The Great Onion Scandal
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- Опубліковано 28 жов 2024
- Onions are the only agricultural product where commodity futures cannot be traded in the United States. It all has to do with two men in Chicago, and a whole lot of onions.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #food
Onions scandals should not be leeked to the press.
Hey kid, beet it with the puns.
scandalous would be scallion-esque ?
Cheese, I’m getting tired of puns. Every comments section is just peppered with them.
Whey did you ❤️ him THG? You're just egging them on.
4:15 -- "But the market for butter spread thin..."
Funny guy. -_-
He definitely has a way with words 😆
His alliteration is also beautiful, his scripts are like poetry at times
As I spread them thick,I don’t get why the guy is funny.
... Spread thin... Eggs in one basket...That's why I love the history guy...
Is it weird that I would rather watch a short documentary about onion futures trading than nearly any network produced TV show?
Nope,I totally agree
❤️🙏
No. "Wisdom is known by her children".
That’s why we are here 👍🏻
We're all weirdos here.
So much fun has started with “two guys in Chicago.”
It’s A Hundred And Six Miles To Chicago. We Got A Full Tank Of Gas, Half A Pack Of Cigarettes. It's Dark, And We're Wearing Sunglasses
Cringe
@@Metalkatt Hit It.
That, and “Florida man…”
Dont all good stories involve pirates, ( of any kind ) ???
You rapscallion, you.
It takes a real talent to make commodity trading and onion farming into a fascinating story. Well done, sir.
You could say it has layers…
@@pilotjoe4010 So many layers ☺️
Honestly, Planet Money did an episode on it years back that has stuck with me more than any other in a catalog of many hundreds of episodes. It's a fascinating tale despite seemingly dry elements like commodity trading and futures
We have an odd, kind of family heirloom. It's a still life painting of onions. The story goes that the painting belonged to a railroad VP in California who loved onions but for whatever reason could not eat them. Apparently the VP was a distant relative of the family. The painting was given to my father when he was a young man working in machining factory in the years before WWII. An odd story? Yes, and I've always doubted it's veracity. However it's a very nice painting. 😄
That's fascinating! I can't eat onions and neither can my mother. I don't think I've heard of anyone outside my family that reacts to them.
I love family stories like this.
@@drewzero1 I have a friend who can't eat onions. I believe he has diverticulitis.
A multi layered family onion painting mystery sounds nice, we're still trying to find out what happened to Dad after he went to the store for cigarettes in 1973.
Ji.bo.... 9
So glad The History Guy mentioned, "Trading Places" because that movie immediately came to mind when discussing "future's commodities."
Commodity futures.
And he led us right into it with “pork bellies” and “frozen orange juice.” I love that movie! It's a lot of fun.
The most-accepted Chicago meaning is a word that comes from the Algonquin language: “shikaakwa,” meaning “striped skunk” or “onion.” According to early explorers, the lakes and streams around Chicago were full of wild onions, leeks, and ramps. Appropriate that Chicago played such a huge part in this story.
Ramps...Oh do I want some ramps right now. Once found a large patch deep in the woods behind our house as a kid. I swore my family to secrecy about the location, but my Mother told several people. A year later they had all been stolen. I will die with the secret of the locations of my current patches.
@Foolish188 I planted 100 bulbs 2 years ago. Last year I tasted a couple leaves. They're just coming up now, but I expect to be able to take enough leaves to make some ramp butter, and to hopefully get some seed to scatter. Hopefully next year I can take a few bulbs.
@@topherthe11th23 very few questions in etymology can be answered with the unwavering confidence you have put on display in your comment. It's foolish to accept either story as absolute fact, unless you can provide a definitive primary source (which I know you can't).
So just like how New York is known as "The Big Apple", Chicago could be called, "The Wild Onion"?
Yes,Pete ....it is.Actually,it's pronounced "mill-ee-wah-kay" which is Algonquin for "the good lands"
_"If making money is a crime, then I'm guilty."_
He didn't make money. He extorted money.
Only because dishonest people believed him
@@EddieVBlueIslandgreedy people anyways
@@EddieVBlueIslandWere the onion farmers who didnt want their crop to become worthless dishonest?
Good point.
Mortimer and Randolph Duke would be proud.
Wouldn't that actually be Louis and Billy-Ray? Morty and Randy didn't recover from that until the 1990's following a windfall gift from a foreign prince!! 😂😂😂
😂 😂 😂
I love that little nod to Trading Places at the end. On a side note people selling short on major films released in 2023 could have made a fortune.
Just shorting Disney world have been a good idea
" the butter market had spread thin" such a great slip in line
Guy turned good later, that's not normally how bad onions work.
And south american drug lords put money into their communities. So what's your point?
😂😂😂
You could say that he had layers to his personality.
A lot of those robber barons/shady capitalists turn to philanthropy later in life.
Steals a boatload of money and gives (some) of it away to boost his own reputation. Real nice guy he was -_-
That last joke has me crying 😢 I don't know why!
" the butter market had spread thin" such a great slip in line
I'm surprised that box office futures was even considered given how infamous Hollywood accounting is.
That is probably why it was considered, i.e., given how infamous Hollywood accounting is.
One year Mom got me an onion for Christmas. I looked right at her and ate it raw. I still like onions and I learned a valuable lesson. Don't make Mama mad.
Since I was a kid, I have eaten onions, like apples, but ☝️covered with Mustard & Black Pepper; Tomatoes, as well🤤😋🤣
Salt & Watermelon 🍉 🧂 is pretty good too🤙😉
Ever hear of Vidalia onions? Supposedly they're sweet like apples!
They are! @@poetryflynn3712
The ones that are as big around as softballs but only an inch or so tall are the best ones.
@@peterestrada9420 My dad did that.
Layers? ... like an ogre? ...
You know what else has layers? Parfaits. Everyone likes a parfait. Ask anyone if they'd like a parfait. Ain't no one gonna say, "No, I don't want no parfait."
Good one !
Cake! Cake has layers!
Ogres, onions, you mean smelly and make people cry?
I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time... 😂
Was it a brown onion?
Or one of the white ones that was fashionable at the time?
Thank you!😂
Here it is!
Onya Abe 👍
What. The. Fck. Are you from the 1800s??
I was looking for this lol
It brought tears to my eyes at how you peeled this subject, sliced then diced its many layers.
And then leeked the information to us.
"...the market for butter was spread thin"? Ahhaha 😂 Sir, only you could get away with that.
as soon as he said i thought " genius"
That Vincent Kosuga, he really knew his onions...
This story brought tears to my eyes.
" the butter market had spread thin" such a great slip in line
Lance is in fine form today.....
I have some apples, would you like to buy them?
Yes, please.
That's how hard it should be to operate a Business. Also, dueling should be brought back. You might be able to say "buy my onions or else" 1 or 2 times but by number 10 you're surely missing an ear.
Now I can't get the smell of rotting onions out of my mind ...
I was thinking the same thing. 🤮
aw heck, got a flashback from 2020 when for like 3 months the only stink I could feel was the stink of rotting onions
Having grown onions at scale, actively traded commodities futures, and secretly desiring the cheat code to large piles of money this story is one of my all-time favorites, right up there with The Idles of March and the Manhattan Project.
Take a shot every time there’s a food related pun
I really appreciate all the puns you sprinkled throughout this clip. Thank you for all that you do. We learn so much from you😊
This story brings tears to my eyes
One of your best, definitely top ten. Can you imagine over 1000 gondola cars full of onions? I have ridden in a gondola car full of sweet potatoes. At about 50 feet long, that is about 9.5 miles long.
Well done. Very interesting topic. Especially as I plant our own onions in 2024
That dude sounds like a pirate to me. ^^
The Onion Pirate!
...After all, don't all good stories have pirates? (Sorry, but someone had to say it.)
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel This man really knows his onions!
@@juliao1255 Yes, and I was thinking it too!
The most-accepted Chicago meaning is a word that comes from the Algonquin language: “shikaakwa,” meaning “striped skunk” or “onion.” According to early explorers, the lakes and streams around Chicago were full of wild onions, leeks, and ramps.
I'm not sure if there is a History Guy video to be made, but tobacco is the most valuable crop in the world for which there is no organized market or trading. I was briefly involved some years ago with one the largest tobacco brokers, which bought directly from farmers and sold to tobacco companies around the world. There is a lot more to supplying the different types of tobacco to the cigarette manufacturers than you could possibly imagine!
Onions with steak and mushrooms?...Yummy!
Cue the Susan Christie song, "I Love Onions?"
Mr. Lance, I must say that you MORE THAN earn my devotion to your channel every week.
You must be a tireless researcher to document so many stories so well with nary a break.
I am truly in awe.
Lesson: Don't cry over spilled onions.
4:23 I am commenting in the middle of the piece to express how delighted and amused I am by your well-placed and accurate puns. Thank you. You remind me of my HS physics teacher. All the dad-joke punny humor one could stomach and I was all there for it. Keep it up!
Chicago MEANS Onion in the Fox and Mesquaki language. They are the same people who named the major river of America the Mississippi, a Fox and Mesquaki word which means Plenty Of Fish.
I have always looked on futures trading as a sort of scam as it just seems to susceptible to stuns like this one.
A very useful scam. For both farmers who can sell at a guaranteed profit and buyers who can buy at a guaranteed price, eliminating their risk of a higher price. Speculators provide the liquidity for the farmers and buyers.
Interestingly, just last week, Trump Media filed a complaint with the SEC claiming some mystery party was short selling Truth Social to manipulate the prices of their stock.
Totally has to be true, can't be that a company that's losing tons of money has an overinflated stock value...
Still, gambling and the stock market, ever a match made in the realm of the afterlife, such gambling working out ever so well in the 1920's.
Two of my great passions coming together, onions and scandals.
Hey THG, my first time commenting. Love the Channel, great videos. This was a great video, super informative. I love onions, keep up the great content
So instead of preventing the same sort of market cornering to be done again, they just made it impossible for 2 very specific products.
And started an in-joke in the Adams family, where Gomez would comment on the price of pork bellies in multiple episodes.
Welcome to class. The mid-term has been cancelled. Enjoy the weekend.
But I spent all night studying for it 😢.
@@CAP198462I was gonna cheat off your answers...🤔
@@JeffreyGlover65 You're suspended from school. 😜
Gee Thanks!
Brilliant! Caveat Emptor!
Fantastic episode! The ending elicited a healthy chuckle! Thank you for all your hard work getting to the root of the issue! You are no dim bulb!
“..obscene outlay of onerous onions..” *chef kiss*
Thanks History Guy and team. I like to buy local onions from the roadside stand.
Trading Places is one of my favorite movies.
I'm sure this video is Billy Ray Valentine approved
I love how you mentioned the Abilene Reporter News as that is my local Newspaper.
Clever, thank you for the laugh and smile.
Hang on: the Ferris Beuller movie had a running joke referencing "The Sausage King of Chicago" - was that a reference to this guy? I never knew.
Chicago has a lot of kings…
It was this guy who killed his wife and put her in a vat of acid in his sausage factory. They found a ring and her false teeth which were enough to identify her
There was a screwball comedy called The Palm Beach Story that had a character called The Weenie King who made his fortune manufacturing weenies.
I'm so glad you mentioned Trading Places at the end. It's my only knowledge of futures trading aside from this video.
I'm sure this has been said, but this episode had me weeping.
Per usual I read the title of your episode and go wow how is that going to be interesting and then you go ahead and blow my mind about onions.
This is my favorite channel. You’re the best. Have a great day and God bless you.
When I was in college (between the fall of 1966 and spring of 1970), there was a Great Winter Onion Shortage. The price of onions shot up, then they disappeared from the shelves. You couldn't get one for love nor money. It was a great day in the morning when they returned.
Does anyone else remember this?
What a fascinating look at onions, one of my favourite versatile vegetables.
Thanks a lot.
Put on a a play based on this called “The Onion King of Chicago” for my final high school group drama performance. Thanks for all the detail on the story!
Thank you again THG for another history lesson, this time on the onion. I am always impressed with your historical research.
I often traveled with my family on the way to Port Jervis New York, through Pine Island New York, a town known for growing onions, in a broad flat valley of pure black soil. Listening to this episode, I wondered if Pine Island would be mentioned, and was not disappointed. The area is quite beautiful, and it is amazing how black the soil is.
I can’t imagine being a farmer and then stealing from all the other farmers knowing how hard it is to stay afloat. What an actual pos. Makes me sick
Ruthlessness is the most important quality if you want to be rich. That's why rich people are all assholes.
If only the rest of us were willing to give people like that the one time payment in lead that they deserve. But most of us are no better, we have a system wherein mice happily vote for cats in the delusional hope that they will one day become the cat.
@@jodyssey9921 you have to step on other people's faces to make it up the ladder to wealth. There's a good reason why Jesus told the young rich man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor, and why it is said that a camel can be more easily be drawn through the eye of a needle than can a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't get rich without screwing people, it's a simple fact.
That was a delightful story. Thanks for sharing it.
Research for the History Guy would be an amazing career, and all-consuming!
I do my own research.
I'm surprised that Vince didn't end up sleeping with the onions.
Sounds like he made more enemies than profits.
One of the best editions!
This is the most I've learned about onions at one time since that episode of Good Eats.
I never knew there was an onion stock market scandal. lol. I a learning so much from these videos. Thank you so much for making these.
I don't which is greater, THG's love of history or making dad jokes.😅
"tear to your eye" terrible. 😂
you need a counter down in the corner tracking the puns. the chicken/egg episode would make it explode
My hat is of to you, the king of dad jokes.
What a wild ride about onions of all things. You sir, have a gift for making even the most obscure topics riveting.
I think Chicago means “Smells like onions” in local native tongue.
Even more, bad smelly onions.
14:34 FCOJ but Pork Bellies were also part of the plot when Valentine was tested on when and what price to sell.
Trading Places is such a great movie, and probably one of the only reasons most Gen-X'ers know anything about commodities futures.
That's something to cry about
Another fascinating, well researched and cited story!
There's always one guy who has to ruin it for everyone else.
They have all been good but this hits different.. well done! 👏👏
Sir, I could not help but guffaw at your awful puns. Thank you for brightening my day.
My grandmother would make onion sandwiches. Butter bread with sliced onions.
Shorting has a finite reward, while it has a potentially infinite loss.
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
Onions are said to be among the most nutritious of garden vegetables. When I was a kid, Mom would sometimes have a saucer of onion sections on the table. I gnoshed on onion along with other parts of the meal. When I worked with Boy Scouts on canoeing and camping expeditions, I would add onion sections to the meal. The boys liked them, and gobbled them down
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
What's the difference between an onion and an accordion?
No one crys when you cut up an accordion.
All those onions dumped into the Chicago River must have been a interesting story in themselves.
A possible topic for another video - I long ago read in a book that in the 1800s, an investor set about cornering the market for rags used in making paper, but that just as he was completing a major step in the process, wood-pulp paper was made available and the market for rag paper was hopelessly undercut. I have not been able to find further information, and it may be an apocryphal warning story.
There’s so many layers to this tale…
You should do a video on Piggly Wiggly, the first grocery store and the Wall Street scandal. I think it is very interesting.
My best friend thought that he was so smart. He said to me that onions were the only food that made you cry...then I threw a coconut at his face! 😂🧅🥥
I CAN NOT STAND onions! But, any history lesson from Lance. I’m all for it😊
Delightful ! Absolutely delightful!
Thank you specially for this one !
That is weird, thanks for the explanation.
Charles
Reminds me of the great butter and dairy shortage in the northwest and Oregon that involved a bunch of corrupt cops laundering butter through a diner and murdering and stealing products from creameries all around the region like it was cash from a vault. The Dollop did a live episode about that story: ua-cam.com/video/LesxdjreQOY/v-deo.html
I now know about a Onion Scandal....Thank The Amazing THG🎀 and i sure do love Onion's 👍
Old F-4 Shoe🇺🇸
Thanks History Guy!
Thanks for another great video HG
Top history guy quote: This story is like an onion, it has a lot of layers.
But it was the style at the time!