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Title: Diamonds: Not A Girl's Best Friend
Source:
ZeroHedge
URL Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012- ... diamonds-not-girls-best-friend
Published: Nov 14, 2012
Author: Tyler Durden
Post Date: 2012-11-14 15:43:19 by Esso
Keywords: None
Views: 125
Comments: 11
On the day when the 76.02-carat 'Archduke Joseph Diamond' sells for a record $21.5 million, we thought it intriguing how even these incredible high-end status symbols are seeing prices collapsing at the low-end...of the high-end. It seems the 'wealthy' just can't afford 1-carat diamonds anymore as the price has plunged by over 25% in the last 15 months. Perhaps it is only the 1% of the 1% that can now afford their baubles as like everywhere, there is a growing divide between the 'haves' and the 'have-mores' (in this case). Coincidentally, heading into the stock market slide of 2008, we saw Diamond prices plunge and Gold prices rise - but we are sure it's different this time... [that's sarcasm folks - Esso] and meanwhile, all those •3-carat diamonds (D, IF) are trading just above their average price from the 2009 lows (around $76,500)... and per Miller Tabak: 
tungsten gold bars have gained significant value against their sparklier cousins over the last few years... 
•1-carat diamonds (D-H, IF-VS2) are trading 3% below their average price from the 2009 lows (around $8,300) "[jeweler] Zales will offer a financing option to customers with sub-prime credit profiles in an effort to drive sales"
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#1. To: Esso (#0)
Indians are switching to diamonds rather than gold for their choice of bling. Remember how Indians were going to push up the price of gold forever? "Mr. Prime Minister, there is only one important question facing us, and that is the question whether the white race will survive." -- Leonid Brezhnev to James Callahan
So, why do you think diamonds are valuable? Most people will probably tell you the same reasons: they're very strong and visually striking, but most importantly, they're rare. There's only one problem with that: that last one isn't true. To explain why you think diamonds are scarce, let's rewind about a hundred years. For much of human history, diamonds were valuable because they could only be found in a select few places in the world. In the 19th century, however, that actually changed as people started to find massive deposits, most notably in Africa. Those deposits were large enough that the rarity of diamonds was quickly becoming a thing of the past. Faced with stockpiles that were on the verge of being significantly devalued, the owners of those deposits had three options: A) Compete against each other and watch the value of their diamonds plummet as the law of supply and demand drove prices down; B) Forget the diamond market and just use their land to invest in Six Flags Over Zimbabwe; C) Band together to form an evil multinational monopoly that would inflate prices and earn them billions upon billions of dollars. Go figure, they chose the third option, forming the cartel we know as De Beers. To maintain the perception that diamonds were rare, De Beers not only significantly limited how many diamonds they mined each year, but also literally started buying up all the other diamonds and just stockpiling them (along with their own excess supply). Combined with a decades-long advertising campaign, they created a perception out of thin air that diamonds were rare and valuable, and that you had to drop thousands of dollars on one to prove you loved your spouse. So, if all that's true, how in the hell do they get away with it? Shouldn't it be illegal? Actually, it totally is. The monopoly De Beers holds is so blatantly illegal by U.S. antitrust laws that they've been banned from selling in the U.S. (they're forced to sell to intermediaries on the international market). Until they pleaded guilty to price fixing charges in 2004, their executives wouldn't even set foot on American soil because they feared they'd be arrested on sight. While there are indications that the cartel might finally be slowly losing its grip on the market, it's been a pretty damn impressive run. www.diamonds.net/News/New...+Diamonds+Make+Their+Mark When man can make gemstone quality diamonds are diamonds still worth spit? or is the industry fake like the fed and our fiat money? _______________________________________________________________________________ The US government has declared civil war on itself. Its lust for war grew so great... Liberty before death. We run , we live, We fight again, till we win. We did not start this fight. We damn sure did not willingly pay our taxes to buy the bullets and drones that shall be used to kill us. We will correct the violations of this rogue nation....our rogue nation. We will fix this because nobody else can. You will work to help me help us all to fix this failure. After you're done educating yourself,Take Action!!!
Actually I'd never heard that, and if I did, dismissed it as bullshit. The value of gold is constant, it represents a store of labor. What is changing is the value of currency [fiat], and we can thank the jews for that. Eventually the value of all paper currencies seeks it's own level [zero] at which time the price of an ounce of gold reaches infinity, as does that of a can of beans and every other necessity. I'm kind of thinking that we can't blame India for the price of a box of hamburger patties doubling over the last year or so, can we? Yup, diamonds n bitches ain't sh*t.
Well written, and accurate summation. Ain't selfishness striking? Isaiah 48:17 brings understanding to the Bible
Diamonds are overpriced. And, the price is controlled by the Dutch. ;) "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
So rare that every Walmart has 'em and will never turn you away by saying "Sorry, we're SOLD OUT of diamonds!!"
#2. To: 4um (#0)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#3. To: Esso (#0)
#4. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#1)
Remember how Indians were going to push up the price of gold forever?
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#5. To: Esso (#2)
#6. To: Esso (#2)
While there are indications that the cartel might finally be slowly losing its grip on the market, it's been a pretty damn impressive run.
#7. To: Esso (#0)
Diamonds: Not A Girl's Best Friend
#8. To: Esso (#2)
they're rare
-Alex Kurtagic
#9. To: pablo (#6) (Edited)
For the record, I didn't write that. [Source]Well written, and accurate summation.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#10. To: 4um (#2)
Scientists estimate there are “trillions of carats” of diamonds beneath a 35- million-year-old asteroid crater in Siberia - enough to keep the world in supply for 3,000 years. If they are right, that is 10 times the current global inventory. Trillions of Carats Found in Russian Diamond Field Reports NueDiamonds.com
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#11. To: Esso (#2)
If supply and demand set diamond prices, they'd be so cheap the allure would be lost.
There are actually govt agents who spread conspiracy theories among the gullible to help promote the illusion that the govt is all powerful.
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