Hunt, Clint Murchison, Roy Cullen and Sid Richardson. This is a portrait of capitalism as white-knuckle risk taking, yielding fruitful discoveries for the fathers, but only sterile speculation for the sons-a story that resonates with today's economic upheaval. In The Big Rich, Bryan Burrough sketches out the colorful stories behind Texas 'Big Four' oilmen: H.L. Decline sets in as rising production costs and cheaper Middle Eastern oil erode profits, and a feckless, feuding second generation squanders family fortunes on debauchery and reckless investment-H.L.'s sons' efforts in 1970 to corner the silver market bankrupted them and almost took down Wall Street. Their second acts as garish nouveaux riches with strident right-wing politics are entertaining, if less dramatic. The saga begins heroically in the early 20th-century oil boom, with wildcatters roaming the Texas countryside drilling one dry hole after another, scrounging money and fending off creditors until gushers of black gold redeem them. Hunt, Roy Cullen, Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson, along with their cronies, rivals, families and, in Hunt's case, bigamous second and third families. ) profiles the Big Four oil dynasties of H.L. Special correspondent Burrough (coauthor, Barbarians at the Gate Capitalism at its most colorful oozes across the pages of this engrossing study of independent oil men.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |