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39. The Hunt Brothers’ Speculation Caused Silver Prices to Spike Through the Roof
The Hunt brothers went on a silver buying spree in the 1970s. When they ran out of money, they borrowed heavily to buy more silver. By 1979, they had accumulated about 100 million troy ounces – almost 7 million pounds – of the stuff. That was almost half the world’s transportable supply.
That speculation caused the price of silver to spike by over 800%, from $6 an ounce in early 1979, to over $50 by early 1980. The Hunt brothers made about $4 billion in paper profits, but in reality, they had simply created a huge asset bubble, that was bound to burst sooner or later.