Diamond News Archives

Ten years ago, at the peak of the global financial crisis, the Board of Trustees which oversees Social Security in the United States issued a stark warning:

They projected that Social Security’s enormous trust funds would completely run out of money in 2039.

Naturally nobody paid attention. Back in 2009 the economy in shambles, so focusing on a future economic crisis that was more than three decades away was a low priority.

And for the past decade, the US government has continued to ignore its Social Security problem.

But it’s become much worse.

Ten years later, the Board of Trustees now projects that Social Security’s primary trust fund will run out money in 2034.

That’s five years earlier than they projected back in 2009. And it’s only 15 years away.

Now, 15 years might seem like a long time. But take a minute to grasp the magnitude of this problem:

According to the US government’s own estimates, Social Security and Medicare combined are underfunded by $100 TRILLION.

$100 trillion is literally more than FIVE TIMES the size of the entire US economy. And this giant fiscal chasm is actually growing.

The big problem for Social Security is that tax revenue is no longer enough.

Every worker who is legally employed in the United States currently pays roughly 15% of his/her wages each month to help fund Social Security and pay benefits to retirees.

But there are now so many people receiving Social Security benefits that all the payroll tax revenue is no longer enough.

Social Security also derives a portion of the income it needs to pay benefits from the investment returns on its $3 trillion worth of assets.

Problem is– Social Security is...

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References

1. ^{^} Skip to main content (www.zerohedge.com)

De Beers Group published the results of what it calls its "sixth sales cycle" of 2019.

The value of this month's sight stood at $250 million, a drop of more than 60 percent compared to the sixth sight of 2018 ($533). The miner reported that its fifth sight, of last month, had generated $391 million, compared to $581 million in June 2018.

To date, De Beers' rough sales in 2019 reached $2. 63 billion.

With four more sights to go  in August, September, November and December, it is obvious De Beers rough sales will not come close to the sales number ($5.39 billion) of 2018, as it will continue to allow clients to defer their sights, in light of the current oversupply of rough in the pipeline, the lack of liquidity, the demand of Indian banks to restitute existing loans and the stated unwillingness of banks to extend new loans for rough purchases.

Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: "With ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, retailers managing inventory levels, and polished diamond inventories in the midstream continuing to be higher than normal, De Beers Group provided customers with additional flexibility to defer some of their rough diamond allocations to later in the year. As a result, we saw a reduction in sales during the sixth cycle of 2019.
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References

1. ^{^} Skip to main content (www.zerohedge.com)