Vincent Kosuga's $8.5 Million Market HeistKenny Polcari
Listen with Michael Caine™ and 800 other voices
Length21m
About this audiobook
A 5'4" Catholic farmer with a .38 pistol bought 98% of America's onions and broke the futures market forever. Vincent Kosuga's 1955 scheme was so audacious that Congress banned onion trading entirely—the only commodity still prohibited today.
From Pine Island's black dirt farms to Chicago's trading pits, this cinematic deep-dive puts you inside the room as Kosuga cornered 30 million pounds of onions, crashed prices from $2.75 to 10¢ per bag, and told Congress: "If making money is illegal, then I'm guilty."
Part historical thriller, part character study of American capitalism's wildest frontier. Discover how an immigrant's son with papal audiences and a taste for stock car racing pulled off the most spectacular agricultural manipulation in U.S. history—then opened a restaurant serving onion soup.
Kenny Polcari is the host of Trader Talk on Yahoo Finance, and a lifelong lover of the markets, among the last of the NYSE floor traders. View all by Kenny Polcari
