He said the letter showed Mr Taylor, "belongs more in an insane asylum than at the head of a multinational corporation".

BBC: US tyre boss mocks French work ethic

Then the mayor flew to Wall Street, which he boasted he would so impress with his forceful ideas that it would upgrade Miami's bond-rating from junk status. (It listened politely but remained unmoved.) It was then that a columnist, Carl Hiaasen, advised the mayor in the Miami Herald that, while in New York, he should visit Bellevue, an insane asylum of legend.

ECONOMIST: Miami politics