The Story of Silver

How the White Metal Shaped America and the Modern World

William L. Silber

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780691208695
  9780691175386
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691184517
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Finance
• Index: Economics

How silver influenced two hundred years of world history, and why it matters today

This is the story of silver's transformation from soft money during the nineteenth century to hard asset today, and how manipulations of the white metal by American president Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s and by the richest man in the world, Texas oil baron Nelson Bunker Hunt, during the 1970s altered the course of American and world history. FDR pumped up the price of silver to help jump start the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, but this move weakened China, which was then on the silver standard, and facilitated Japan's rise to power before World War II. Bunker Hunt went on a silver-buying spree during the 1970s to protect himself against inflation and triggered a financial crisis that left him bankrupt.

Silver has been the preferred shelter against government defaults, political instability, and inflation for most people in the world because it is cheaper than gold. The white metal has been the place to hide when conventional investments sour, but it has also seduced sophisticated investors throughout the ages like a siren. This book explains how powerful figures, up to and including Warren Buffett, have come under silver's thrall, and how its history guides economic and political decisions in the twenty-first century.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• From the Author
• Main Characters
• INTRODUCTION: Obsession
• CHAPTER 1: Hamilton’s Design
• CHAPTER 2: Solving the Crime of 1873
• CHAPTER 3: Free Silver
• CHAPTER 4: Seeds of Roosevelt’s Manipulation
• CHAPTER 5: FDR Promotes Silver
• CHAPTER 6: Silver Subsidy
• CHAPTER 7: China and America Collide
• CHAPTER 8: Bombshell in Shanghai
• CHAPTER 9: Silver Lining
• CHAPTER 10: Costly Victory
• CHAPTER 11: JFK’s Double Cross
• CHAPTER 12: LBJ Nails the Coffin Shut
• CHAPTER 13: Psychiatrist’s Meltdown
• CHAPTER 14: Battle Lines
• CHAPTER 15: Nelson Bunker Hunt
• CHAPTER 16: Heavyweight Fight
• CHAPTER 17: Saudi Connection
• CHAPTER 18: Silver Soars
• CHAPTER 19: Collapse
• CHAPTER 20: The Trial
• CHAPTER 21: Buffett’s Manipulation?
• CHAPTER 22: Message from Omaha
• CHAPTER 23: The Past Informs the Future
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• About the Author
• Illustration Credits
• Index