“Only bankers and businessmen could cure the situation,” observed John Kenneth Galbraith in 1977, for “[t]heirs indeed was a special, even magical, talent where money was concerned.” Galbraith was sarcastically describing the popular mythology surrounding New York’s City fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, which saw Wall Street impose a neoliberal austerity agenda on the city.

Over the past two months, the New York Times has been reviving banker magic as a cure for the city’s dire financial situation. The paper’s coverage of the 2021 mayor’s race has uncritically advanced the candidacy of Raymond McGuire, a former Citigroup vice chairman who has never held elected office. Unlike Michael Bloomberg, McGuire was not a widely known figure outside of Wall Street before entering the political arena.

McGuire’s chief credentials are that he’s a black businessman who has succeeded in the very white world of Wall Street. As the Times recently noted, McGuire’s campaign has already garnered the financial support of leading members of the city elite, including former Citigroup figurehead Robert Rubin. McGuire’s street cred, meanwhile, has been furnished by Spike Lee, who narrated the candidate’s initial campaign video that featured McGuire jogging through Times Square.