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When
Andrew Murstein hired pop music super star Nicki Minaj to headline his son
Matt’s Bar Mitzvah, it was an unusually conspicuous flaunting of wealth by one
of New York City's leading taxi cab magnates. Newsweek estimates that Minaj
might have been paid as much as half a million for the gig, which entailed
taking a personal photo with every single boy and girl in attendance.
Andrew Murstein’s vast wealth derives from a shrewd decision that his
grandpa Leon made 78 years ago. In 1937, New York City issued what ultimately
amounted to 13,437 taxi medallions—a special kind of license that conferred the
exclusive right to drive a cab in the Big Apple. And Leon Murstein bought
one...for $10. And then he bought several hundred more to rent to other
drivers.
From 1937 to 2013, the price of each of those medallions climbed
from $10 to over a million dollars. Over the years, the city tried periodically
to break the medallion cartel to make life easier on the riding public, but to
no avai...
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