The Cato Institute is a libertarian "free market" outfit.It houses itself in Washington, D.C. somewhat ironically.And according to Cato... the novel mRNA vaccines represent the peak and pinnacle of market capitalism:It was the flow of people, ideas, capital, goods and services that made it possible to discover and produce a vaccine in record time...Global capital markets... played a role by prov...Read More

Imagine a fellow...This is a wastrel sunk impossibly in debt credit card debt.Spiraling interest payments begin to swamp him.He must take on an additional credit card in order to satisfy interest payments on the original.Yet he must soon take on another credit card... to service the interest on the card he previously took on... which he took on to service the interest on the first.That is, he mu...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Belgian traceability firm iTraceiT is to incorporate super-accurate digital reports, produced by the Cutwise Group, into its diamond passports.   It says that adding Cutwise's DiLog ID to its own blockchain technology provides an extra layer of security.   The DiLog ID creates a "a photoreal rendered image of the polished Diamond" to produce unprecedentedly accu...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Gemstone miner Fura Gems has agreed a pioneering deal to provide Bangkok-based China Stone with a guaranteed supply of premium rough rubies from its Montepuez mine, in Mozambique. It will allocate 0.25-ct to 0.75-ct gems for the next three years, allowing China Stone to improve production planning for watch and jewelry manufacturers.Dev Shetty, Fura's CEO, says the deal i...Read More

The dollar has been extremely strong over the past two years. This persistent dollar strength has been a mystery to many. After all, the dollar's problems are well known.The ratio of government debt to GDP for the United States is at a record high approaching 130% (a prudent level is considered 30%, and anything over 90% is a headwind to any economic growth at all).The U.S. is running multitrillio...Read More

The same old story that's hoodwinked investors since the dawn of time... You've heard of a sucker rally...But what about a sucker breakdown?We might have just witnessed one asinvestors jettisoned their stocks last week just before a huge snapback move that began with frantic short-covering rallies and could end with an epic melt-up into the holidays.Here's how it all started...It was looking ble...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The Botswana government appears poised to go ahead with plans to buy a 24 per cent stake in HB Antwerp and to let it sell 10 per cent (at least 600,000 carats annually) of its rough production.The deal was thrown into doubt in September after Vancouver-based Lucara pulled out of its own 10-year agreement with HB after just a year, alleging "a material breach of financial commitment...Read More

Another bank bites the dust!Citizens Bank was a small bank in Iowa with about $66 million in assets. Its loan portfolio consisted largely of commercial and industrial loans.Well, this past Friday the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced that Citizens Bank had failed due to significant hidden loan losses totaling about $15 million.Because Citizens Bank was not a member of FDIC, th...Read More

(IDEX Online) - US watch and jewelry sales declined again for an eighth consecutive month during September.But the drop was among the lowest we have seen of late, according to the latest Department of Commerce figures.For the third month in a row, sales have shown slight signs of improvement, up from -4.0 per cent to -2.3 per cent and now -2.0 per cent.Consumer spending is gradually picking up in...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Debswana's rough diamond sales fell by more than 21 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to the Bank of Botswana. Weak global demand saw revenue fall from $3.578bn for the same period in 2022 to $2.811bn. Debswana, a joint venture between De Beers and the Botswana government, produced 24.1m carats last year and is the biggest contributor to the De Beers Gr...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers has averted the threat of strike action by agreeing a five-year pay deal with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).A walkout by a third of the workforce - around 1,500 NUM members - would have hit production at the Venetia mine, which accounts for 40 per cent of De Beers' output in South Africa. The NUM was demanding a 9 per cent wage increase, against De Beer...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Lucapa has recovered the third largest diamond ever from Lulo, Angola, since the mine opened  in January 2015.The 208 carat Type IIa gem is the second +100-ct diamond in under a month, and the 39th in the lifetime of the deposit.The largest recovery at the Lulo alluvial mine - which commands the highest price per carat for alluvial diamonds in the world - was a 404 carat Type...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Stargems has become the first tender house to sign up for traceability technology by Sarine that quickly registers large parcels of diamonds.The Dubai-based business is using the AutoScan Plus software, which inegrates with Sarine's Diamond Journey to track every move a diamond makes.Sarine describes it as a game-changing way of registering rough diamonds at source with minima...Read More

(IDEX Online) - There were signs of a slowdown in the 18-month long decline of polished diamonds prices during October.The Index fell by 1.60 per cent, compared to just over 3 per cent in September, which was the single biggest monthly drop of the current crisis.Price drops through October were gradual, and showed none of the volatility of the previous month.The supply of rough is c...Read More

If we’re limited to our income, there’s only so much we can spend on consumption and servicing existing debts, and invest/save to build capital/future income.If we have access to the miraculous elixir of credit, we can expand our spending/investing by borrowing more money. This boosts our consumption and perhaps our investing, but it also increases our debt service the interest that...Read More

Is a common refrain in certain economic circles:"We need to reform the Federal Reserve."We are told this should be done or that should be done.This will make it more efficient, that will make it more transparent.And perhaps even it would.Yet we take a dim view of most "reform." The reason is simple as Sam and clear as gin.Reform is an ax that rarely strikes the root. That is often by design.It is...Read More

This past Tuesday, I offered the following forecast of what would happen at the FOMC meeting this week:On Wednesday, the Fed will leave its target rate for fed funds unchanged. That decision will keep the federal funds target at 5.50% as set at the July 26, 2023, meeting. Over the course of [13] FOMC meetings beginning March 16, 2022, I've been correct in all of my forecasts including the "skipped...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Russia's finance ministry has hit out at G7 plans to sanction its diamonds, claiming it will discredit and undermine the existing Kimberley Process (KP).In a strongly-worded letter it claims Western countries, the G7 and the EU will deliberately distort the global rough diamond market if they implement their own regulations, which could, it warns "lead to increased social unre...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The pearl necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday is to be auctioned by Christie's Geneva in an online sale that opens tomorrow (3 November).The British actress, who later starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), wore simple, single-strand pearl necklaces as a signature part of her look.Her jewelry collection was a testament to her philosophy that...Read More

On personal errand we recently infiltrated the "elite" Georgetown precinct of Washington, D.C.Georgetown is the site of the infamous Washington "cocktail party" the very symbol of insular and corrupt Washington.Our travels took us past a store that sold books. We maintain a peculiar and likely irrational interest in books.And so we ordered an immediate stop... to take a look.Displayed upon a tab...Read More