Exposing the carat cartel
Are diamonds really forever?
Good morning, my precious gemstones. This is your Stock Market Rundown for November 2nd, 2023. Thanks for joining me. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: SHADY SPARKLERS 💎
Asking the diamond industry how much you should spend on an engagement ring is kind of like asking a barber whether you need a haircut: you’re not gonna get an objective answer.
In the 1940s, only 10% of engagement rings had diamonds. Then DeBeers launched their iconic “a diamond is forever” ad campaign. Next thing you knew, men were expected to pony up for a carat or two when they got down on bended knee.
In a marketing strategy as brilliant as the product, De Beers invented a standardized scale for diamond quality—the “four C’s”—to create artificial scarcity and push buyers towards pricier stones.
But lately, De Beers’ control of both supply and demand has been shaken. Faltering consumer confidence has forced them to slash the price of uncut diamonds by 40%.
And the De Beers monopoly no longer has a chokehold on the industry: Russia-based competitor Alrosa is now the world’s largest diamond miner by volume.
Another threat: lab-grown diamonds, which are chemically identical to the mined version, but will only set you back a third of the price.
Wouldn’t you rather propose with a synthetic diamond, knowing that it was manufactured in a lab and not dug out of an open pit in Angola by a twelve-year-old? It’ll look just as sparkly in your fiancee’s Instagram pic.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Who wants an Aeron chair for dirt cheap? One-time darling of the tech industry WeWork is planning a bankruptcy filing.
Orange juice prices have spiked to an all-time high, thanks to a supply squeeze as crops are wracked by hurricanes and plant disease. I’m switching to Pineapple Crush.
Sysco, the food supplier of your local fake British pub where everything on the menu comes out of a plastic bag, reported a quarter that missed expectations due to consumers paring back on restaurant dining.
Pinterest’s stock was up sharply as quarterly results showed enthusiastic adoption by Gen Z. A whole new generation is getting inspired to wear five different colors of eyeshadow at once while baking a cake in the shape of a giant Minion.
That’s it for today, my friends; catch you back here at the usual time tomorrow morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe