Charts of the Day: The Uber Effect: New York Taxi Bubble Deflates

Both charts from AEI’s Mark Perry

Austrian economist Thomas DiLorenzo on Uber via the Lew Rockwell Blog:

New York City’s taxicab monopoly “kingpin” can’t pay his debts, thanks to competition from lower-priced/higher quality Uber drivers.  Citibank is foreclosing on 90 of his monopoly “medallion” loans.  Go, Uber Go!

New York’s decades-old taxicab “medallion” crony-capitalist scheme was set up to limit competition in the business, thereby creating monopoly profits for then-existing cab companies.  It’s the urban version of mercantilist agricultural policies that pay farmers for NOT growing crops or raising livestock.  The current price of one of these medallions is around $800,000, down from over $1 million in June of last year thanks to competition from Uber.  Let’s hope that every last one of these “kingpins” is driven from the market by Uber (and other free-market competitors).

Bubbles have always been a product of government interventions.