was in this greater glory days, large sized magazine and norman mailer was writing for it, and every naim you could think of he doesn't have any other candidates. i went home and i wrote a critique and 20 new ideas, and i handed them to him and he said get back to me and i thought to myself when going to make these so impressive he will have to call me the next day and give me the job, which he did. but i later learned when i had lunch with him an old friend of mine michael herr cultic author tough dispatches -- >> guest: c-span: he endorses your book on the back? >> guest: he does. we call him mckee. he calls me johnny. for me he's mckee. we grew up, you know, a great school friend from high school and -- i yet meijer him enormously. he said when did you get your shot at esquire? i said in december. he said well that's when i was in for it to. so it turns out to only two candidates were two men who had gone to high school together, grammar school and high school together. neither one of us knew that the other was a candidate. and he went on to write dispatches and several pieces that app

ravitch's naim whose name i remember from newspapers when i was growing up. [laughter] don't mean that in a bad way, i mean that in a good way. >> thanks very much. tell us about what was brought up. it sounds like there is a point to be made. bring it to the end, call their bluff. let the cards fall where they may. >> was the implication of what you said but it worked in new york, didn't it? >> it wasn't intentional. the banks decided they would no longer underwrite the notes so it was the market that forced the solution and the dissolution was not comparable to the federal situation, but we borrowed money for transition purposes, which is not irrelevant to the kind of program that the senators were talking about. number two, the state enacted a moratorium on the payment of the interest city debt which ultimately was held unconstitutional by the highest court of the state, and the lesson and that is that the ultimate threat is in the levels of taxation as far greater in my judgment than flat of the immediate impact of default. but i would like very much to c

ravitch's naim whose name i remember from newspapers when i was growing up. [laughter] don't mean that in a bad way, i mean that in a good way. >> thanks very much. tell us about what was brought up. it sounds like there is a point to be made. bring it to the end, call their bluff. let the cards fall where they may. >> was the implication of what you said but it worked in new york, didn't it? >> it wasn't intentional. the banks decided they would no longer underwrite the notes so it was the market that forced the solution and the dissolution was not comparable to the federal situation, but we borrowed money for transition purposes, which is not irrelevant to the kind of program that the senators were talking about. number two, the state enacted a moratorium on the payment of the interest city debt which ultimately was held unconstitutional by the highest court of the state, and the lesson and that is that the ultimate threat is in the levels of taxation as far greater in my judgment than flat of the immediate impact of default. but i would like very much to c