Mayors and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago

If you are interested in the link between institutional design and gigantic practical consequences, then Fuchs' book is for you. The claim is that Chicago escaped the Great Fiscal Crisis suffered by NYC in part because Chicago had a strong political machine (aka Daley) that could say "no" to its public employee unions. In addition, Fuchs has detailed description of how Chicago's reliance on legal devices like special districts rather than special authorities -- the NYC specialty -- may have kept Chicago's budget under control. I teach local government law, and any book that can give me the skinny on how and why law matters is always welcome. This book does very well on that score: You will never be bored by the details of how muni bonds are funded again. Turns out that cities rise and collapse on the basis of such "boring" stuff.