De Beers. Scarcity was the diamond.
De Beers is the biggest diamond company on earth and has lost more than half its value in two years. The thing killing it has proved it was right all along.
THE GIST ON DE BEERS: "Rough Cut"
What did De Beers actually do?
For 80 years De Beers controlled how many diamonds reached the market. Diamonds aren't actually rare. De Beers just decided how many you could buy. A Diamond Is Forever is a marketing campaign from 1947 that worked so well an entire civilisation started buying rocks to prove they were in love.
What did lab-grown diamonds change?
They were designed to democratise the market: a chemically identical product, indistinguishable from the real thing. They scaled rapidly, too rapidly. The wholesale price of lab-grown has dropped by 96% in the last eight years.
Why did the price crash?
When you can make as many as you want, no one values them any more. The scarcity was doing all the work. Take that away and it's a shiny rock. So De Beers controlling supply for 80 years wasn't a scam: it was the only reason a diamond was worth anything in the first place.
Who loses?
Lab-grown was meant to prove diamonds could be cheap. Instead it proved cheap diamonds are worthless. De Beers is collapsing, lab-grown is collapsing, and every diamond already on a finger, maybe even yours, is worth less today than yesterday.
That collective fiction held an industry together for 80 years. It gave countries economies. It gave a rock meaning. Lab-grown revealed the truth and now nobody's better off. Are we better off not knowing?
Does it matter if a diamond is lab-grown?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How far has lab-grown diamond pricing fallen?
Wholesale prices are down 96% in the last eight years, according to Huw.
What was A Diamond Is Forever?
A marketing campaign from 1947 that made buying diamonds a symbol of love.
Was De Beers' supply control a scam?
Huw says no: it was the only reason a diamond was worth anything.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
The conversation
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