else a turn at the spigot.