The plight of New York City taxi drivers - including a recent spate of suicides - has been well-documented. The prevailing narrative held up by other news organizations is that the drivers were victims of Uber and the gig economy. But THE WEEKLY uncovers a more nefarious force at play: under-regulated banks and venal brokers deliberately inflated medallion prices, saddling taxi drivers with high-interest balloon loans. Those who lived through the subprime mortgage scandal will hear an echo, and perhaps see themselves in the drivers who bet their lives on an iconic industry, and were ruined for it.