How the Taxi Workers Won

“Then, in 2011, Uber arrived in New York. Lyft followed in 2014. Tens of thousands of additional cars flooded the streets, and yellow cab ridership fell by half. In late 2014, the medallion bubble burst. By 2018, medallions were selling for as little as $160,000. Seeing an opportunity to make a profit, Marblegate Asset Management, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, snapped up 3,000 loans—not from the drivers, but from other lenders—for the reported average fire sale price of $110,000.The drivers, of course, had no such opportunity. They were stuck paying off their original loans, and the crash in medallion prices meant they couldn’t sell. They were caught in a sort of debt peonage, indentured to their creditors and the city. It was around this time that the suicides began.”