History remembers the last nominal high in the price of silver before the newer a lot of $49.77 observed in April of 2011 being an anomaly that was largely induced through the Hunt brothers' purported attempt to corner the market by purchasing vast amounts of silver and silver futures to the point where they held rights to over half the worldwide quantity of deliverable silver.
This remarkable event began within the late seventies and led to a clear, crisp rise in the price of silver to a then-all time a lot of $48.70 per ounce. The dramatic rally culminated at the begining of 1980 after COMEX silver exchange trading rules were changed to create margin purchases harder, thereby forcing the Hunt Brothers to overlook a $100 million margin call. The cost of silver then collapsed in a traumatic market event that occurred on March 27th of this same year, which has since been dubbed Silver Thursday.
Although later instructed to shell out over a hundred million dollars on civil claims that they conspired to corner the silver market, a loss of revenue that ultimately led to their bankruptcy filing, the Hunts claimed that they were simply trying to begin a gold and silver backed currency as an alternative to the virtually intrinsically worthless paper Greenback.
Inflation Reflects Insufficient Faith in Paper Currency
Interestingly, 1980 was also the ninth year of the very first time in modern world history where no major world currency - other than the Swiss Franc that retained a 40 % gold reserve backing until this policy was ended by referendum in May of 2000 -was backed by anything apart from faith in the issuer.
In lots of ways, the notably high inflation rates from the 1970's in the usa was an early test of that faith. This phenomenon was directly due to the unilateral removal by then-President Richard Nixon in 1971 of the U.S. Dollar from the defacto standard that had managed to get the lynchpin of the post-WWII Brett on Woods system of fixed forex rates.
Impact from the Hunts' Efforts
The machine has matured considerably since those days. The Hunts managed a little corner in a bigger market, but the Hunts' long positions were actually small compared to today's manipulative short positions. The silver marketplace is also smaller today, in terms of the availability of above-ground investment grade silver bars and coins.
Many people choose to ignore this fact, perhaps let's **ume that the price of re-mining the billions of ounces of up to now un-recycled silver sequestered in the large number of electronics, solders, switches, wiring, missiles, ball bearings, old jewelry and silverware will not someday cost into the precious metal's value.
Nevertheless, the Hunt effect has had a long effect on the silver market. For those who came of age during the late seventies and either took part in or just followed the following dramatic witch hunt, the events designed a lasting impression and people days seem almost like yesterday in the minds of numerous observers.
The generation transitional phase in the death of equities and the decimation of the Dollar's value in an era of exceptionally loose monetary policy has become facing the very same fears that originally motivated the Hunts to buy silver.
The new longs really are a diverse group - instead of concentrated holdings that will constitute a market corner - and most seem to be thinking about taking physical possession of silver. This trend could eventually result in the paper futures market for silver obsolete, leaving so that it is covered with the trading machines.
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Monetary Charlatans Ignore History's Lessons
One key issue with today's monetary charlatans is they seem quite happy to completely disregard the teachings of history. Including the current sordid experience with contemporary "activist" central banking and the resulting persistent monetary inflation that has prevailed in the last twenty years.
History may now be repeating that test. While the man - former Fed Chief Paul Volker -that ended up being accountable for administering the unpleasant medicine and therefore re-establishing a temporary confidence in the Dollar now plays a symbolic role, administering the slightest fraction of this same medicine in the form of higher interest rates would mostly likely get rid of the patient altogether.