--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Just before Thanksgiving, I met with…" description: "\"“Just before Thanksgiving, I met with Bunker Hunt, then the richest man in the world, at the Petroleum Club in Dallas. Bud Dillard, a Texan friend and ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/ray-dalio-299_middle-east_just-before-thanksgiving-i-met-with-bunk_2454417.jpg" --- # Just before Thanksgiving, I met with Bunker Hunt, then the… ![“Just before Thanksgiving, I met with Bunker Hunt, then the richest man in the world, at the Petroleum Club in Dallas. Bud Dillard, a Texan friend and client of mine who was big in the oil and cattle businesses, had introduced us a couple of years before, and we regularly talked about the economy…” quote by Ray Dalio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/ray-dalio-299_middle-east_just-before-thanksgiving-i-met-with-bunk_2454417.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/ray-dalio-299_middle-east_just-before-thanksgiving-i-met-with-bunk_2454417.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/ray-dalio-299_middle-east_just-before-thanksgiving-i-met-with-bunk_2454417.jpg) > ““Just before Thanksgiving, I met with Bunker Hunt, then the richest man in the world, at the Petroleum Club in Dallas. Bud Dillard, a Texan friend and client of mine who was big in the oil and cattle businesses, had introduced us a couple of years before, and we regularly talked about the economy and markets, especially inflation. Just a few weeks before our meeting, Iranian militants had stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking fifty-two Americans hostage. There were long lines to buy gas and extreme market volatility. There was clearly a sense of crisis: The nation was confused, frustrated, and angry. Bunker saw the debt crisis and inflation risks pretty much as I saw them. He’d been wanting to get his wealth out of paper money for the past few years, so he’d been buying commodities, especially silver, which he had started purchasing for about $ 1.29 per ounce, as a hedge against inflation. He kept buying and buying as inflation and the price of silver went up, until he had essentially cornered the silver market. At that point, silver was trading at around $ 10. I told him I thought it might be a good time to get out because the Fed was becoming tight enough to raise short-term interest rates above long-term rates (which was called “inverting the yield curve”). Every time that happened, inflation-hedged assets and the economy went down. But Bunker was in the oil business, and the Middle East oil producers he talked to were still worried about the depreciation of the dollar. They had told him they were also going to buy silver as a hedge against inflation so he held on to it in the expectation that its price would continue to rise. I got out.”” [Ray Dalio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-dalio/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Bunker Hunt’s aggressive silver buying during crisis showed how market timing and inflation hedges can backfire when macro forces shift. **In simple terms:** Timing markets is risky; inflation hedges can fail. Key Takeaway Beware of over‑committing to single hedges. Themes finance inflation market timing risk management commodity speculation Mood analytical cautious Type financial educational When to use this quote - investment decisions - inflation spikes - commodity markets - policy changes Key Concepts macro economics behavioral finance Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance diversification with conviction? - What signals indicate a hedge is losing effectiveness? A Different Perspective Relying on a single asset class can increase exposure to sudden reversals. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bunker Oil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bunker-oil-597205/) [Buying Inflation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/buying-inflation-597203/) [Crisis Inflation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crisis-inflation-597202/) [Dollar Told](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dollar-told-597201/) [Inflation Hedged](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inflation-hedged-597204/) [Middle east](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/middle-east/) [Paper money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paper-money/) [Richest Man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/richest-man/) ## Related quotes > [“short-term interest rates above long-term rates (which was called “inverting the yield curve”). 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And what are they rioting for in England? Leisurewear.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noel-gallagher/these-fledgling-democracies-in-the-middle-east-they-re-actually/) [Noel Gallagher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noel-gallagher/) > [I look at what's happening around the world and I see Iran four years closer to a bomb. I see the Middle East with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mitt-romney/i-look-at-what-s-happening-around-the-world-and-i-see-iran-four-years/) [Mitt Romney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mitt-romney/) > [One of those blocks (that prevent the 'Middle East from entering the mainstream of modernity') is the orthodox tenet that the Koran and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arnold-beichman/one-of-those-blocks-that-prevent-the-middle-east-from-entering-the/) [Arnold Beichman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arnold-beichman/) > [We're in more wars today under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton than under George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. 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Bush](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-w-bush/) [Browse all 1,468 Middle east quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/middle-east/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Just before Thanksgiving, I met with Bunker Hunt, then the richest man in the world, at the Petroleum Club in Dallas. Bud Dillard, a Texan friend and client of mine who was big in the oil and cattle businesses, had introduced us a couple of years before, and we regularly talked about the economy and markets, especially inflation. Just a few weeks before our meeting, Iranian militants had stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking fifty-two Americans hostage. There were long lines to buy gas and extreme market volatility. There was clearly a sense of crisis: The nation was confused, frustrated, and angry. Bunker saw the debt crisis and inflation risks pretty much as I saw them. He’d been wanting to get his wealth out of paper money for the past few years, so he’d been buying commodities, especially silver, which he had started purchasing for about $ 1.29 per ounce, as a hedge against inflation. He kept buying and buying as inflation and the price of silver went up, until he had essentially cornered the silver market. At that point, silver was trading at around $ 10. I told him I thought it might be a good time to get out because the Fed was becoming tight enough to raise short-term interest rates above long-term rates (which was called “inverting the yield curve”). Every time that happened, inflation-hedged assets and the economy went down. But Bunker was in the oil business, and the Middle East oil producers he talked to were still worried about the depreciation of the dollar. They had told him they were also going to buy silver as a hedge against inflation so he held on to it in the expectation that its price would continue to rise. 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