New York Taxi Mogul, Seeking a Bailout, Says He’s Too Big to Fail

The car service Uber is destroying the taxi oligopoly in NYC and the value of taxi medallions is plummeting. This is a problem for Evgeny Freidman, an owner of  a fleet of NYC medallioned taxis.

He  is currently locked in litigation with Citibank, which is trying to seize 87 of his medallions. His solution?  A Federal Reserve bailout.

NYT reports:

One of New York City’s largest taxi fleet owners is asking for a bailout.

Evgeny Freidman, known as Gene, said in an interview Thursday that the taxi industry, like the financial industry, was too big to fail. He would like the city to guarantee taxi medallion loans, which would induce banks to extend more credit to fleet owners like him, and he compares this approach to the federal government’s actions to save large banks and insurers in 2008.

“I still see Bernanke saying, ‘I hate A.I.G.; I don’t want to give them any more money, but I have to,’ ” he said, referring to the former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the large insurer that was bailed out in 2008.

It's not go to happen, but only because he is not politically connected enough.

-RW