They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.But if this adage is accurate, shouldn't most investors buy a one-way ticket to their local looney bin?Perhaps this is an insensitive comment. Let me clarify: I don't really believe all investors are nuts. Even if they were, I'm pretty sure most of the country's mental asylums shuttered...Read More

Today we bear the gravest news:Elements of the United States government will "shut down" midnight Friday absent bipartisan resolution to keep it in funds.Some 20% of the federal apparatus will be padlocked and chained.And as Uncle Samuel's doors swing shut... Pandora's hellish box will swing open.You will have each and every species of calamity on your hands.Chaos and old night? You will have it...Read More

Ideologies sound wonderful in the abstract, but run aground in the granular real world. The dominant ideology in the world today isn’t a political ideology, it’s the ideology of the market.In this ideology, the market is presented as the ideal problem-solving mechanism, as the interplay of supply and demand and the free flow of capital and labor will automatically fill unmet demand wit...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Prices fell during February after what now appears to have been a false start to the recovery in December. Losses dominated among almost all sizes of goods, much as they did during January. Demand is slow and markets are quiet after the holiday season, Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year. Rough supply remains slow (De Beers sold just $370m in January). Miners say there wi...Read More

We are living through one of history's longest and most excruciating versions of "We told you so."When in March 2020, the world's governments decided to "shut down" the world's economies and throttle any and all social activity, and deny kids schooling plus cancel worship services and holidays, there was no end to the warnings of the terrible collateral damage, even if most of them were censored.E...Read More

Are stocks presently:A) Severely undervalued...B) Somewhat undervalued...C) Fairly valued...D) Somewhat overvalued... or...E) Severely overvalued?Please select your answer.Yet the devil is in us today. Let us then befuddle, confound and dizzy you with another selection:F) Stocks are obscenely overvalued.What is the answer? You will have it shortly.Let us first look in on the center of our mystery...Read More

"There are no solutions," intones economist Thomas Sowell "there are only trade-offs."Preserving Earth is a trade-off to shame all trade-offs...For the cost of preserving Earth may consign its American inhabitants to a poorhouse.The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, so-called:Last April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new rule for stricter vehicle emissions standa...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Online searches for engagement rings have spiked ahead of Leap Day today  - when women traditionally switch roles to pop the question.It's already a busy month for diamond sales because of Valentine's Day, but 29 February increases demand every four years, says eBay UK.The e-commerce giant says there's been a 220 per cent increase in searches for engagement ring...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co tops the list of jewlery brands sold on the e-commerce marketplace 1stDibs.Cartier takes second place, followed by Van Cleef and Arpels, Bulgari and David Yurman in the company's first Jewelry Trend Report.The US-based company said Art Deco engagement rings were the most popular (49 per cent of orders) followed by Contemporary, Edwardian, Retro ad Artisan.Roun...Read More

(IDEX Online) - LVMH is the world's most valuable luxury company, based on market capitalization and revenue.That's according to Insider Monkey, the investing website that has just published its top 25, based on a snapshot of their figures from 15 February.  The French conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), owns 75 maisons, including eight watch and jewelry brands (am...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Two people have been arrested after packages of jewelry were allegedly intercepted from delivery companies in Sacramento, California, USA.One of the, named as Lakisha Pettus, is accused of posing as a jewelry company employee to trick deliverers into handing over three packages, valued at $86,000.The other, Kyle Gutierrez, is accused of taking delivery of three packages,...Read More

I often write about different crises, but usually one at a time. Whether it's a market crash, recession, bank failures, etc. I take them on an individual basis.But what about a cascade of crises? What about a situation in which one crisis comes after another for a prolonged period? Each crisis might be manageable, but the sheer volume of crises and their cumulative effect might push society to the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Lab grown prices have yet to bottom, and could fall by a further 80 per cent, says one industry expert.The gap with natural diamonds has been widening since labs growns first became mainstream in 2018.In some cases like-for-like lab growns are now just 10 per cent the price of a natural.But Cormac Kinney, CEO of the commodities trading firm Diamond Standard, believes there's s...Read More

Political news in the U.S. and wars abroad have pushed most economic news out of the headlines. Yet the economic news is more important than ever and will have a huge impact on stock and bond markets in the months ahead.Here's a summary of recent critical developments:On the economy as a whole, headline numbers continue to look good. The Q42023 GDP was 3.3% (annualized). That put full-year 2023 GD...Read More

(IDEX Online)  - Diamond Foundry, the Silicon Valley startup, says test production of lab growns at its new factory in Trujillo, Spain, will begin this autumn.It estimates output at more than 2m carats a year with 168 plasma reactors using its own patented CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method.The majority of the diamonds it produces will be for the automotive sector or 5G communication netw...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A smart earring developed at University of Washington, USA, monitors earlobe temperature.It senses skin temperature more accurately than a smartphone and could be developed to monitor signs of stress, eating, exercise and ovulation.The thermal earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip. It incorporates circuitry, a Bluetooth chip, a battery, two temperature...Read More

Today is President's Day.In token of this high and exalted day, we reflect upon the United States presidency.Historians heap vast praise upon presidents of energy and of action.In brief, upon presidents who expand their own powers... and the powers of the United States government.Over whom do historians slobber and swoon a Millard Fillmore or an Abraham Lincoln?A Grover Cleveland or a Theodore R...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Lightbox has been testing out lower prices for its lab grown diamonds.It says its Standard quality stones have been discounted from $800 a carat to $600 and its Finest range of higher quality lab growns have been reduced from $1,500 a carat to $1,000.But the De Beers-owned company says it will retain the linear pricing policy - a fixed cost per carat - which it has promoted since i...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Swiss Supreme Court Sounds off on Customized Watches in Rolex CaseSwitzerland's highest court has made a landmark ruling on the legality of a third party selling customized Rolex watches.It distinguishes between watch personalization for a client, which is acceptable, and the general marketing of modified Rolex watches, which is not.The Swiss Federal Supreme Court considered t...Read More

Four years after the pandemic, it's still hard to predict where any particular public intellectual stands on lockdowns, mandates and the entire calamity of the response to COVID. Very few have apologized. Most have moved on as if nothing has happened. Some have dug into their own apostasy even more deeply.One reason seems to be that much of the professional intellectual class is currently dependen...Read More