Nelson Bunker Hunt, 88, Oil Tycoon With a Texas-Size Presence, Dies

Jon Economy, Geopolitics, Precious Metals, Silver

Nelson Bunker Hunt, the down-home Texas oil tycoon who owned a thousand race horses, drove an old Cadillac and once tried to corner the world’s silver market only to lose most of his fortune when the price collapsed, died on Tuesday in Dallas. He was 88.
His death, at an assisted living center, followed a long period of treatment for cancer and dementia, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“A billion dollars ain’t what it used to be,” he said in 1980 after silver stakes he had amassed with two brothers, Herbert and Lamar, fell to $10.80 from $50.35 an ounce. In barely two months, their holdings and contracts for purchases — corralling a third to half the world’s deliverable silver — had plunged from a $7 billion value in January to a $1.7 billion loss in March.
With the Hunts unable to cover enormous margin calls, the debacle endangered financial markets and brokerage houses, forcing federal regulators and the nation’s banks to step in with a $1 billion line of credit, a bailout that saved the system from a stampede and the Hunts from a meltdown.

This post was published at NY Times