Bob, Jesse, Martin,
I found part of what I was looking for in a few-years-old publication by Bob Bishop, "Diamonds in North America: Point Lake and Beyond."
Beginning on page 21 he states, "...but with negligible demand and commitment to absorb supplies, the diamond market would again succumb to oversupply. In 1932, all of DeBeers's diamond mines were closed, and would not reopen for five years."
I think that suggests diamonds are not a store of value during an international depression, but it's also interesting to see what happened following the disinvestment in inflation hedges circa 1980.
"...the industry benchmark one carat 'D' flawless diamonds dropped from a 1980 peak of $60,000 to $10,000 in 1984." I guess gold had a similar decline during that period.
Anyway, let's hope the economic future for North America, at least, does not include such extremes.
VP |
