Xref: utzoo sci.engr:1403 sci.econ:3953 sci.space:31867 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!gatech!mcnc!beguine!jfm From: jfm@med.unc.edu (John F. Miller) Newsgroups: sci.engr,sci.econ,sci.space Subject: Re: Excavating (mining) gold in the space by NASA. Message-ID: <4109@beguine.UUCP> Date: 18 Jun 91 16:22:41 GMT References: <1991Jun14.161710.27655@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <1991Jun14.183424.654@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> Sender: usenet@beguine.UUCP Followup-To: sci.engr Organization: UNC School of Medicine, Dept. of Pharmacology Lines: 21 In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes: >The diamond cartel (de Beers) very stringently limits the supply of >diamonds, to keep the price high. DeBeers does not merely try to keep the price of diamonds high. Their more important goal is to keep the price of diamonds _STABLE_ and rising just slightly faster than the overall inflation rate. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, inflation was running rampant, and speculators drove diamond prices to very high levels (from which they subsequently collapsed). During that time, speculators were buying and selling diamond rough that would normally go to diamond cutters. DeBeers tried to curb the speculative activity, since they knew the bubble would burst and have a harmful effect on the entire diamond industry. Prices have been rising very moderately for the past few years (following the crash). -- John Miller, Graduate Gemologist/Gemcutter/Analyst Programmer -- John Miller (jfm@med.unc.edu) Department of Pharmacology, UNC-CH School of Medicine 1026A FLOB (231H) CB#7365, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 Tel: (919) 966-6966