First published 1986
Diana B. Henriques exposes the shadowy world of public revenue-bond authorities that multiplied across America during the 1970s. These quasi-governmental entities operated outside traditional oversight, marketing themselves as more efficient than regular government departments. Henriques reveals how these authorities became breeding grounds for the very problems they claimed to avoid. Officials engaged in cronyism and corruption while hiding behind claims of business efficiency. The authorities had stripped away the safeguards that traditional government had developed over generations of scandal. Henriques documents how this "off-balance-sheet" government grew with minimal accountability at state and local levels. Her investigation shows that the pursuit of business-like operations actually enabled the same old sins under a new structure.
Genres: 20th-century, business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, government
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism
Period: 1970s
161 pages · Hardcover · Lexington Books