I read this article that was linked in a comment somewhere on Reddit. While it's amazingly informative and comprehensive, it's an old one, written in 1982 - ending with a prediction of a probable/possible diamond collapse, due to flooding of the market from possibly Africa, possibly Israel, and mainly - Australia
What happened next??
It never happened. Because of its sensational nature, Epstein's article (and book he wrote at the time) got a lot of traction but he strongly exaggerated the role of De Beers cartel in creating and maintaining the prices of diamonds, as history proved.
No diamond crash ever came. Since the early 90's, De Beers market share steadily dropped over the ensuing decades, and yet prices remained stable. Even the liquidation of De Beers stockpiles in the early 2000s did not put a very big dent in the prices.
In short, there was no diamond bubble. De Beers no longer has a monopoly and prices are now set more or less entirely by supply-and-demand. This has lead to increased price volatility but nothing like the "diamond collapse" Epstein predicted.
