How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All
TL:DR: yes its long. Grab a beer.
Until his dying day in 2014, Nelson Bunker Hunt, who had once been the world’s wealthiest man, denied that he and his brother plotted to corner the global silver market. Sure, back in 1980, Bunker, his younger brother Herbert, and other members of the Hunt clan owned roughly two-thirds of all the privately held silver on earth. But the historic stockpiling of bullion hadn’t been a ploy to manipulate the market, they and their sizable legal team would insist in the following years. Instead, it was a strategy to hedge against the voracious inflation of the 1970s—a monumental bet against the U.S. dollar. Whatever the motive, it was a bet that went historically sour. The debt-fueled boom and bust of the global silver market not only decimated the Hunt fortune, but threatened to take down the U.S. financial system. The panic of “Silver Thursday” took place over 35 years ago, but it still raises questions about the nature of financial manipulation. While many view the Hunt brothers as members of a long succession of white collar crooks, from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff, others see the endearingly eccentric Texans as the victims of overstepping regulators and vindictive insiders who couldn’t stand the thought of being played by a couple of southern yokels. In either case, the story of the Hunt brothers just goes to show how difficult it can be to distinguish illegal market manipulation from the old fashioned wheeling and dealing that make our markets work. The Real-Life Ewings Whatever their foibles, the Hunts make for an interesting cast of characters. Evidently CBS thought so; the family is rumored to be the basis for the Ewings, the fictional Texas oil dynasty of Dallas fame. Sitting at the top of the family tree was H.L. Hunt, a man who allegedly purchased his first oil field with poker winnings and made a fortune drilling in east Texas. H.L. was a well-known oddball to boot, and his sons inherited many of their father’s quirks. For one, there was the stinginess. Despite being the richest man on earth in the 1960s, Bunker Hunt (who went by his middle name), along with his younger brothers Herbert (first name William) and Lamar, cultivated an image as unpretentious good old boys. They drove old Cadillacs, flew coach, and when they eventually went to trial in New York City in 1988, they took the subway. As one Texas editor was quoted in the New York Times, Bunker Hunt was “the kind of guy who orders chicken-fried steak and Jello-O, spills some on his tie, and then goes out and buys all the silver in the world.” Cheap suits aside, the Hunts were not without their ostentation. At the end of the 1970s, Bunker boasted a stable of over 500 horses and his little brother Lamar owned the Kansas City Chiefs. All six children of H.L.’s first marriage (the patriarch of the Hunt family had fifteen children by three women before he died in 1974) lived on estates befitting the scions of a Texas billionaire. These lifestyles were financed by trusts, but also risky investments in oil, real estate, and a host of commodities including sugar beets, soybeans, and, before long, silver. The Hunt brothers also inherited their father’s political inclinations. A zealous anti-Communist, Bunker Hunt bankrolled conservative causes and was a prominent member of the John Birch Society, a group whose founder once speculated that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent” of Soviet conspiracy. In November of 1963, Hunt sponsored a particularly ill-timed political campaign, which distributed pamphlets around Dallas condemning President Kennedy for alleged slights against the Constitution on the day that he was assassinated. JFK conspiracy theorists have been obsessed with Hunt ever since. In fact, it was the Hunt brand of politics that partially explains what led Bunker and Herbert to start buying silver in 1973. Hard Money The 1970s were not kind to the U.S. dollar. Years of wartime spending and unresponsive monetary policy pushed inflation upward throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Then, in October of 1973, war broke out in the Middle East and an oil embargo was declared against the United States. Inflation jumped above 10%. It would stay high throughout the decade, peaking in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution at an annual average of 13.5% in 1980. Over the same period of time, the global monetary system underwent a historic transformation. Since the first Roosevelt administration, the U.S. dollar had been pegged to the value of gold at a predictable rate of $35 per ounce. But in 1971, President Nixon, responding to inflationary pressures, suspended that relationship. For the first time in modern history, the paper dollar did not represent some fixed amount of tangible, precious metal sitting in a vault somewhere. For conservative commodity traders like the Hunts, who blamed government spending for inflation and held grave reservations about the viability of fiat currency, the perceived stability of precious metal offered a financial safe harbor. It was illegal to trade gold in the early 1970s, so the Hunts turned to the next best thing. 📷
As an investment, there was a lot to like about silver. The Hunts were not alone in fleeing to bullion amid all the inflation and geopolitical turbulence, so the price was ticking up. Plus, light-sensitive silver halide is a key component of photographic film. With the growth of the consumer photography market, new production from mines struggled to keep up with demand. And so, in 1973, Bunker and Herbert bought over 35 million ounces of silver, most of which they flew to Switzerland in specifically designed airplanes guarded by armed Texas ranch hands. According to one source, the Hunt’s purchases were big enough to move the global market. But silver was not the Hunts' only speculative venture in the 1970s. Nor was it the only one that got them into trouble with regulators. Soy Before Silver In 1977, the price of soybeans was rising fast. Trade restrictions on Brazil and growing demand from China made the legume a hot commodity, and both Bunker and Herbert decided to enter the futures market in April of that year. A future is an agreement to buy or sell some quantity of a commodity at an agreed upon price at a later date. If someone contracts to buy soybeans in the future (they are said to take the “long” position), they will benefit if the price of soybeans rise, since they have locked in the lower price ahead of time. Likewise, if someone contracts to sell (that’s called the “short” position), they benefit if the price falls, since they have locked in the old, higher price. While futures contracts can be used by soybean farmers and soy milk producers to guard against price swings, most futures are traded by people who wouldn’t necessarily know tofu from cream cheese. As a de facto insurance contract against market volatility, futures can be used to hedge other investments or simply to gamble on prices going up (by going long) or down (by going short). When the Hunts decided to go long in the soybean futures market, they went very, very long. Between Bunker, Herbert, and the accounts of five of their children, the Hunts collectively purchased the right to buy one-third of the entire autumn soybean harvest of the United States. To some, it appeared as if the Hunts were attempting to corner the soybean market. In its simplest version, a corner occurs when someone buys up all (or at least, most) of the available quantity of a commodity. This creates an artificial shortage, which drives up the price, and allows the market manipulator to sell some of his stockpile at a higher profit. Futures markets introduce some additional complexity to the cornerer’s scheme. Recall that when a trader takes a short position on a contract, he or she is pledging to sell a certain amount of product to the holder of the long position. But if the holder of the long position just so happens to be sitting on all the readily available supply of the commodity under contract, the short seller faces an unenviable choice: go scrounge up some of the very scarce product in order to “make delivery” or just pay the cornerer a hefty premium and nullify the deal entirely. In this case, the cornerer is actually counting on the shorts to do the latter, says Craig Pirrong, professor of finance at the University of Houston. If too many short sellers find that it actually costs less to deliver the product, the market manipulator will be stuck with warehouses full of inventory. Finance experts refer to selling the all the excess supply after building a corner as “burying the corpse.” “That is when the price collapses,” explains Pirrong. “But if the number of deliveries isn’t too high, the loss from selling at the low price after the corner is smaller than the profit from selling contracts at the high price.” 📷
The Chicago Board of Trade trading floor. Photo credit:Jeremy Kemp
Even so, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that a single family from Texas had contracted to buy a sizable portion of the 1977 soybean crop, they did not accuse the Hunts of outright market manipulation. Instead, noting that the Hunts had exceeded the 3 million bushel aggregate limit on soybean holdings by about 20 million, the CFTC noted that the Hunt’s “excessive holdings threaten disruption of the market and could cause serious injury to the American public.” The CFTC ordered the Hunts to sell and to pay a penalty of $500,000. Though the Hunts made tens of millions of dollars on paper while soybean prices skyrocketed, it’s unclear whether they were able to cash out before the regulatory intervention. In any case, the Hunts were none too pleased with the decision. “Apparently the CFTC is trying to repeal the law of supply and demand,” Bunker complained to the press. Silver Thursday Despite the run in with regulators, the Hunts were not dissuaded. Bunker and Herbert had eased up on silver after their initial big buy in 1973, but in the fall of 1979, they were back with a vengeance. By the end of the year, Bunker and Herbert owned 21 million ounces of physical silver each. They had even larger positions in the silver futures market: Bunker was long on 45 million ounces, while Herbert held contracts for 20 million. Their little brother Lamar also had a more “modest” position. By the new year, with every dollar increase in the price of silver, the Hunts were making $100 million on paper. But unlike most investors, when their profitable futures contracts expired, they took delivery. As in 1973, they arranged to have the metal flown to Switzerland. Intentional or not, this helped create a shortage of the metal for industrial supply. Naturally, the industrialists were unhappy. From a spot price of around $6 per ounce in early 1979, the price of silver shot up to $50.42 in January of 1980. In the same week, silver futures contracts were trading at $46.80. Film companies like Kodak saw costs go through the roof, while the British film producer, Ilford, was forced to lay off workers. Traditional bullion dealers, caught in a squeeze, cried foul to the commodity exchanges, and the New York jewelry house Tiffany & Co. took out a full page ad in the New York Times slamming the “unconscionable” Hunt brothers. They were right to single out the Hunts; in mid-January, they controlled 69% of all the silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) in New York. 📷
But as the high prices persisted, new silver began to come out of the woodwork. “In the U.S., people rifled their dresser drawers and sofa cushions to find dimes and quarters with silver content and had them melted down,” says Pirrong, from the University of Houston. “Silver is a classic part of a bride’s trousseau in India, and when prices got high, women sold silver out of their trousseaus.” According to a Washington Post article published that March, the D.C. police warned residents of a rash of home burglaries targeting silver. Unfortunately for the Hunts, all this new supply had a predictable effect. Rather than close out their contracts, short sellers suddenly found it was easier to get their hands on new supplies of silver and deliver. “The main factor that has caused corners to fail [throughout history] is that the manipulator has underestimated how much will be delivered to him if he succeeds [at] raising the price to artificial levels,” says Pirrong. “Eventually, the Hunts ran out of money to pay for all the silver that was thrown at them.” In financial terms, the brothers had a large corpse on their hands—and no way to bury it. This proved to be an especially big problem, because it wasn’t just the Hunt fortune that was on the line. Of the $6.6 billion worth of silver the Hunts held at the top of the market, the brothers had “only” spent a little over $1 billion of their own money. The rest was borrowed from over 20 banks and brokerage houses. At the same time, COMEX decided to crack down. On January 7, 1980, the exchange’s board of governors announced that it would cap the size of silver futures exposure to 3 million ounces. Those in excess of the cap (say, by the tens of millions) were given until the following month to bring themselves into compliance. But that was too long for the Chicago Board of Trade exchange, which suspended the issue of any new silver futures on January 21. Silver futures traders would only be allowed to square up old contracts. Predictably, silver prices began to slide. As the various banks and other firms that had backed the Hunt bullion binge began to recognize the tenuousness of their financial position, they issued margin calls, asking the brothers to put up more money as collateral for their debts. The Hunts, unable to sell silver lest they trigger a panic, borrowed even more. By early March, futures contracts had fallen to the mid-$30 range. Matters finally came to a head on March 25, when one of the Hunts’ largest backers, the Bache Group, asked for $100 million more in collateral. The brothers were out of cash, and Bache was unwilling to accept silver in its place, as it had been doing throughout the month. With the Hunts in default, Bache did the only thing it could to start recouping its losses: it start to unload silver. On March 27, “Silver Thursday,” the silver futures market dropped by a third to $10.80. Just two months earlier, these contracts had been trading at four times that amount. The Aftermath After the oil bust of the early 1980s and a series of lawsuits polished off the remainder of the Hunt brothers’ once historic fortune, the two declared bankruptcy in 1988. Bunker, who had been worth an estimated $16 billion in the 1960s, emerged with under $10 million to his name. That’s not exactly chump change, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his 500-plus stable of horses,. The Hunts almost dragged their lenders into bankruptcy too—and with them, a sizable chunk of the U.S. financial system. Over twenty financial institutions had extended over a billion dollars in credit to the Hunt brothers. The default and resulting collapse of silver prices blew holes in balance sheets across Wall Street. A privately orchestrated bailout loan from a number of banks allowed the brothers to start paying off their debts and keep their creditors afloat, but the markets and regulators were rattled. Silver Spot Prices Per Ounce (January, 1979 - June, 1980) 📷
In the words of then CFTC chief James Stone, the Hunts’ antics had threatened to punch a hole in the “financial fabric of the United States” like nothing had in decades. Writing about the entire episode a year later, Harper’s Magazine described Silver Thursday as “the first great panic since October 1929.” The trouble was not over for the Hunts. In the following years, the brothers were dragged before Congressional hearings, got into a legal spat with their lenders, and were sued by a Peruvian mineral marketing company, which had suffered big losses in the crash. In 1988, a New York City jury found for the South American firm, levying a penalty of over $130 million against the Hunts and finding that they had deliberately conspired to corner the silver market. Surprisingly, there is still some disagreement on that point. Bunker Hunt attributed the whole affair to the political motives of COMEX insiders and regulators. Referring to himself later as “a favorite whipping boy” of an eastern financial establishment riddled with liberals and socialists, Bunker and his brother, Herbert, are still perceived as martyrs by some on the far-right. “Political and financial insiders repeatedly changed the rules of the game,” wrote the New American. “There is little evidence to support the ‘corner the market’ narrative.” Though the Hunt brothers clearly amassed a staggering amount of silver and silver derivatives at the end of the 1970s, it is impossible to prove definitively that market manipulation was in their hearts. Maybe, as the Hunts always claimed, they just really believed in the enduring value of silver. Or maybe, as others have noted, the Hunt brothers had no idea what they were doing. Call it the stupidity defense. “They’re terribly unsophisticated,” an anonymous associated was quoted as saying of the Hunts in a Chicago Tribune article from 1989. “They make all the mistakes most other people make,” said another. p.s. credit to Ben Christopher
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1. https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%) NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar. https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866 NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis !!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should. In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase. Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below: https://www.playboy.com/ https://www.playboytv.com/ https://www.playboyplus.com/ https://www.iplayboy.com/ Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success. “Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.” https://www.scientificgames.com/ https://www.microgaming.co.uk/ “This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.” https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/ As per their SEC filing: “Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1 They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon. https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again: https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea “Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.” “According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently: https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress. Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait. https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/ Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05 Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing: “For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.” “In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.” “In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.” “In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.” They are profitable across all three of their current business segments. “Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world. "Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.” Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame: “As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn. The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :( He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :) Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw. I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003 Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this: “Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy. “Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.” https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative. https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html Y’all like that China money? “Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.” Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.” https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose. I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing “Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.” “Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.” Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong. Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will. Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way. Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains. TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here: WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf Or here: https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.” STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon. Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.
STORY OF THE HUNT BROTHERS AND SILVER SHORT LONG READ
Story Time: Silver short squeeze
How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All
TL:DR: yes its long. Grab a beer.
Until his dying day in 2014, Nelson Bunker Hunt, who had once been the world’s wealthiest man, denied that he and his brother plotted to corner the global silver market. Sure, back in 1980, Bunker, his younger brother Herbert, and other members of the Hunt clan owned roughly two-thirds of all the privately held silver on earth. But the historic stockpiling of bullion hadn’t been a ploy to manipulate the market, they and their sizable legal team would insist in the following years. Instead, it was a strategy to hedge against the voracious inflation of the 1970s—a monumental bet against the U.S. dollar. Whatever the motive, it was a bet that went historically sour. The debt-fueled boom and bust of the global silver market not only decimated the Hunt fortune, but threatened to take down the U.S. financial system. The panic of “Silver Thursday” took place over 35 years ago, but it still raises questions about the nature of financial manipulation. While many view the Hunt brothers as members of a long succession of white collar crooks, from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff, others see the endearingly eccentric Texans as the victims of overstepping regulators and vindictive insiders who couldn’t stand the thought of being played by a couple of southern yokels. In either case, the story of the Hunt brothers just goes to show how difficult it can be to distinguish illegal market manipulation from the old fashioned wheeling and dealing that make our markets work. The Real-Life Ewings Whatever their foibles, the Hunts make for an interesting cast of characters. Evidently CBS thought so; the family is rumored to be the basis for the Ewings, the fictional Texas oil dynasty of Dallas fame. Sitting at the top of the family tree was H.L. Hunt, a man who allegedly purchased his first oil field with poker winnings and made a fortune drilling in east Texas. H.L. was a well-known oddball to boot, and his sons inherited many of their father’s quirks. For one, there was the stinginess. Despite being the richest man on earth in the 1960s, Bunker Hunt (who went by his middle name), along with his younger brothers Herbert (first name William) and Lamar, cultivated an image as unpretentious good old boys. They drove old Cadillacs, flew coach, and when they eventually went to trial in New York City in 1988, they took the subway. As one Texas editor was quoted in the New York Times, Bunker Hunt was “the kind of guy who orders chicken-fried steak and Jello-O, spills some on his tie, and then goes out and buys all the silver in the world.” Cheap suits aside, the Hunts were not without their ostentation. At the end of the 1970s, Bunker boasted a stable of over 500 horses and his little brother Lamar owned the Kansas City Chiefs. All six children of H.L.’s first marriage (the patriarch of the Hunt family had fifteen children by three women before he died in 1974) lived on estates befitting the scions of a Texas billionaire. These lifestyles were financed by trusts, but also risky investments in oil, real estate, and a host of commodities including sugar beets, soybeans, and, before long, silver. The Hunt brothers also inherited their father’s political inclinations. A zealous anti-Communist, Bunker Hunt bankrolled conservative causes and was a prominent member of the John Birch Society, a group whose founder once speculated that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent” of Soviet conspiracy. In November of 1963, Hunt sponsored a particularly ill-timed political campaign, which distributed pamphlets around Dallas condemning President Kennedy for alleged slights against the Constitution on the day that he was assassinated. JFK conspiracy theorists have been obsessed with Hunt ever since. In fact, it was the Hunt brand of politics that partially explains what led Bunker and Herbert to start buying silver in 1973. Hard Money The 1970s were not kind to the U.S. dollar. Years of wartime spending and unresponsive monetary policy pushed inflation upward throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Then, in October of 1973, war broke out in the Middle East and an oil embargo was declared against the United States. Inflation jumped above 10%. It would stay high throughout the decade, peaking in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution at an annual average of 13.5% in 1980. Over the same period of time, the global monetary system underwent a historic transformation. Since the first Roosevelt administration, the U.S. dollar had been pegged to the value of gold at a predictable rate of $35 per ounce. But in 1971, President Nixon, responding to inflationary pressures, suspended that relationship. For the first time in modern history, the paper dollar did not represent some fixed amount of tangible, precious metal sitting in a vault somewhere. For conservative commodity traders like the Hunts, who blamed government spending for inflation and held grave reservations about the viability of fiat currency, the perceived stability of precious metal offered a financial safe harbor. It was illegal to trade gold in the early 1970s, so the Hunts turned to the next best thing. 📷
As an investment, there was a lot to like about silver. The Hunts were not alone in fleeing to bullion amid all the inflation and geopolitical turbulence, so the price was ticking up. Plus, light-sensitive silver halide is a key component of photographic film. With the growth of the consumer photography market, new production from mines struggled to keep up with demand. And so, in 1973, Bunker and Herbert bought over 35 million ounces of silver, most of which they flew to Switzerland in specifically designed airplanes guarded by armed Texas ranch hands. According to one source, the Hunt’s purchases were big enough to move the global market. But silver was not the Hunts' only speculative venture in the 1970s. Nor was it the only one that got them into trouble with regulators. Soy Before Silver In 1977, the price of soybeans was rising fast. Trade restrictions on Brazil and growing demand from China made the legume a hot commodity, and both Bunker and Herbert decided to enter the futures market in April of that year. A future is an agreement to buy or sell some quantity of a commodity at an agreed upon price at a later date. If someone contracts to buy soybeans in the future (they are said to take the “long” position), they will benefit if the price of soybeans rise, since they have locked in the lower price ahead of time. Likewise, if someone contracts to sell (that’s called the “short” position), they benefit if the price falls, since they have locked in the old, higher price. While futures contracts can be used by soybean farmers and soy milk producers to guard against price swings, most futures are traded by people who wouldn’t necessarily know tofu from cream cheese. As a de facto insurance contract against market volatility, futures can be used to hedge other investments or simply to gamble on prices going up (by going long) or down (by going short). When the Hunts decided to go long in the soybean futures market, they went very, very long. Between Bunker, Herbert, and the accounts of five of their children, the Hunts collectively purchased the right to buy one-third of the entire autumn soybean harvest of the United States. To some, it appeared as if the Hunts were attempting to corner the soybean market. In its simplest version, a corner occurs when someone buys up all (or at least, most) of the available quantity of a commodity. This creates an artificial shortage, which drives up the price, and allows the market manipulator to sell some of his stockpile at a higher profit. Futures markets introduce some additional complexity to the cornerer’s scheme. Recall that when a trader takes a short position on a contract, he or she is pledging to sell a certain amount of product to the holder of the long position. But if the holder of the long position just so happens to be sitting on all the readily available supply of the commodity under contract, the short seller faces an unenviable choice: go scrounge up some of the very scarce product in order to “make delivery” or just pay the cornerer a hefty premium and nullify the deal entirely. In this case, the cornerer is actually counting on the shorts to do the latter, says Craig Pirrong, professor of finance at the University of Houston. If too many short sellers find that it actually costs less to deliver the product, the market manipulator will be stuck with warehouses full of inventory. Finance experts refer to selling the all the excess supply after building a corner as “burying the corpse.” “That is when the price collapses,” explains Pirrong. “But if the number of deliveries isn’t too high, the loss from selling at the low price after the corner is smaller than the profit from selling contracts at the high price.” 📷
The Chicago Board of Trade trading floor. Photo credit:Jeremy Kemp
Even so, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that a single family from Texas had contracted to buy a sizable portion of the 1977 soybean crop, they did not accuse the Hunts of outright market manipulation. Instead, noting that the Hunts had exceeded the 3 million bushel aggregate limit on soybean holdings by about 20 million, the CFTC noted that the Hunt’s “excessive holdings threaten disruption of the market and could cause serious injury to the American public.” The CFTC ordered the Hunts to sell and to pay a penalty of $500,000. Though the Hunts made tens of millions of dollars on paper while soybean prices skyrocketed, it’s unclear whether they were able to cash out before the regulatory intervention. In any case, the Hunts were none too pleased with the decision. “Apparently the CFTC is trying to repeal the law of supply and demand,” Bunker complained to the press. Silver Thursday Despite the run in with regulators, the Hunts were not dissuaded. Bunker and Herbert had eased up on silver after their initial big buy in 1973, but in the fall of 1979, they were back with a vengeance. By the end of the year, Bunker and Herbert owned 21 million ounces of physical silver each. They had even larger positions in the silver futures market: Bunker was long on 45 million ounces, while Herbert held contracts for 20 million. Their little brother Lamar also had a more “modest” position. By the new year, with every dollar increase in the price of silver, the Hunts were making $100 million on paper. But unlike most investors, when their profitable futures contracts expired, they took delivery. As in 1973, they arranged to have the metal flown to Switzerland. Intentional or not, this helped create a shortage of the metal for industrial supply. Naturally, the industrialists were unhappy. From a spot price of around $6 per ounce in early 1979, the price of silver shot up to $50.42 in January of 1980. In the same week, silver futures contracts were trading at $46.80. Film companies like Kodak saw costs go through the roof, while the British film producer, Ilford, was forced to lay off workers. Traditional bullion dealers, caught in a squeeze, cried foul to the commodity exchanges, and the New York jewelry house Tiffany & Co. took out a full page ad in the New York Times slamming the “unconscionable” Hunt brothers. They were right to single out the Hunts; in mid-January, they controlled 69% of all the silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) in New York. 📷
But as the high prices persisted, new silver began to come out of the woodwork. “In the U.S., people rifled their dresser drawers and sofa cushions to find dimes and quarters with silver content and had them melted down,” says Pirrong, from the University of Houston. “Silver is a classic part of a bride’s trousseau in India, and when prices got high, women sold silver out of their trousseaus.” According to a Washington Post article published that March, the D.C. police warned residents of a rash of home burglaries targeting silver. Unfortunately for the Hunts, all this new supply had a predictable effect. Rather than close out their contracts, short sellers suddenly found it was easier to get their hands on new supplies of silver and deliver. “The main factor that has caused corners to fail [throughout history] is that the manipulator has underestimated how much will be delivered to him if he succeeds [at] raising the price to artificial levels,” says Pirrong. “Eventually, the Hunts ran out of money to pay for all the silver that was thrown at them.” In financial terms, the brothers had a large corpse on their hands—and no way to bury it. This proved to be an especially big problem, because it wasn’t just the Hunt fortune that was on the line. Of the $6.6 billion worth of silver the Hunts held at the top of the market, the brothers had “only” spent a little over $1 billion of their own money. The rest was borrowed from over 20 banks and brokerage houses. At the same time, COMEX decided to crack down. On January 7, 1980, the exchange’s board of governors announced that it would cap the size of silver futures exposure to 3 million ounces. Those in excess of the cap (say, by the tens of millions) were given until the following month to bring themselves into compliance. But that was too long for the Chicago Board of Trade exchange, which suspended the issue of any new silver futures on January 21. Silver futures traders would only be allowed to square up old contracts. Predictably, silver prices began to slide. As the various banks and other firms that had backed the Hunt bullion binge began to recognize the tenuousness of their financial position, they issued margin calls, asking the brothers to put up more money as collateral for their debts. The Hunts, unable to sell silver lest they trigger a panic, borrowed even more. By early March, futures contracts had fallen to the mid-$30 range. Matters finally came to a head on March 25, when one of the Hunts’ largest backers, the Bache Group, asked for $100 million more in collateral. The brothers were out of cash, and Bache was unwilling to accept silver in its place, as it had been doing throughout the month. With the Hunts in default, Bache did the only thing it could to start recouping its losses: it start to unload silver. On March 27, “Silver Thursday,” the silver futures market dropped by a third to $10.80. Just two months earlier, these contracts had been trading at four times that amount. The Aftermath After the oil bust of the early 1980s and a series of lawsuits polished off the remainder of the Hunt brothers’ once historic fortune, the two declared bankruptcy in 1988. Bunker, who had been worth an estimated $16 billion in the 1960s, emerged with under $10 million to his name. That’s not exactly chump change, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his 500-plus stable of horses,. The Hunts almost dragged their lenders into bankruptcy too—and with them, a sizable chunk of the U.S. financial system. Over twenty financial institutions had extended over a billion dollars in credit to the Hunt brothers. The default and resulting collapse of silver prices blew holes in balance sheets across Wall Street. A privately orchestrated bailout loan from a number of banks allowed the brothers to start paying off their debts and keep their creditors afloat, but the markets and regulators were rattled. Silver Spot Prices Per Ounce (January, 1979 - June, 1980) 📷
In the words of then CFTC chief James Stone, the Hunts’ antics had threatened to punch a hole in the “financial fabric of the United States” like nothing had in decades. Writing about the entire episode a year later, Harper’s Magazine described Silver Thursday as “the first great panic since October 1929.” The trouble was not over for the Hunts. In the following years, the brothers were dragged before Congressional hearings, got into a legal spat with their lenders, and were sued by a Peruvian mineral marketing company, which had suffered big losses in the crash. In 1988, a New York City jury found for the South American firm, levying a penalty of over $130 million against the Hunts and finding that they had deliberately conspired to corner the silver market. Surprisingly, there is still some disagreement on that point. Bunker Hunt attributed the whole affair to the political motives of COMEX insiders and regulators. Referring to himself later as “a favorite whipping boy” of an eastern financial establishment riddled with liberals and socialists, Bunker and his brother, Herbert, are still perceived as martyrs by some on the far-right. “Political and financial insiders repeatedly changed the rules of the game,” wrote the New American. “There is little evidence to support the ‘corner the market’ narrative.” Though the Hunt brothers clearly amassed a staggering amount of silver and silver derivatives at the end of the 1970s, it is impossible to prove definitively that market manipulation was in their hearts. Maybe, as the Hunts always claimed, they just really believed in the enduring value of silver. Or maybe, as others have noted, the Hunt brothers had no idea what they were doing. Call it the stupidity defense. “They’re terribly unsophisticated,” an anonymous associated was quoted as saying of the Hunts in a Chicago Tribune article from 1989. “They make all the mistakes most other people make,” said another. p.s. credit to Ben Christopher
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OBLIGATORY FILLER MATERIAL. SHIP BREAKING AND BUSTING NUTs. Part 2
Continuing “And take your finger charger!” she yells as she heads up to our room. “Don’t want to run out of juice halfway through”. “Yes, dear”, I reply. That’s a damned good idea. I would have forgotten with all the other shit I’ve got on my mind. I make a quick call and have my crane operator meet me at the job site. I explain that I need him to lift me and this welding cart right over the transom of the ship and into the very bowels of the ship. I’m heading to ‘shaft alley” and dragging along a heavy, wheeled welding cart with 4 bottles of oxygen and another 4 of acetylene. Plus masks, regulators, tips, guns, rods, and all that fun welding stuff. Luckily, the ship, or what’s left of it, has electrical power hooked up to the mains for a few more days. I can run a portable smoke rejector, MP3 radio, a45nd my finger chargers all while I sweat, swear, and strain at welding in place twin 36” tail shafts. He lifts me up and over, with my radio directions, he lands me about 25 feet from my next job site. I unhook everything while telling him “Don’t pull slack!, Fer chrissakes!”. I detangle the welding cart and all my other accouterments for the night, and after unhooking the jib line from the railing where I set it for safekeeping, it withdraws like a Martian Viewfinder in The War of the Worlds. I hear crane diesels fire up and move slowly away. It’s quiet, darkish, dank, and somewhat smelly. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like working like this. Alone, by myself, and with no one else. I dislike kibitzers, nose-poker-inners, and other forms of subhuman flotsam and jetsam. I pull on my welder’s cap, and then my special welder’s mask, stick a cigar in through the custom-made cigar hole, fire up a heater, and a welding rod. Sparks fly from both at I attack tail shaft number one. Five hours later, and half my supplies are gone, I’m finished with tail shaft #1. That sucker isn’t going anywhere. I may not be a pretty welder, but when I weld something, it fucking-A stays welded. I drain 500 milliliters of spring water. Probably my 12th bottle and I’ve yet to have to utilize the euphemism; it’s that close and hot down here. I was just thinking that I could sure use a quick drink or 11 when I hear the muted roar of diesels and see a figure slowly descending via a crane jib line. “Es!”, I groan at her mode of entry, “What the hell is this in aid of?” “Oh, nice. Here I thought I’d bring you some lunch, and with the ship listing at these cray angles, the only way was that your crane guy saw me and offered to put me aboard.” “Right!” I growl, “Like a worm dangling on a hook? Dangerous much?” “Oh, but OK for you? Sexist.” “I’m not sexist, just trained and besides…you’re right. I just don’t want you hurt. It’s not the most conventional form of travel…” “But I’m in a 9 point rescue harness and Adil was being so careful. Oh, that reminds me, you owe Adil another case of potato juice.” “Not a problem”, I smile as I take the suspiciously heavy lunch box, “I’d even give up a box of cigars to see you anytime.” “Oh, OK. I’ll tell him that.” “Please don’t. With my poker losses, I’m into him and his cronies for too much already.” I smile. Es keys her radio and asks Adil to come back in an hour and a half or so. “That’s a long lunch”, I note. “Well, need time for a little exercise after lunch, don’t we?” Es smiles. “Indeed we do.” As I lustily attack a turkey & swiss sandwich and a tall frosty Kingfisher. Three hours later, I’m back welding on tail shaft number two. After lunch and some special exercises, I was about to let the damn thing just hang and ease back to the Raj for a few co-ed laps in the Jacuzzi. However, duty calls and time grows short. There’s much to do and miles to go before I sleep. Miles to go before I sleep. Four hours later, I emerge from shaft alley. I’m filthy, tired, and look like hell. It’s got to be 45 to 500 C in there and I’ve just spent the last number of hours with a 6,5000 welding torch in my hands. Good thing I brought along the pare fingers, as all the vibrations, heat, smoke, and fuming of the torch must have depleted the dilithium power cells in my normal set. I call Adil and have him lift just me and my fingers with charger out of the bowels of the boat. The rest of the materials my guys can drag out. Who knows? Maybe they’ll need a welder or MP3 player for some oddly bizarre reason. I pay off Adil and take a rain check on tonight’s poker game. I knew I should have never shown them Texas Hold’em… I see a tap tap nearly whiz by. A thrown rock grabs his attention. Almost immediately, I drop in and instruct him to take me to the gate. “Just the gate, Sahib?” he asks. “Well, I’m going to the Raj, but you don’t…” “The hell Chandrama doesn’t, Doctor Rock.” He smiles. Fuck. He knows me somehow. This is gonna cost me. “OK, then the Raj”, I say, “What’s this going to run?” “Oh, however many rupees you can pare. Maybe a cigar. Maybe some spirits…?” “OK on all three, but you’ll have to wait a bit. I’m just off work and currently skint.” “No worries. Dr. Rock is well known here. We will be off.” He toothily smiles at me as he hits the throttle. I never thought it was possible to pull G’s in an Indian tap tap. After I pay Chandrama his rupees, cigars, and bottle of scotch; I wearily drag my carcass towards our room. Esme is already in the library having breakfast. I wander over and she holds up her hand. “Not until you shower and change. I can smell you clear over here.” She admonishes. “By your command, dear”, I say. I head to the bar, create a very large hard-day-down-in-the-bowels-of-a-doomed-cruise-ship-welding drink, and shuffle off to our room. While I’m in the shower and my fingers are getting their charge on, I hear a knock at the door. Before I could even adjust the water temperature, the door flies open and the chambermaid whooshes in, grabs my nasty work clothes and boots, yells something unintelligible, and scurries out the door. “I hope that she is going to get them washed,” I say, drying off, “And not burned.” They were pretty nasty. Back in the library, in my natty usual work outfit of Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and field boots, Esme and I are discussing our next steps. “We need to get back to the Middle East eventually”, Esme admonishes. “You’ve got to get to university one of these days.” “I know”, I reply over eggs, toast, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, black pudding, and coffee. “But this job is special. Who knows when next I’ll be allowed to blow stuff up?” “Knowing you?” Es smiles, “About 60 minutes after we land at university.” “From your lips to my ears”, I say over shoveling of breakfast. After breakfast, I realize that I’m dead tired, so back to the room for a bit of kip. Es decides that since time is winding down, she’ll go into town, perhaps for the last time this trip, and do a little shopping. “Go nuts. Tired out. Sleep front blew through.” I say as I hand her my wallet. “Just leave enough for burial expenses.” Esme scoffs, quickly kisses me and heads out the door to our waiting driver. I didn’t realize just how tired I was, as I drag my carcass back to the room and collapse with an audible THUD. Around 1100, I awakened, refreshed. During my slumber, someone infiltrated our room and committed another premeditated neatness. They also left my freshly washed, dried, and pressed orange PPEs. “How convenient”, I smile to myself, as I dress and head back to the job site. I leave Esme a note that I’ll be at the armory for the rest of the day but will be back in time for dinner. Now comes the design and implementation phase of the project, and I want at least 6 hours of solitude to put the final touches on my plans. Going to need a lot of fabrication and the last thing I need are people around me, even my beloved wife. It’s nut cuttin’ time, and I need to devote some serious little gray cells to the matter at hand. Later that night, around tiffen, which we take purty durn early round these parts, buckaroo, Esme, and I are wide-eyed over the steaks the Majordomo had procured for our evening repast. Prime porterhouses. Esme’s steak is about 2” thick, mine twice that. Hers done to a grilled medium-rare perfection, mine just restored to natural bodily temperature or blue as some like to term it. We have been offered a couple of bottles of 1998 Chateau Lafite Rothschild - Pauillac 1er Grand Cru Classe; which I deem ‘grape juice with an attitude’, but with which Esme is smitten. We somehow manage two bottles that evening. I cannot understand the goofiness over wine by oenophiles. Now if it were a couple of bottles of Russo-Baltique vodka, I could understand… Apart from a very simple and very good house salad, sans cucumbers, the nasty, evil things; we eschewed any other form of accompaniment. We’re primarily carnivores and vegetal side dishes aren’t dinner, that’s something dinner would eat. Afterward, we’re relaxing in the library. I’m smoking a very nice Oscuro Arturo Fuente Opus X from the box Mr. Kannada obtained for me. Esme is having one of the three cigarettes she’s allowing herself until she quits smoking altogether. She is laboring under the impression that I’ll follow suit, and far be it from me to dissuade her of that idea. Anyways. Sanjay wanders by. “There you are”, he states. “You have a keen grasp of the obvious”, I reply with a puff and a slurp. “Did you lock out the armory?” he asks. “Aw, shitsnacks. Didn’t Adil give you the note?” I asked, “I told him to give you the note that I’ve locked down the armory as I’ve been fabricating in there for the big show in two days. The last thing I need is a bunch of ham-fisted clodhoppers wandering around in there and knocking over a piece of my work. That would be…unfortunate…” I said coldly. “Oh, OK then.” Sanjay says, “But next time, please let me know in advance.” “Oh, most assuredly”, I assured Sanjay. Although a repeat performance seems highly unlikely. After a hearty breakfast the next morning, Es is off shopping one last time as I need the entire day, most of is spent hooked to a crane, fumbling around a pair of intricately machined boat screws. Setting a precise and definite recipe of high explosives I’ve designed. While the rest of the guys are setting and priming charges for after my show, I’m working alone. I’ve cordoned off the aft of the ship as a “No-Go Zone”. I’m laying a few tons of various high explosives, and the last thing I need are gawkers, questioners, or nose-poker-inners. One thing they know, when Dr. Rock says “Get lost”, one stays lost. It’s just about dark, and I’m finished. I’ve posted a quartet of guards which changes every four hours, to watch over my handiwork as I’ve now got 5.5 tons of various high explosives set, charged and primed. All the electrical leads are shorted to ground and actually buried to a lead bus-bar in the sand near the stern of the ship. There’s no way I’m letting any errant electrons travel where they shouldn’t ought and cause a short. That would be, what we in the demolition business call, a “Bad Thing”. With capital letters. The next morning dawned clear and bright as it usually does when the monsoon’s not in town. I avail myself of a hearty breakfast with Esme before I’m off for the ceremonies. “So”, I say over coffee, Greenland of course, and toast, “What was that you were saying last night? Sorry, I was a bit nitro-groggy…” Es replies, “It's a very busy week. I'm thinking about not going to the demolition.” “Huh!” “The kids need me, honey. I’ve got to send off their packages. Khris is having car problems…” she continues. “Es. We've had these kids for a while now. They've never kept you from coming to the other demolitions.” I reply. Es continues, “Honey, it's not like I've never been to a demolition before. I just don't think I can go through all that... I'll just be glad when this one is over.” I sigh, “Well, you're gonna miss a hell of a show.” I finish up breakfast, pull out a cigar, kiss Esme and head for the door. I don’t even stop to look back. I know her. She makes up her mind and that’s it. I’m a little down, but there’s a job that needs to be done. A big, fat, hairy, nasty, potentially deadly, and altogether ridiculously profitable job. Game face on, it’s nut cuttin’ time once again. I grab the jib line from the crane and have Adil hoist me around like we did all day yesterday. I’m galving connections, re-soldering some Western Unions splices that the salt air and humidity have compromised, just basically re-doing everything for the 1100 show. Then, once finished, I’ll do it all over again. The propeller cones on the tail shafts are covered in heavy canvas. I’ve built a special series of shaped charges, just like the ones I’ll be using to spin off the Pilgrim Nuts, but of different materials. I’ve created six corresponding lines of plastic explosives, parallel to the tail shafts that will detonate exactly 0.25 seconds apart sequentially. This will generate a torque on the caps, and if I’ve used enough boost, will spin them off the shaft and out of the way rather than atomize them. The procedure is based upon a similar, though smaller, procedure taught to me by one of the more crimson paragons of wild well firefighting. He showed me how to mold shaped charges and align them to break the connection on hammer unions and give them a good spin instead of just gobbing explosives all over and blowing the crap out of the connections. That way, the caps, unions, and pipes to which they’re attached can be retrieved and re-used. He was a master of the art. I’m glad I could learn even a little from him. I’m doing the same thing for the Pilgrim Nuts a bit later in the show, just with about three-quarters of a ton of highly malleable explosive each. Boom, wait a few hundred milliseconds, boom goes the next line, blast, rinse, repeat. If all goes well, the shock waves are self-reinforcing. The initial movement of the nut on its threads is amplified by each subsequent firing. By the time Number 6 hits, the nut’s free spinning and with the aid of gravity, spins right off the tail shaft and onto the soft, warm sand of the Western shore of the Indian Ocean. At least, that’s the theory. OK, here’s the whole show lowdown, at least from my end of the boat. I’ve rigged the stern of the ship with about three spools of Primacord. That goes first and cleans off all the accumulated sea schmoo and crapola that could interfere with my next shots. Since I’m an inveterate showman, I’ve wired Primacord around the railing on the distal stern of the ship. I’ll clean that off as well as it annoys me by its very presence. That will be a hard-wire job and I have the galved leads right here next to me on the stage; tied into my boom-stick or blasting board. Next, I have several hundreds of pounds of Seismogel in shaft alley. This is a hard-wire job as well. this will not only test my welding capabilities, but shake loose the tail shafts, but not break my welds, I fervently hope. After sitting for so long with all that weight in one spot, the tail shafts and propellers could have damn nigh welded themselves together. I’m providing a bit of a knock to rattle, but not break, them apart. Besides, I like playing around with binaries. Next, the propeller caps go, as I’ve explained previously. Also, a hard-wired plastique job, and their color-coded leads are right here, next to me on the dais, wired right into the blasting board. Once those are gone, meaning the sand-capable forklifts have ushered them out of the way, it’s time for the Pilgrim Nuts. Again, hard-wired, and I have the leads already tied into the blasting board. This is going to be one of the big ones, so I re-galv that just to be sure. So, if all goes as planned, the sand-capable forklifts will have pushed the Pilgrim Nuts out of the way and it’s time for the props to come on down. I’ve done my homework and spoken with Captains, Able-Bodied Seamen, and other forms of Salty Dogs about how this is to go. There unanimous answers: “Not well.” Getting the heavy props to slide down the tail shafts, even with gravity assist is everything from “A real pain in the ass” to “A cast-iron bitch.” Everyone I’ve interviewed agreed, this is the hard part. Once a propeller and tail shaft mate, it’s a monogamous union. Let no mand rend asunder. That’s why I’ve planted a few tones of ANFO, liquid nitro, and a C-4 back-up. This is going to be the big one. Actually, the two big ones, as I’m tasked with removing two of these 101-ton mothers. There’s only one thing which has me a bit worried. “Did I use enough nitro?” I used a special concoction of my own design, I took 3” fire hose that was scrapped off one of the ships and cut it to fit the circumference just behind the hub of the propeller. I filled the those loosely with ANFO. This will give a nice, clean deflagrating, rather than a detonating jolt. I need the jolt for the frozen nitro that I’ve shoved into a 1” hose and threaded through the middle of the 3” ANFO-filled one. The idea is this: the ANFO will blow and push the propeller initially down the shaft, perhaps as much as 6 inches or so. Perhaps a micron, I don’t yet know. However, almost immediately after that, but a few milliseconds later, the nitro, now compressed approximately 10:1, will detonate. But in that briefest of time intervals, the hoses will contract heavily due to the heat and I hope will fall in behind the propeller. Once that nitro goes, it has no other way to go but sideways and that should provide the punch I need to ease that 101-ton mother off its seat on the shaft and down, with gravity assistance, to the soft sand below. Then it’s up to Adil to swing in with his crane and drop the 25 or 30 tons of sand on the prop laying on the beach. Because as soon as he’s the fuck out of the way, it’s time for round two. If all goes as planned, then I’ll detonate the last couple of hundredweights of PETN and TATB I’ve planted in the power plants of the boat. My guys were having a bit of a time scrapping the huge engine, so I figured as long as I was here, well… Then, the few hundred dollars’ worth of Chinese fireworks I smuggled in will be lit off. When the “Oohs!” and “Aaahs” dies down, my job is done. Time to retire from the peace and quiet of the oil industry and back into the hurly-burly of academia. At least, that’s the plan. I’m fucking around with the blasting board and setting the frequency, and double and triple-checking it when I feel a tap on the shoulder. “You fucking Narnie!” I say as I slowly stand and confront… “Agent Rack! Agent Ruin! What the hell are you doing here?” I ask. “Oh, we heard it was going to be quite the show. Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to drop on by to see our favorite Doctor’s handiwork.” Agent Rack chuckled as he chucked me on the shoulder and helped himself to one of the cigars in my breast pocket. “Oh, yeah. Who told you that”, I smiled. Agent Rack and Agent Ruin turn 450 and point at someone very, very familiar. I look over the crowd. I’m stunned by what I see. “Well, hey, that looks like Esme Rocknocker. But it can't be. She's not coming to the demolition.” I hoot. “I heard there was gonna be a hell of a show.” Came the reply. “Who told you that?” I asked. “Oh. Some guy I know.” She laughingly replies. “You can't live without me.” I smile as I wag my finger at her. Sanjay smiles, gives me a thumbs up and escorts Es, and the agents, over to the VIP seats. It’s 1045 hours, T-15 minutes. I’m a little fidgety. I spark a new cigar and take a long pull off Emergency Flask #2. Just what I need, some dangerous brown liquor. Remind me to smack Sanjay upside the head next time I’m free. The crowd is coming in heavy now. I see, over in the VIP seats, Goodgulf Greyteeth, Major Nakula Dattachaudhuri, and Mr. Ranganekary. I give them all the high sign to let them know that things are, at this point, A-Okay. Time marches on. I cannot galv another connection. It’s now or never. Sanjay’s over in eh cheap seats with the video camera, capturing this for posterity. 1100 rolls around. The klaxon blares and it is, for the lack of a better term, Show Time. I take the podium with a microphone and my blasting board, and back-up radio detonators, covering the small table next to the lectern. I am wearing my freshly laundered and pressed blaze orange PPEs and do a little “Testing. 1.2.3. Testing” to ensure Sanjay has all the proper levels. He does and now it’s all up to me. No pressure. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. We’re so glad you could be here on this momentous occasion of the near-final demolition, via explosives and trained Indian crew, of this Scandinavian cruise ship. But first, let me note that this ship has been taken down to near bare-bones by a freshly trained indigenous crew. They have done so without an LTI or single casualty. They will appear in a few minutes to run you through the safety procedures before we commence with the demolition of this, the last parts of the big boat.” There are small applause and grumbles of assent. I go over what I have planned and how it’s going to be a six-part show. I point out the muster area if things go haywire and we have to evacuate. I mentioned I’ve never had to do that before, but I need to point out its Safety First with this crowd. With that, I introduce my Indian colleagues. They assemble in front of the stern of the craft, face the crowd and proceed to go through the Safety Dance, just like I taught them, first in English, then in Hindi. At किसी बड़े विस्फोट की चेतावनी देना (Fire in the Hole!), it’s my show. I hit the air horn, make the announcement of “Hit it!” and let loose the Primacord. It snakes and swivels most showmanly. It blasts all the loose, and not so loose, crap off the face of the stern of the ship. Then, the blasted-of stainless steel railings drop to the sand. Silence ensues. “Round 2!” I holler through the mike and over the PA system, and the muffled blasts of lots and lots of Seismogel is heard rattling the rafters, making things loose for the next series of events. Round 2 was a bit anticlimactic, so I shout “Round Three” and let loose the plastique composition I created here in the last few days. It was most satisfying to hear six separate, but audible, detonations and watch the propeller cap off tail shaft number one spin itself off the shaft and bury itself in the warm Indian ocean beach sand. Round Three-B was just as satisfying, as that was even a bit more energetic. The cap spun so well it flew off the tail shaft and burrowed itself into the beach sand. I checked to see if Adil, his crane, and sand bucket were ready. Once the forklifts moved the propeller caps out of the way, it was Pilgrim Nuts then the big show. “Round Four-A. The Pilgrim Nuts!” I said and hit the actuator. Nothing. Whoops. Got my size 16 EEEs caught in the negative lead. A quick fix and I reiterate: “Round Four-A!” KER-FUCKING-RIPPLE-BOOM! Six times. The Pilgrim Nut from Tail Shaft #1 spun off and landed, spinning madly, on the beach. “Round 4-B!” I shouted through the mike. “KER-FUCKING-RIPPLE-BOOM!” Six more times. Pilgrim Nuts no longer concern me as they are being hustled off the beach by the sand-capable forklifts. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, the Main Event. Watch closely as I drop 101 tons of angry propeller down off their tail shafts and onto the beach. Twice.” Or so I fervently hoped. “Round Five-A!” I screamed as I hit the radio remote marked “Round 5-A”. Holy Fucking Hanna. Who says ANFO doesn’t detonate? There’s this Earth-shattering kaboom followed milliseconds later by a Jupiter shattering kaboom. ANFO followed by pure, raw, liquid, 100% headache-inducing nitroglycerine. The sounds were atrocious. The noise was horrendous. The smoke was incredible. The KERBLAM of 101.5 tons of finely machined copper-zinc-bronze-unobtanium hitting the sand and shaking the spectators was most enjoyable. Adil swept in with his crane and expertly covered the first screw with about 30 or so tons of nice, fluffy, dry sand. Then he turned and skedaddled. “Great. Another case of giggle water gone.” I mused. “Who’s up for Round Five-B?” I asked to no one in particular. A little too loudly, just before I hit the radio-controlled detonator, there could be heard lowly over the PA system: “Eat sand you nasty motherfucker!” Sanjay caught it loud and clear. KER-FUCKING-BLAM! The ground shook as the second screw, a little more slowly, a little more deliberately, slid off its tail shaft and onto the soft beach sand below; nowhere near the first one. Now it was time for some fun. “Round Six” I said as I pressed the big, shiny red button that unleashed the binaries deep in the power plant of the erstwhile ship. The earth shaked, the ground cracked, and out stepped Fmax. Please as punch, fresh as a daisy, he walked tall while the world went crazy. When he was done and spent with sin, he returned home, as Fmin. Nothing left to do but the unscheduled Round 7. Skyrockets splattered in the sky. Pyrotechnic volcanoes spewed forth their sparks, smoke, and bombs heavenward. Roman candles, embarrassed by the previous participants, did their best to color the blue of the day. Hundred upon thousands of firecrackers popped, sparked, and snapped. Then three blocks of C-4, wired together, signaled the noisy end of festivities. That last one was my contribution. Once everyone uncrouched, realized it was all over, was a success and everyone had survived, the spontaneous applause, hoots, and hollers we most gratifying. I brought Sanjay and my guys up on stage, had them introduce themselves, better for the CEO to know them, and take a well-deserved bow. I tried slinking out but was waylaid by Sanjay, Esme, and Agents Rack and Ruin. “Jesus Christ, Rock”, Agent Ruin exclaimed, “Here I always thought your blasting things to kingdom come was a metaphor. Holy fuck! Remind me never to get on your bad side.” Agent Rack just stood and smiled. He was glad I was on their side but too proud to say so. I knew what he was thinking, though. Sanjay told me he got great footage of the show and would compile it all together and send it to Dr. Inzhener Neftyanik straight away. Esme walked over and gave me a hug. “I am so glad you’re not doing this anymore. “ she said, “I die a little each time you went out on a job.“ I decided not to tell her about my talks with quarry operators in the state where we’ll eventually be relocating. Gulfy, Major Nakula Dattachaudhuri, and Mr. Indian Agent Ranganekary all came over and relayed their approbations and good intentions. Gulfy was smiling like the cat that got the canary. He obviously had a stake in those props and a buyer. That’s good. Good for him. It’ll ease the sting of my bill and the bill for the materials I used. And borrowed. There was a combination congratulatory and fond farewell banquet at the Raj that evening. Esme and I could leave at any time, as we had the Indian Government Gulfstream at our disposal. We only had to give 12 hours’ notice for the setting of flight plans and fueling of the bird. Esme and I decided to make a real night of our last night in India, for at least a while. Sanjay somehow managed a convertible Cadillac for us to take a midnight tour of the place now that the work here was done. Remind me to say something nice about Sanjay sometime in the future. The next morning, even though Agents Rack and Ruin stayed the night, they were gone by the time Es and I arose for breakfast. It was only 0600 local time, so they must have boogied in the wee hours. No matter, they’ll show up again, like a bad check or a crooked penny. Majordomo Kannada and his crew packed for us, after assuring that all our clothes had been washed, dried, pressed and folded, even my grotty PPEs. Sanjay had sent all the raw footage to my university. It was my sincere hope and desire they found at least some of the material useful. Esme remained curiously silent about the whole situation. Later that afternoon, at 54,000’ AMSL, I’m relaxing with a fine cigar and fresh drink. Esme is reading another of her romance novels while working on a glass of white wine. Mr. Indian Agent Ranganekary decided to tag along to ensure that the Gulfstream was indeed returned to India. “You Indians are all the same. You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man's culture.” I snickered to Mr. Ranganekary. “You got that right, Bwana”, He chuckled in return. We land and are met at the airport by the hotel limousine. Got to hand it to him. Mr. Ranganekary thought of everything. We part and shake hands, promising to stay in touch, if the accident will. Mr. Ranganekary just smiled. He knows the accident will one day. Back at the hotel, I’m relaxing in the Jacuzzi and Esme is looking over the room service menu. Borders are still closed, as are the airports back home. We’re still stuck until this COVID craziness burns itself out. The phone rings, and Esme answers. There’s a lot of “Yes.” “Really?” and “OK, I’ll tell him” in that conversation. I think about getting out of the tub, but why when I was just beginning to enjoy it so? Besides if it was anything important, or time-critical, Esme would tell me. Later, in bed, just as I was about to switch off the lights, I ask Es who was on the phone earlier. “Oh, that? It was Dr. Inzhener Neftyanik from school. Nothing very important.” She hurries. “Look, lady,” I say, returning with a scowl, “I’ve known you far too long. Spill it.” “Well, Rock, darling”, she said. I was braced for the worst. “He was just saying he received the video footage from India.” She said. “And?” I demanded. “Well, he was surprised as it was the first time he’s ever seen you. “ she smiled. Not having a haircut or beard trim for over 18 months, I can imagine. “Was that all? What did he say about the footage?” I asked. “Oh, he got it,” Es remarks, smiling. “And?” I demanded once again. “He was very thankful, but he said that there was nothing there they could use. Would scare the shit out of the kids, he said.” I thought that was a bit high handed. “Furthermore, he’s not sure some of that footage would be legal to show. “ she continued. “Well, he might have something there." I mused. “He also says that he never wants to ever get on your bad side.” She chuckled. Look. Just because I’m huge and can wire a bomb like Robert Oppenheimer, doesn’t mean that I’m short-tempered. Does it? Well, does it?!? “He did say thanks than now they’ll really have something to show at the annual departmental Christmas parties”, Es shrugged and smiled. "He can't wait to meet you in person." So, at least I have that going for me. Which is nice…
Running out of hobbies and things to do is everybody's story nowadays. It only makes sense that you'd dabble into some form of online gaming. You can now play real Poker in India. Since there are limited places to play Poker physically, you can opt for playing Poker online for real money. The game of Poker is essentially about playing with money and gaining more than you invested. That's what makes Poker thrilling and exciting. Playing with real money online has taken Poker to a new and heightened fan base. Once you get the hand of Poker as a game, understand its rules, stages, poker hand rankings and play a couple of tournaments happening on various poker sites, you will be able to get a better handle on the game. Sure, Poker might seem like an intricate game, but learning it and winning money will make you feel so thrilled you won't be able to get over the competition. You might have your doubts when it's time to play Poker online for real money. You might be worried about getting rigged or have your money stolen. But that's not the case anymore. With various sites like Poker high, Adda52, Hippo52, Spartan Poker you safe and secure transactions. Your money is safe and secure. The sites are legal, and the platforms provide games which can't get manipulated or susceptible to being rigged. To know more about Poker, you need to learn the basic poker rules first. So, let's dive into that to get you a clearer picture. Some basics you can remember are –
Bluffing - to intimidate your opponents into thinking you have a more substantial hand by not folding and raising the bet.
Having the best poker hand - at the end of the game, you need to snag the winning hand.
First thing you need to keep in mind to make a strong hand is how poker card rankings work. Here are how the poker card rankings go –
A Royal Flush
Straight Flush
Four of a kind
Full House
Flush
Straight
Three of a kind
Two Pair
One Pair
High Card
After the poker card rankings comes the actions we need to play Poker. They are as follows.
Call
Raise
Fold, Flop
River
Showdown
Next thing you need to keep in mind is the betting limits. Each poker game has different betting limits like -
No limit - As the name itself indicates in no limit, you can raise as much as you'd like to.
Pot limit - In pot limit, you can raise to the size of the pot-limit set.
Fixed limit - A fixed amount is set in advanced, and you can't raise more than the specified limit.
There you have the basic poker rules you need to keep in mind while you play with real money. It doesn't matter whether you're playing online or offline; some rules stay the same. The poker basics mentioned above will remain the same in a casino, online gaming sites, or tournaments. If you adhere to them and have a clear picture as to how these stages, rules, and rankings go, you'll be good to go.
India: Playing Poker Is Legal - Calcutta High Court. In the modern times gaming industry has gained rapid popularity, poker being one of the most favourite games. Being a subject matter of respective State jurisdictions, poker can only be legally played for real time money in restricted States throughout India. No, playing online poker is not illegal in India except Telangana and Gujarat states. Poker is now on the list of the skill-based game as like rummy games. So as per Indian gambling act, skill-based games are not in gambling act 1867. Nowadays pok... These websites assure you that these online games platform are legal and safe to play but you should know what your country’s law says about playing online poker in India. According to a KPMG report , gaming industry in India is estimated at around $60 billion per year, and the figure is expected to rise with the advent of online gaming. If you recently read my piece about the emerging poker sites in India, then you will know that I have been playing on as many different online poker platforms as I can, trying to get a feel for Yes. By playing on international poker sites, players located in India can compete with others around the world for some of the most lucrative real money online poker tournaments available. It is totally secure and safe for Indians to play at any poker room linked here. Every site listed in our top 10 India online poker rooms will allow you to deposit and withdraw. Some may be regulated by an authority like the Gambling Commission. We will never send you to any poker room that is illegal in India. Playing Poker Online Is Completely Legal in India- See How! Professional poker players consider the game as skill-based and it involves the use of Except 3 following states, Playing poker is legal in India. Assam; Odisha; Telangana In Above states playing poker is illegal, and we should not play even online poker, and remaining states any one can play poker game in India pokergyaan.com However, online poker is still considered illegal in Assam and Odisha, and one can be penalized for playing. Other states in India, including where online poker is legal, one can play but have to pay a TDS percentage of 30.3 on their winning withdrawals when above INR 10,000. Based on this legal background, various legal experts and jurists have opined that online poker is completely legal in India. Gaussian Networks Pvt. Ltd. complies with all laws and regulations applicable to online games of skill.
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