Word: ultrarich
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That is the egalitarian theme of Vance Packard's latest venture in pop sociology, which is centered on slapdash but often tantalizing interviews with 30 of the nation's richest citizens (average net worth in 1987: $425 million). As the author presents them, these ultrarich tend to be banal in thought and sometimes defiantly plain Jane in tastes. "What's better than meat-loaf?" asks Texas developer Walter W. Caruth Jr., whose wife (despite his $600 million) does all the cooking. Surprisingly few of Packard's subjects try to live up to their imposing annual incomes. Leonard Shoen, the founder...
Whatever good sense these palliatives make, they would certainly cramp the style of some ultrarich whose money lust is tempered by an engagingly eccentric sense of how to spend their fortunes. Arthur Jones, the gruff, gun- toting inventor of Nautilus sports equipment, is laird of a Florida estate that includes a runway large enough to land his own Boeing 707; it is used, among other things, to fly in wild animals for medical research. One of them, which Jones proudly shows Packard, is a reptilian rarity: the biggest saltwater crocodile in captivity. Nice...
...Monday move was intended to cool speculation, as well as prevent what market analysts suspect might be an attempt by a small number of ultrarich investors, operating anonymously through foreign banks, to "corner" the world market for silver. One much mentioned speculator in this context is Dallas Megamillionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt, though he insists that he has no such intention. The corner would occur if the investors could buy so many silver future delivery contracts that they would wind up with enough of the metal this March to manipulate world prices...
...small group of ultrarich investors could pull a squeeze. They would simply buy up so many outstanding futures contracts that there would not be enough metal available to meet demand if the contract holders insisted upon delivery of real silver, rather than being willing to turn their paper profits into cash, when their contracts expired. That would push prices into outer space on the spot market, as unfortunate speculators who had contracted to deliver silver scrambled to buy the limited supply to meet their legal commitments...