In the fall of 2006, Chicago held an auction to sell taxi medallions, the permits that let people own and operate cabs. The city raised millions of dollars. Officials declared the sale a success.

But there was something strange about the auction: None of the winning bidders lived in Chicago.

Almost all of them lived hundreds of miles away, in New York.

Over the next decade, New York taxi industry leaders — fleet owners, brokers and financiers — steadily seized control of Chicago’s medallion market and squeezed it for huge profits. Using

Comment: Whoa. Lightfoot said citywide lead pipe replacement is a “complicated issue,” potentially costing $8.5 billion that the city does not have.

The socialist perspective.