The article focuses on the "predatory lending" narrative, but only briefly touches on what enabled all of this: Government regulation. Like most professions, T

The article focuses on the "predatory lending" narrative, but only briefly touches on what enabled all of this: Government regulation. Like most professions, Taxi drivers lobbied for regulation to keep the inflow of competition down. They got it in in the form of the taxi medallion: No one shall be allowed to drive without it - and the supply is fixed. Around the inevitable shortage that ensued, a cottage industry of medallion-hucksters emerged, driving the price to insane highs in places like NYC. Drivers who didn't see (or understand) the risk were brought to "mortgage" these medallions at inflated prices, but with the emergence of Uber/Lyft the value of those medallions dropped. The government, scrambling for a scapegoat, then tries to ban Uber/Lyft.