Squeezing Silver

by Mark A.Cymrot

Famed Nelson Bunker Hunt, along with Saudi sheikhs, manipulated silver prices in 1979-80 while meeting at thoroughbred horse events, five-star hotels and posh restaurants. When prices spiked from $9 to $51, they pocketed billions while thousands were cheated, including Minpeco, Peru's minerals agent. Regulators conflicted by their dealings with Bunker failed to stop his broad daylight conspiracy. When prices crashed two months later, the Hunt defaults threatened the US economy with collapse. Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Chairman, engineered the first controversial too-big-to-fail bailout to save the US economy. Squeezing Silver is a legal thriller that takes the reader inside the courtroom of one of the most important trials of recent decades recreating real-life confrontations with key witnesses, premier defense lawyers, and a respected judge.

470 pages, Hardcover

Published April 10, 2018

Reviews

[Marc Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty quick read. I enjoyed the narrative and Cymrot made what could have been a highly technical set of issues understandable and interesting to a reader with no real understanding of futures trading. A remarkable period in our history. I was particularly struck by the fragility of the banking system to what, but current standards, looks like small loss levels in the scheme of things. But then again, this was the pre-interstate banking, Glass Steagall era when banks couldn't take much of a punch.