The article doesn't touch upon the illiquidity of the taxi medallions in these cities. In most of them, once you buy the taxi medallion, it's difficult or impo

The article doesn't touch upon the illiquidity of the taxi medallions in these cities. In most of them, once you buy the taxi medallion, it's difficult or impossible to sell again. Even in cities where you can sell it (San Francisco), you get a fraction of what you paid for it (30% typically). This distorts the market even further, when the buyers need to price in the fact that these are assets that in some cases might depreciate to $0, and not give them the ability to sell them before that happens. Additionally, there's no price feedback, or it happens rarely. As the article points out, NYC publishes the price once a year, and did it incorrectly last year. What type of investment gives you no feedback on its current value? To reduce the price swings, cities need to create an auction system where they allow current owners of medallions to list their current medallions for sale. The auction system would provide price transparency, and allow all the stakeholders involved (medallion holders, buyers, and sellers) to get a clear picture of the market price at any given point.