Note: This episode originally aired in 2015.
The most valuable thing about a yellow taxicab in New York isn't the car. It's actually this little metal shield bolted to the hood. It's called a taxi medallion. There are only about 13,000 taxi medallions in existence. And Gene Freidman owns over a thousand of them.
Not too long ago, these medallions were selling for $1.2 million each. Gene Freidman liked to boast about how much he paid for them, often with borrowed money.
Today on the show: the story of what happens when something you own is suddenly worth a lot less. We follow the rise and fall of the taxi king.
Music: "Skyward," "Larks at Sunrise" and "Something New"
Find us: Twitter/ Facebook / Instagram
Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
