The Great Diamond Glut: Miners Stuck with Gems Worth Billions

>"The five biggest producers are probably sitting on excess inventories worth about $3.5 billion, according to Gemdax, a specialist advisory firm. The figure could reach $4.5 billion by the end of the year, or about one-third of annual rough-diamond production.

“They’ve tried to restrict rough-diamond supply to protect the market and protect value,” said Gemdax partner Anish Aggarwal."

Observation: What the diamond producers are doing, that is restricting supply, in an effort to keep prices high, seems to be a pattern that occurs across multiple economic domains.

For example, banks sometimes sit on large amounts of empty houses that they won't currently sell -- that is, until the appropriate market demand (and high enough prices) are present to justify those sales...