Well, I just finished reading the article, and I have to say I don’t really begrudge De Beers as much as you seem to, at least as far as creating value for diamonds by altering the public’s perception; in my opinion that’s just good marketing. All marketing is, after all, is trying to create a need in the consumer that the consumer didn’t have before the advertisement. Seems De Beers did that very well (or at least their advertiser did).

We’d probably agree about their strong-arm tactics though, especially where they worked with banks to bankrupt people. It seems to me two things were going on there: 1) a big corporation stomping out the little guy & 2) the little guy investing in something that has only perceptive value, which isn’t a good investment.

Diamond investments are a bad idea, but I still think they’ll hold value for a while in the romantic realm of things. After all, women don’t like them solely because they are rare; they are also pretty to look at. I just spoke to my wife today and asked her about manufactured diamonds. If I could get a superior gem for the same or less money if only it was manufactured, what would she think? She said basically, “I’d love it on anything but my engagement ring.” But since she already has an engagement ring, that’s good for me!