This is fascinating:
nypost.com/2016/07/05/city-lets-uber-and-lyft-cannibalize-the-american-dream/I always knew taxi medallions were expensive, but who knew they were once such a good investment in the pre-Uber days? I wonder if anyone has ever graphed the returns on medallions vs the S&P 500 or Berkshire Hathaway over time. And now, sadly, the bubble has finally popped.
An excerpt: "In 1937, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia signed the Haas Act — introducing the medallion system in a bid to regulate an industry that was spiraling out of control. The city initially sold 13,566 medallions for $10 each — about $166 in today’s money, or 7,831 times less than their peak value 77 years later."
Comments
Excerpt here: "He’d waited for years to buy a medallion. He was on the hook for a $250,000 loan, but he was competing with drivers who had paid nothing to get into the business. ... [He] wants to sell his medallion, but says the city has told him he might have to wait four years or more. The MTA says that, so far, about 600 people are on the list to sell their medallions."
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/09/24/for-san-francisco-cab-drivers-once-treasured-medallions-now-a-burden/