Diamond News Archives

When the market for any form of perceived value suddenly seizes up, its owners automatically gravitate toward stores of value they perceive are more stable, sane, and secure.

Over a medium-term time frame, this has often meant shifting from risk assets to cash. To the US dollar. A fiat currency. A form of transaction which has always eventually failed in its every historic incarnation.

Over a longer-term time frame, only gold has reliably stored value for generations. When the US dollar falls apart, don’t be surprised if the US government itself suddenly finds itself keenly interested in gold once again. This article explores President Roosevelt’s gold policy in the wake of the Great Depression.

Toward the end of the presentation, the president said that in order to raise prices, he was adopting a new policy: He was establishing a market for gold in the United States. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation would buy newly minted gold at prices determined after consultation with the secretary of the Treasury and the president.

If needed, the RFC would also buy and sell gold in the world market at these prices. It was important, the president declared, that people understood clearly what he was doing: “This is a policy and not an expedient. It is not to be used merely to offset a temporary fall in prices. We are thus continuing to move toward a managed currency.”

The news of the new gold-buying program was received both in the U.S. and in world financial centers with calm bewilderment. No one knew exactly how the program would work, or how the purchase price would evolve through time. More important, no one knew if the new buying program would be able to move the international market for gold, exchange...

The world’s largest diamond jewellery retailer, Signet, has become the first chain to join De Beers' pilot of its end-to-end diamond blockchain program called Tracr, aimed at clearing the supply chain of imposters and conflict minerals.

Signet will work alongside the Tracr team to ensure the platform meets the needs of the jewellery manufacture and retail sectors, with the partnership initially focusing on the tracking of diamond jewellery and expanding the pilot’s scope to cater for smaller-sized goods.

“We are joining the Tracr pilot because we believe the project not only has strong potential to facilitate increased transparency and confidence within the industry, but it can also foster much-needed digital transformation,” Signet Jewelers chief executive, Virginia C. Drosos, said in a statement.

Anglo American’s De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond miner by value, has led industry efforts to verify the authenticity of diamonds and ensure they are not from conflict zones where gems may be used to finance violence.

The pilot, announced in January, has an initial focus on large stones, but De Beers will extend its scope with the goal of making it the first industry-wide tracking system.

The blockchain platform is basically a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the Internet, a technology currently being employed in the bitcoin sector.

Tracr, expected to launch later this year, gives each diamond a unique ID that stores stones characteristics such as weight, colour and clarity. To support the process, the system will also be using stone photos and planned outcome images.

Earlier this month, De Beers announced it...

Distraction. Long one of the most potent weapons in any military campaign. Create a loud, flashy diversion on one front to divert attention from your true point of attack.

Think of the Everything Bubble as the Fed’s diversionary tactic against your long-term investment success. Yes, it has driven up asset prices to all-time insane valuation levels via ZIRP and QE. Yes, the gold price, relatively speaking, has languished as it has done so.

But like a fighter who comes roaring out of the gate and throws everything he has at his opponent in the first round, it can’t last. Let that fighter exhaust himself, throwing wild punches at max effort (ZIRP, QE). He may land shots here and there, but it’s simply not a sustainable approach. Then, while you’ve been patient and diligent in your defense, win the bout when all the flash and fury is gone, and only true long-term value remains.

Number 1: Gold has a long history of storing value. Since the discovery of gold thousands of years ago, it has been a coveted commodity and store of value.

Number 2: Inflation is historically good for gold. Gold has historically been an excellent hedge against inflation, because its price tends to rise when the cost of living increases.

Number 3: Gold jewelry demand is ever-rising in China and India. One of the biggest factors driving the gold price is what we call the Love Trade, or the seasonal gift-giving of gold jewelry prominent in China and India, the two largest bullion consumers.

Number 4: World gold supply is shrinking. Gold is both scarce and finite – another reason why it’s so highly valued.

Number 5: Global government debt is skyrocketing. Total global government debt is at an...

North Korea’s senior envoy for U.S. affairs renewed a threat to call off a planned summit with President Donald Trump and warned that Pyongyang could “make the U.S. taste an appalling tragedy it has neither experienced nor even imagined.”

In its most direct language aimed at Washington following a recent rapprochement between the two countries, Choe Son Hui, the North’s vice minister of foreign affairs, said if the June 12 talks were called off, the U.S. could instead face off with North Korea in a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

Choe’s statement, issued through official state media, called out Vice President Mike Pence, who she referred to as “a political dummy.” Choe’s release followed strongly-worded statements last week from other senior North Korean officials aimed at U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and at the South Korean government of Moon Jae-in, who has pushed for dialogue with Pyongyang to avoid a nuclear standoff.

Choe added that, if the U.S. continues to offend the North’s “goodwill,” she would tell leader Kim Jong Un to reconsider the Singapore summit with the U.S. “It is the U.S. who has asked for dialogue, but now it is misleading the public opinion as if we have invited them to sit with us,” Choe said. “We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us.”

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.^[1]

Also popular on WSJ.com:

Fate of 12 North Korea waitresses strains Moon-Kim detente.^[2]

Apple avoids Amazon’s beauty contest, searches secretly for new campus.^[3] ...

References

1. ^{^}