1 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: This is Red Pilled America. A quick question before we 2 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 1: start the show. How many shows are there out there 3 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,959 Speaker 1: like Red Pilled America. You know the answer, it's zero 4 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: and why because it's hard to produce a storytelling show. 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: Join the fanbam and support storytelling that aligns with your values. 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: Just go to Redpilled America dot com and click join 7 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:26,639 Speaker 1: in the top menu. You'll get add free access to 8 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: our entire back catalog of episodes. Help us save America, 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: one story at a time. 10 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 2: Previously on Red Pilled. 11 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:40,879 Speaker 1: America, diamonds were not valuable because they were rare. They 12 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: were valuable because they were controlled. 13 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 3: Central banks don't store what's fashionable. They store what works 14 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 3: when everything else breaks. 15 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: And during the onset of the Great Depression, the smart 16 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: money began accumulating gold. 17 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 4: European orders from de Beers for industrial diamonds began to climb, 18 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 4: and Oppenheimer understood what that meant. 19 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: These orders are not the actions of nations preparing for peace. 20 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: They're preparing for war. 21 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 4: Industrial diamond orders became a proxy for war preparation. 22 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: Scientists at the General Electric Company achieved something that until 23 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: then had been considered impossible. They created a diamond in 24 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: a laboratory. I'm Patrick Carelci and. 25 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 2: I'm Adriana Cortes. 26 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,319 Speaker 1: And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show. 27 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 4: This is not another talk show covering the day's news. 28 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 4: We're all about telling stories. 29 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories. 30 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 4: The media mocks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist ignore. 31 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries, 32 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to 33 00:01:54,920 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: Red Pilled America. It's a cold night in Brussels, January 34 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, and inside the Royal Windsor Hotel, two 35 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 1: men sit across from one another at a small dining table. 36 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: To anyone watching, this looks like nothing more than a 37 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 1: routine business dinner, a supplier and a customer sharing a meal. 38 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,799 Speaker 1: But this quiet dinner will become Exhibit A and one 39 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: of the most consequential antitrust cases in modern industrial history. 40 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: At the table sits Peter Friends, a sales manager for 41 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: General Electric's industrial diamond division. Across from him is Philip l'otier, 42 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: a business executive at Diamont Boert, one of the world's 43 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: largest buyers of industrial diamonds. On paper, Diamont Boert looks 44 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 1: like just another European company, but behind the scenes, it 45 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: is something more. It's owned in part by Debier's consolidated minds, 46 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: the same company that's had a monopoly on engagement ring 47 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 1: diamond for over a century. But this night isn't about romance. 48 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: It's about industrial diamonds, the rough, gravelly stones used for 49 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: grinding steel and shaping the modern world. At some point 50 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:17,920 Speaker 1: during the meal, low Tier quietly slides a list of 51 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: upcoming de Beer's price increases for industrial diamonds. The ge 52 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: man Peter Friends, takes out a pen and writes the 53 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: numbers down. Moments later, Friends leaves the table, then walks 54 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,959 Speaker 1: to a fax machine, and he sends those numbers straight 55 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: to General Electrics headquarters in Ohio. Within days, General Electric 56 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: raises its own prices in near perfect alignment with Debier's, 57 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: and the result across the world, the price of industrial 58 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: diamonds rises, not because of scarcity or increased demand, but 59 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: because the two companies that control roughly ninety percent of 60 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: the global market moved together in silence. To the US 61 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: Department of Justice, this was textbook collusion, two dominant players 62 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: sharing pricing information then coordinated action a cartel dinner hidden 63 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: in plain sight. But what makes this moment so extraordinary 64 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 1: isn't just the potential illegality. It's the irony, because General 65 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: Electric and De Beer's were never supposed to be allies. 66 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,800 Speaker 1: In fact, they began as mortal enemies. We're at the 67 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: finale of our series of episodes entitled what makes something Valuable? 68 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: We're looking for the answer to that question by telling 69 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: the story of Diamond Powerhouse to Beers, so. 70 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 4: To pick up where we left off in our last episode. 71 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,720 Speaker 4: By the early nineteen fifties, de Beers had done something 72 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 4: no company in history had ever accomplished. It had taken 73 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 4: a stone once reserved for kings and turned it into 74 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 4: a universal symbol of love. Diamonds had defeated pearls. They 75 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,599 Speaker 4: had conquered Hollywood and embedded themselves into marriage status, aspiration, 76 00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 4: and identity itself. A proposal without a diamond felt almost illegitimate, 77 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 4: And behind that cultural victory stood a the corporate reality 78 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 4: that was just a staggering. By the mid nineteen fifties, 79 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 4: de Beers controlled more than ninety percent of the world's 80 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,599 Speaker 4: diamond supply, and not just gem quality stones, glittering in 81 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 4: jewelry cases, rough imperfect industrial diamonds that powered the modern 82 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 4: world as well. These were the stones that cut steel, 83 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:26,840 Speaker 4: drilled through rocks, and shaped aircraft parts, tank armor, jet engines, 84 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,799 Speaker 4: oil wells, and precision weapons. They were the hidden backbone 85 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 4: of the twentieth century industry, and prior to the mid 86 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 4: nineteen fifties, de Beers controlled them all. This was the 87 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 4: part of the diamond Empire. Few consumers ever saw the 88 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 4: central selling organization, the enforcement arm of the de Beer's cartel, 89 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 4: didn't just regulate glamour. It regulated factories, supply chains, and 90 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:55,280 Speaker 4: manufacturing timelines. If you wanted industrial diamonds, you went through 91 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 4: de Beers. There was no alternative, and for most of 92 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,239 Speaker 4: the world that monopoly was accepted as simply the cost 93 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 4: of doing business. But further the United States, that condition 94 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:09,240 Speaker 4: was intolerable. America had no diamond mines, no domestic supply, 95 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,479 Speaker 4: no independent leverage. Every drill bit, grinding wheel, and position 96 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 4: tool that relied on diamond abrasives came from a foreign 97 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,839 Speaker 4: cartel controlled by de Beers, a cartel headquartered in Southern 98 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 4: Africa with deep ties to Britain and no obligation real 99 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 4: or moral to American national interests. During World War II, 100 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 4: this dependency had already made US planners deeply uncomfortable. Diamonds 101 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,080 Speaker 4: were strategic in war. They were used to machine tank parts, 102 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 4: shape aircraft engines, and manufacture weapons with tolerances measured in 103 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 4: thousands of an inch, and yet the United States had 104 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 4: been forced to rely on a monopoly it did not control. 105 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,360 Speaker 4: To Washington, this was more than a market issue. It 106 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 4: was a national security problem. And as the World War 107 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 4: II fighting intensified, de Beers made clear where its priority stood. Britain, 108 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,919 Speaker 4: the heart of the Empire, came first. Everyone else the 109 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:10,480 Speaker 4: United States noticed. American officials grew increasingly uneasy as they 110 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 4: watched a foreign cartel dictate the flow of a material 111 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 4: essential to wartime manufacturing. Requests for transparency were met with deflection. 112 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 4: Inventory levels were treated as proprietary secrets. Allocation decisions were 113 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 4: made behind closed doors in London and Johannesburg. From Washington's perspective, 114 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:38,440 Speaker 4: the situation was intolerable. Then came the rumors. Intelligence reports 115 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 4: began to surface that millions of carrots of industrial diamonds 116 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 4: were finding their way to Nazi occupied Belgium. Belgium had 117 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 4: long been a center of diamond industry, but under German control, 118 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 4: any material flowing through Antwerp was by definition serving the 119 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 4: access war effort. To American analysts, that implication was unavoidable. 120 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 4: There was only one entity that controlled large stockpiles of 121 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 4: diamonds to beer. US intelligence tracked one smuggling operation into 122 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,679 Speaker 4: occupied territory, but when investigators tried to follow the trail 123 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:12,800 Speaker 4: further back towards the mines. 124 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 2: It vanished. 125 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 4: The supply chain dissolved into shell companies, intermediaries, and deniable transactions. 126 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 4: Nothing could be conclusively proven, but suspicion hardened into belief. 127 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 4: American officials pressed Britain to investigate to Beers directly. Britain declined. Instead, 128 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:35,080 Speaker 4: they suggested a so called security review be performed. The 129 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 4: experts that would be selected to conduct it would be 130 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 4: mining engineers and diamond specialists, all approved by the head 131 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,680 Speaker 4: of de Beers himself, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. To Washington, the 132 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,000 Speaker 4: approach looked less like an investigation and more like a 133 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:54,680 Speaker 4: performance trust collapsed. Internal memos from the era described throwing 134 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 4: alarm amongst defense planners. One conclusion surfaced again and again 135 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 4: in classified discussions in the next war, the United States could. 136 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:04,559 Speaker 2: Be cut off entirely. 137 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 4: De Biers controlled a choke point for diamonds. This was 138 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 4: not paranoia, it was math. If De Beers chose to 139 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 4: restrict shipments or redirect them, the US industrial machine would 140 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 4: grind to a halt within months. Aircraft production would slow, 141 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:25,559 Speaker 4: tooling precision would degrade. Weapons manufacturing would suffer cascading failures. 142 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 4: A modern army, it turned out, could not function without 143 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:37,200 Speaker 4: diamond dust. As the war wound down, the message in 144 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,839 Speaker 4: Washington was clear. The United States could never again allow 145 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:44,200 Speaker 4: a foreign cartel to control a material so central to 146 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 4: national defense. The war ended in nineteen forty five, but 147 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 4: the unease did not the same year, the US Justice 148 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 4: Department finally moved against the diamond cartel. A formal antitrust 149 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 4: case was filed against De Beers, accusing it of monopolizing 150 00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 4: the global diamond trade, including in still diamonds vital to 151 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:09,360 Speaker 4: American defense, but the case collapsed almost immediately. De Beer's 152 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 4: had no offices on US oil, no executives within reach 153 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:16,120 Speaker 4: of American courts, and no assets the government could seize. 154 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:20,240 Speaker 4: So Washington changed their tactic. If it couldn't break the 155 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:24,080 Speaker 4: cartel through the courts, it would break its leverage through science. 156 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: Life can be pretty stressful these days. You want to 157 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: know what makes me feel better? Licorice from the Licorice Guy. 158 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:41,880 Speaker 1: Call me crazy, but it's true because I love licorice. 159 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: Longtime listeners of bread Piled America know that licorice is 160 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: my absolute favorite candy, and the very best licorice, hands down, 161 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: comes from the Licorice Guy. I know licorice, and it 162 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: doesn't get any better than this. What truly sets it 163 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,600 Speaker 1: apart is its flavor and its freshness. 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Visit Licoriceguide dot com and enter 173 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:32,199 Speaker 1: RPA fifteen at checkout that's licoriceguide dot com. They ship daily, 174 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:34,960 Speaker 1: treat yourself and those you love, and taste the difference. 175 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:40,240 Speaker 2: Welcome back to red pilled America. 176 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,240 Speaker 4: So by the end of World War Two, the US 177 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:47,439 Speaker 4: Justice Department filed an antitrust case against a Beers, accusing 178 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 4: it of monopolizing the global diamond trade, including industrial diamonds 179 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:55,839 Speaker 4: vital to American defense. But the case collapsed almost immediately. 180 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,679 Speaker 4: De Beers had no offices on US soil, no executives 181 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,560 Speaker 4: within reach of American courts, and no assets the government 182 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:06,720 Speaker 4: could see. So Washington changed their tactic. If it couldn't 183 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 4: break the cartel through the courts, it would break its 184 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 4: leverage through science. In the late nineteen forties, the US 185 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 4: government quietly began laying the groundwork for a domestic alternative. 186 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,080 Speaker 4: The same wartime research apparatus that had produced radar, jet 187 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 4: engines and the atomic bomb was repurposed for a new mission. 188 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:29,040 Speaker 4: The Office of Scientific Research and Development and its successor 189 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 4: agency began pouring money into fundamental material science. High pressure physics, 190 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 4: carbon crystallization, metallurgy at extreme temperatures, all components needed to 191 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 4: theoretically make diamonds in a lab, Scientists experimented with massive 192 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 4: presses capable of exerting pressures found only deep inside the Earth. 193 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 4: They toyed with graphite behavior under heat and stress, and 194 00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 4: designed furnaces that could hold temperatures high enough to force 195 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:59,320 Speaker 4: carbon atoms into new arrangements. Inside the Pentagon, industrial diamonds 196 00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 4: were formally classified as a critical material. Internal mammals warned 197 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:07,200 Speaker 4: that foreign controlled supply chains were unacceptable, that reliance on 198 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:11,640 Speaker 4: a single overseas cartel posed an existential risk, and quietly 199 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 4: American corporations were encouraged to act. Companies like General Electric 200 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 4: GE had the engineers, capital and laboratories, and now they 201 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,600 Speaker 4: had a mandate reduce dependence onto beers, create a domestic 202 00:13:25,679 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 4: source of industrial diamonds, and break the choke point. Sometime 203 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:32,960 Speaker 4: in the early nineteen fifties, GE launched what it called 204 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:36,680 Speaker 4: the Super Pressure Project, a secret internal program aimed at 205 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,840 Speaker 4: doing what no one had ever done before, produced diamonds 206 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:44,079 Speaker 4: without minds. At first, even insiders weren't. 207 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 2: Sure it was possible. 208 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,480 Speaker 4: Diamonds weren't just carbon. They were carbon arranged in a 209 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:52,800 Speaker 4: very specific lattice, forged under crushing pressure and intense heat 210 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,079 Speaker 4: over a long geological time. 211 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 2: But that was the old assumption. 212 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 4: What if nature's timetable could be accelerated, the Earth's mantle 213 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 4: recreated in a machine, general election should pursue the answer 214 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 4: to these questions, and by the mid nineteen fifties they 215 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 4: had a breakthrough. 216 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:11,959 Speaker 5: In nineteen fifty four came a landmark in Man's search 217 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 5: for knowledge about his world. Scientists of the General Electric 218 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 5: Company in the United States produced man made diamond for 219 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:20,720 Speaker 5: the first time. 220 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: Inside GE's secret super pressure project, scientists subjected ordinary carbon 221 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: graphite to conditions that until then existed only deep inside 222 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 1: the Earth pressures, approaching sixty thousand atmospheres temperatures above fifteen 223 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,800 Speaker 1: hundred degrees celsius. They combined carbon with metal catalysts and 224 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,400 Speaker 1: forced it violently into a new form. The result was 225 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,120 Speaker 1: a crystal with the same atomic lattice as a natural diamond, 226 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: the same hardness and structure, the same fundamental identity. These 227 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,120 Speaker 1: were not diamond imitations. There were diamonds, but they were 228 00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:59,080 Speaker 1: not diamonds for engagement rings. They were small, rough, and granular. 229 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: They were industrial diamond. And that distinction mattered because for 230 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: decades the beers had treated industrial diamonds as an afterthought, 231 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 1: a byproduct of gem mining. Now, for the first time, 232 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: a company outside the cartel could produce diamonds on demand. 233 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: De Beers didn't yet realize it, but the era of 234 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: a diamond being forever quietly began to crack. For the 235 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: first time since Cecil Roads consolidated the diamond fields of 236 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: South Africa, de Beers did not control all diamond supply. 237 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: A US based corporation could now produce diamonds without asking 238 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 1: permission from the Earth or from the De Beer's cartel, 239 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: and Ernest Oppenheimer understood immediately what that meant, because even 240 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: though these early synthetic diamonds weren't suitable for jewelry, they 241 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 1: attacked the monopoly at its most sensitive point. Control. Diamonds 242 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: had always drawn their power from scarcity, from the idea 243 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: that they were rare, that they arrived only on nature's timetable. 244 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: Had just demonstrated that this was no longer true, at 245 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: least not for industrial use. And once that spell was 246 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 1: broken in machine shops, it was only a matter of 247 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 1: time before the question arose, if diamonds can be made 248 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: for industry, why not for jewelry. De Beers understood the 249 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,920 Speaker 1: danger immediately, and it quietly began making synthetic diamonds itself. 250 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: Ernest Oppenheimer died in nineteen fifty seven, but unlike when 251 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: Rhoades passed, there was no power vacuum. The cartel transitioned 252 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: smoothly from founder to air. Ernest's son, Harry Oppenheimer, was 253 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: already deeply embedded in the business before his father's death. 254 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:43,120 Speaker 1: He became chairman of Anglo American in nineteen fifty seven, 255 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: and three years later chairman of de Beers, with Harry 256 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: at the helm. In the nineteen sixties, de Beers launched 257 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:52,600 Speaker 1: its own high pressure, high temperature research programs, the same 258 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: basic approach ge had pioneered. Over time, this secretive research 259 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: arm would formalize into a company with an almost ironic name, 260 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: Element six, reference to carbon's position on the periodic table, 261 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: the building block of diamonds. By the nineteen eighties, you 262 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:10,439 Speaker 1: would have thought these two behemoth companies would have been 263 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,680 Speaker 1: locked in a brutal zero sum war. On one side, 264 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:17,399 Speaker 1: to Beers, a century old cartel that had mastered scarcity, 265 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:21,480 Speaker 1: psychology and control. On the other hand, General Electric, the 266 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: American industrial giant that had learned how to manufacture diamonds, 267 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,040 Speaker 1: but the two weren't at war. The two companies instead 268 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: circled each other cautiously, almost respectfully. As the eighties came 269 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: to a close, the battlefield had stabilized, not into free competition, 270 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:42,480 Speaker 1: but into something colder, a duopoly. Together, ge and de 271 00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: Beers controlled roughly ninety percent of the industrial diamond market. 272 00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:50,000 Speaker 1: They did not need to fight openly. In fact, fighting 273 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:54,399 Speaker 1: would be disastrous. If either side flooded the market too aggressively, 274 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,840 Speaker 1: prices would collapse. Stability became more valuable than victory, and 275 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,840 Speaker 1: so without formal treaties or public agreements, the industry settled 276 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 1: in to a tense equilibrium, two giants, one market, and 277 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 1: a shared interest in keeping diamonds natural and synthetic expensive. 278 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 1: The two companies learn to move carefully, to watch each other, 279 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: and eventually to align, which brings us back to Brussels 280 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 1: in January nineteen ninety two, at the Royal Windsor Hotel, 281 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: in a polished dining room, with two men sitting across 282 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: from each other at a small table, the ge man 283 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:35,040 Speaker 1: Peter Friends, and the executive connected to De Beer's Peter Lotier. 284 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: After dinner, Friends takes de Beer's upcoming price increases and 285 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:43,959 Speaker 1: faxes those prices directly to GE's headquarters in Ohio. Within days, 286 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: General Electric raises its own industrial diamond prices in parallel 287 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,480 Speaker 1: with de Beers to the US Justice Department. This is 288 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: textbook price fixing, and in nineteen ninety four federal prosecutors 289 00:18:55,880 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: make their move. General Electric is indicted, so is Debier's, 290 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: though only on paper because de Beer's refuses to appear 291 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:10,480 Speaker 1: in U s Court g egos to trial. Its defense 292 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:15,240 Speaker 1: is technical, careful, and narrowly successful. Prosecutors cannot prove that 293 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: the corporation itself knowingly directed collusion without access to Deber's 294 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:24,639 Speaker 1: internal records unreachable. As long as Debier's remains outside US jurisdiction, 295 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: the case weakens. General Electric is eventually acquitted, but Debier's 296 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: remains under indictment, and the consequences are immediate and lasting 297 00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:38,679 Speaker 1: for years afterward. Debier's executives avoided traveling to the United States, 298 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,160 Speaker 1: entirely knowing they could be arrested the moment they landed. 299 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: The cartel that once operated visibly, confidently and above scrutiny, 300 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:51,200 Speaker 1: was now exposed. Russia was beginning to sell outside the cartel. 301 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: Canada was developing an independent diamond supply, Australia was moving 302 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,680 Speaker 1: its stones off the de BER's pipeline, and far more 303 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:05,399 Speaker 1: dangerous than any newly discovered mind technology was accelerating. The 304 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: indictment over Brussels didn't end the diamond cartel, but it 305 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: marked the moment when its powers stopped being absolute. De 306 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: Biers was no longer the unquestioned master of the diamond world. 307 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:20,240 Speaker 1: It was a company under pressure from governments, from competitors, 308 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: and from science itself. In two thousand, the once head 309 00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: of de Bers, Harry Oppenheimer, passed away. His son, Nicki Oppenheimer, 310 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: had taken over De Beers two years earlier, and he 311 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: did something unthinkable. The same year his father died. Niki 312 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:39,720 Speaker 1: started to dismantle the cartel model, the very system that 313 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,680 Speaker 1: had made to Bers powerful. Cecil Roads built the monopoly, 314 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:48,159 Speaker 1: or Nestoppenheimer perfected the cartel, Harry Oppenheimer preserved it, and 315 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:52,159 Speaker 1: Nicki Oppenheimer dissolved it. After more than a century of 316 00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:55,960 Speaker 1: single channel control, De Beers officially ended the central selling 317 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:02,679 Speaker 1: organization's dominance over global diamond distribution. In its place, to 318 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: Beer embarked on a new strategy, one that sounded almost 319 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: mundane by comparison. It would become a normal company by competing, marketing, 320 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: and selecting partners instead of commanding obedience. This was not evolution, 321 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,199 Speaker 1: it was retreat. The cartel was over in two thousand 322 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:24,200 Speaker 1: and one, De Biers was taken private. Ownership was consolidated 323 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,280 Speaker 1: among three key players, Anglo American, the Oppenheimer family, and 324 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,199 Speaker 1: the government of Botswana. Removed from public markets, de Beers 325 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,040 Speaker 1: could restructure quietly without shareholder's scrutiny and prepare for a 326 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: future no longer built a monopoly. But there was another motive. 327 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: For decades, De Biers had avoided the United States, unwilling 328 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: to subject itself to antitrust enforcement. Now, with the cartel 329 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,480 Speaker 1: effectively dismantled, the company needed to clean up its legal exposure. 330 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:56,240 Speaker 1: That meant resolving its long running conflict with the US 331 00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:00,480 Speaker 1: Justice Department. De Biers ultimately settled its anti trust issues, 332 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:04,159 Speaker 1: paying millions in fines and accepting restrictstions that cleared a 333 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: path for limited re entry into the American market. The 334 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:12,400 Speaker 1: company that once dictated terms to governments was now negotiating permission. 335 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: And then came the final signal. Of what was really 336 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:17,200 Speaker 1: happening in the diamond industry. 337 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,400 Speaker 4: In twenty eleven, the Oppenheimer family, the dynasty that had 338 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:25,479 Speaker 4: transformed to beers into the most successful cartel in modern history, 339 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 4: sold its remaining stake to Anglo American. Just like that, 340 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,679 Speaker 4: the family that had ruled the diamond world for nearly 341 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,240 Speaker 4: a century was gone. To some, it looked like a 342 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,800 Speaker 4: simple business decision, but to the more discerning watchers it 343 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,840 Speaker 4: appeared to be foresight because by twenty eleven, the pressures 344 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,359 Speaker 4: that had cracked the cartel were no longer peripheral. 345 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:47,400 Speaker 2: They were central. 346 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:52,399 Speaker 4: Labs that synthesized diamonds were improving. Detection between natural and 347 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,040 Speaker 4: lab grown diamonds was getting harder. Consumers were beginning to 348 00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,679 Speaker 4: ask uncomfortable questions. If lab grown diamonds are chemically diamonds 349 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,679 Speaker 4: and experts can't easily tell them apart, aren't they just 350 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,680 Speaker 4: real diamonds? The forever diamond illusion that had held for 351 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:11,200 Speaker 4: one hundred years was still standing, but it was no longer. 352 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:12,480 Speaker 2: Stable, and the people. 353 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,160 Speaker 4: Who knew at best were getting out. Because you see, 354 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,680 Speaker 4: the Oppenheimers knew that scientists had made a breakthrough forty 355 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,360 Speaker 4: years earlier, and that breakthrough was finally becoming economically viable. 356 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,600 Speaker 1: Want to listen to Red Pilled America ad free, then 357 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:33,280 Speaker 1: become a backstage subscriber. Just go to Redpilled America dot 358 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,280 Speaker 1: com and click join in the top menu. Join the 359 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,680 Speaker 1: fanbam and help us save America one story at a time. 360 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 2: Welcome back to Red Pilled America. 361 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 4: In the early nineteen seventies, Deep inside General Electrics labs, 362 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:54,520 Speaker 4: something quietly extraordinary happened. GE scientists succeeded in producing something new. 363 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,400 Speaker 4: Not dark, opaque diamonds for grinding wheels, but gem quality 364 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:03,320 Speaker 4: diamond perfectly crystalline, chemically identical to stones pulled from Earth, 365 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 4: the kind of diamonds that were mounted on engagement rings 366 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 4: and branded as Forever. The BBC reported on g's breakthrough 367 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:11,920 Speaker 4: in nineteen seventy. 368 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,120 Speaker 6: Although industrial diamonds have been manufactured before, this secret recipe 369 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:20,359 Speaker 6: will produce the world's first synthetic gem diamonds. Graphite granules 370 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 6: are squeezed and fused into a pure, unmarked diamond crystal, 371 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,159 Speaker 6: and they claim that it's fit for the brow of 372 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 6: a prince or the left hand of a pretty girl. 373 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:34,640 Speaker 4: It was a stunning moment, and yet the diamond cartel 374 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:35,440 Speaker 4: didn't feel it. 375 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 2: Because there was a catch, actually several. 376 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:43,200 Speaker 4: First, the process was staggeringly expensive. The stones were still small, 377 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 4: typically around a carrot or less, and producing them required 378 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,760 Speaker 4: enormous energy, massive presses, and extreme temperatures. In other words, 379 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 4: g could make gem diamonds, but at a cost so 380 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 4: high that they posed no immediate threat to the natural 381 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 4: diamond business. At the time, even optimists believed these stones 382 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:07,240 Speaker 4: would remain scientific curiosities, too expensive, too limited, and too impractical. 383 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 4: The illusion of diamond scarcity remained intact. But by the 384 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:16,119 Speaker 4: nineteen eighties that illusion began to weaken, not publicly but technically, 385 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,879 Speaker 4: because GE wasn't alone anymore. Multiple actors had cracked the 386 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:25,280 Speaker 4: same basic problem Deber's own research teams, Soviet and later 387 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 4: Russian labs, as well as Japanese and European material scientists. 388 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 4: All of them could now produce gem quality diamonds in 389 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,200 Speaker 4: a lap, not cheaply, but reliably. High quality Yellow diamonds 390 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:44,440 Speaker 4: in particular, became easier to manufacture and quietly without fanfare. 391 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,400 Speaker 4: Some of these stones began to slip into the market, 392 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:52,000 Speaker 4: occasionally mixed with natural diamonds, and passed along without disclosure 393 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 4: because no doubt, some unscrupulous people in these labs knew 394 00:25:55,760 --> 00:26:00,000 Speaker 4: that detection was becoming difficult Under a jeweler's loop. Many 395 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,960 Speaker 4: of these stones were indistinguishable from natural diamond. Synthetic gems existed, 396 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,719 Speaker 4: but they were niche. The public remained unaware. The diamond 397 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,320 Speaker 4: myths survived another decade, but in the nineteen nineties the 398 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:17,399 Speaker 4: quiet trickle became a stream. Russian labs expanded their high. 399 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 2: Pressure, high temperature production. 400 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 4: They created more stones and lab facilities, and those lab 401 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,160 Speaker 4: gems began to cross their borders. The number of players 402 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,000 Speaker 4: capable of producing gem quality synthetics grew, and with each 403 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,280 Speaker 4: new lab, the costs to produce gem quality diamonds began 404 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 4: to shrink. Diamonds, once defined by geological rarity, were becoming 405 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,320 Speaker 4: a manufactured product, not yet mass market or. 406 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 2: Cheap, but no longer unique. 407 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:48,880 Speaker 4: The lesson from pearls loomed in the background. Cultured pearls 408 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,680 Speaker 4: hadn't destroyed natural pearls overnight. They had done something subtler 409 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:57,480 Speaker 4: and far more devastating. They had eroded exclusivity, and diamonds 410 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 4: were now walking the same path. The technology existed, as 411 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 4: did the capability all that remained was scale. In the 412 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 4: late nineteen nineties, just as Nicky Oppenheimer was taking the 413 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,480 Speaker 4: helm of de Beers, a small Silicon Valley based company 414 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 4: called Apollo Diamond began experimenting with a radically different method 415 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:20,199 Speaker 4: of diamond creation, not crushing carbon under impossible pressure, but 416 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:25,720 Speaker 4: growing it. The process was called chemical vapor deposition or CVD, 417 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,480 Speaker 4: and here's how it worked. A tiny sliver of diamond, 418 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 4: no bigger than a grain of salt, was placed inside 419 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,719 Speaker 4: a sealed chamber. Carbon rich gases were pumped in, energy 420 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,879 Speaker 4: was applied, and then slowly, layer by layer, atom by atom, 421 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:47,879 Speaker 4: diamond began to grow, not as random crystal, but as 422 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:52,840 Speaker 4: a single, continuous lattice. This wasn't imitation, This was carbon 423 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,880 Speaker 4: arranging itself into the exact same structure as natural diamond. 424 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:00,920 Speaker 4: Like pearls, the rarity of diamonds was always vulnerable because 425 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 4: it was a chemical problem. Again, unlike gold, which is 426 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 4: a nuclear problem. Remember, for gold, you must change the 427 00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 4: number of protons in an atom. It can technically be 428 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,880 Speaker 4: done betted up to a billion dollars per ounce. There 429 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,920 Speaker 4: is no chemical shortcut. But diamonds, on the other hand, 430 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:20,360 Speaker 4: form under chemical processes that humans can replicate much easier 431 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 4: than a nuclear process. At first, Apollo Diamond stayed silent. 432 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 4: They quietly filed patents, refined their techniques, and improved clarity 433 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,720 Speaker 4: and consistency. By the early two thousands, they were producing 434 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 4: near colorless gem grade diamonds, the kind that could be 435 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,480 Speaker 4: set into jewelry, at a price that started to compete 436 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:44,000 Speaker 4: with the mining costs of natural diamonds. The company tried 437 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 4: to keep the breakthrough quiet, but in two thousand and 438 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,120 Speaker 4: three US leaked. 439 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 7: A tiny diamond seed is fused with carbon and heat 440 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,800 Speaker 7: and grows into a full fledged gem, something it takes 441 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 7: millions of years to do in nature. 442 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 4: Lab grown gem quality diamonds were no longer theoretical. 443 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 2: They were here. 444 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,520 Speaker 4: In two thousand and four, Apollo Diamond made its announcement public. 445 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:10,720 Speaker 4: They had successfully grown single crystal near colorless CBD diamonds 446 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 4: stones suitable for engagement rings. Now they could be done 447 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,320 Speaker 4: at a much cheaper cost than with the high pressure, 448 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,920 Speaker 4: high temperature technique developed in the nineteen fifties. This was 449 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:26,040 Speaker 4: the moment everything changed. This wasn't a finite amount of 450 00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 4: diamonds found in some new mine in South Africa. It 451 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,880 Speaker 4: was an infinite supply. Gem quality diamonds were no longer 452 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:37,080 Speaker 4: constrained by nature. They were constrained only by energy, equipment, 453 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 4: and economics, and that meant something terrifying for an industry 454 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 4: built on scarcity. As lab grown producers began marketing their stones, 455 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,600 Speaker 4: some used a phrase that sent a chill through the 456 00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,200 Speaker 4: diamond world, cultured diamonds. 457 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,480 Speaker 7: I think conventional wisdom would say that diamonds. 458 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: Only come from the ground, and that notions It's not true. 459 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 7: The company calls the creations cultured diamonds, like cultural pearls. 460 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 4: The use of the phrase wasn't an accident. It was 461 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 4: deliberate because everyone in the gem trade knew what it 462 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 4: happened to pearls. 463 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,440 Speaker 3: Diamonds and pearls failed because they lacked true scarcity, especially 464 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 3: now that they can make diamonds and pearls. 465 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,640 Speaker 4: That's Kevin de Merritt, founder of Lear Capital, one of 466 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 4: the world's premiere precious metal companies. 467 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 3: So gold and silver can't be manufactured. Every ounce on 468 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,160 Speaker 3: Earth came from a fian Nite geological process that took 469 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 3: millions of years. Mining is expensive, slow, and increasingly difficult, 470 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:40,840 Speaker 3: so it gets more expensive over time and even with 471 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 3: modern technology, global gold supply grows at about one or 472 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 3: two percent a year. The economy grows faster than that. 473 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,800 Speaker 3: When you have this slow rate of being able to 474 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 3: pull it out of the ground and it's scarce and 475 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 3: it's finite, that's what's going to create the value here. 476 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:57,360 Speaker 3: You can grow a pearl in a lab, you can 477 00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 3: grow a diamond, and lab you can't grow gold. 478 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 4: Cultured pearls had looked identical to natural ones had flooded 479 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 4: the market, and they had permanently destroyed the aura and 480 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,280 Speaker 4: the price of natural pearls. 481 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:09,720 Speaker 2: Now the same. 482 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 4: Language was being applied to diamonds, and the implication was obvious. 483 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:16,520 Speaker 4: If pearls could be grown and diamonds could be grown, 484 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:20,240 Speaker 4: then what exactly was a natural diamond worth. The traditional 485 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:25,320 Speaker 4: diamond industry pushed back hard. They insisted on a different word, synthetic, 486 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 4: because years earlier, the diamond cartel had successfully fended off 487 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,960 Speaker 4: another gem using this same argument. Cubic zirconia or CZ 488 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:38,640 Speaker 4: is a laboratory created crystal that can be manufactured cheaply, consistently, 489 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 4: and ats scale. It was developed in the late nineteen 490 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:46,800 Speaker 4: seventies but had a big cultural moment in the eighties. Visually, 491 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 4: it checked many of the boxes that mattered. To consumers, 492 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 4: It sparkled, it caught the light, and to the untrained eye, 493 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 4: it looked a lot like a diamond. Jewelry companies embraced 494 00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 4: it quickly. They became ubiquitous almost overnight, and sales exploded 495 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 4: across mass market jewelers. Cubrick Zirconia didn't just sell, it 496 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,560 Speaker 4: normalized the idea that a diamond look alike was acceptable. 497 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,720 Speaker 4: And yet despite all that, cubic zirconia did not collapse 498 00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:16,240 Speaker 4: the diamond market, not even close, because everyone knew what 499 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 4: it was and was not. Cubrick Zirconia was never presented 500 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:23,360 Speaker 4: as a diamond, It was never chemically identical, It was 501 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,959 Speaker 4: never marketed as the real thing. Instead, it occupied a 502 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,920 Speaker 4: very specific cultural lane. Cubic Zirconia became shorthand for imitation, 503 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 4: fake bling. The distinction was clear, and de Beers made 504 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,840 Speaker 4: sure it stayed that way. Diamonds were framed as real, 505 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 4: cubrick zirconia as synthetic, and the public accepted that boundary 506 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:47,120 Speaker 4: without much resistance. But beneath the surface, cubric zirconia revealed 507 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 4: something important. It proved that there was enormous pent up 508 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 4: demand for the look of diamonds, even without the geology, 509 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 4: the romance, or the mythology. If a product could one 510 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,600 Speaker 4: day deliver diamond sparkle and diamond chemistry at scale, the 511 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:02,719 Speaker 4: rules would change. 512 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,880 Speaker 1: The Oppenheimer's knew that day arrived. When Apollo Diamond began 513 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,760 Speaker 1: creating lab grown gem quality diamonds for jewelers. The situation 514 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,800 Speaker 1: was deeply unsettling. Even under a jeweler's loop that common 515 00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: one eye magnifying glass, they couldn't tell the difference. As 516 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: one jewel expert put it. 517 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,240 Speaker 7: I couldn't distinguish which one is men made and the natrol. 518 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 1: To distinguish lab grown from natural diamonds, he needed advanced equipment, spectroscopy, 519 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:41,240 Speaker 1: fluorescence analysis, high end imaging machines, tools found in laboratories, 520 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,240 Speaker 1: not jewelry counters. This was nothing like Cubric's or conia. 521 00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,320 Speaker 1: These were diamonds. The illusion that had held for a 522 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,520 Speaker 1: century that diamonds were rare because nature made them rare 523 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: was now really cracking. The Oppenheimers knew exactly where this 524 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:59,040 Speaker 1: story ended. They had seen it before with pearls, which 525 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,760 Speaker 1: is likely why they sold their Deber's shares in two 526 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,880 Speaker 1: thousand and eleven. By then, lab grown diamond manufacturing had 527 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: quietly entered its mass production phase. Facilities in China, India, Russia, 528 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:16,200 Speaker 1: and the United States scaled up, output costs dropped, yields improved, 529 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,399 Speaker 1: stones got larger, clearer, and more consistent, and consumers were 530 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,920 Speaker 1: beginning to notice the pitch was irresistible. The same diamond 531 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:29,439 Speaker 1: chemically identical at a discount price. In twenty eighteen, lab 532 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,400 Speaker 1: grown diamonds cost about twenty percent less than natural grown diamonds. 533 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 1: Consumers on a budget began turning to lab grown gems. 534 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,680 Speaker 1: The shift was undeniable, and that same year Debiers did 535 00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:47,000 Speaker 1: something unthinkable. It entered the lab grown gem quality market itself. 536 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 1: The company that had spent more than a century defending 537 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:54,560 Speaker 1: diamond scarcity launched its own lab grown brand. They called 538 00:34:54,600 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: it light Box. The move stunned jewelers. Light Box diamonds 539 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: were sold at a flat price eight hundred dollars per 540 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,280 Speaker 1: care it regardless of clarity, color or cut. No grating, 541 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:13,000 Speaker 1: mystique or romantic language like forever was added, just a price, 542 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: and the messaging was surgical. Light Box diamonds were positioned 543 00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: as fun, playful fashion jewelry, not engagement rings or heirlooms 544 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,240 Speaker 1: or investments. The strategy was clear. If lab grown diamonds 545 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:30,160 Speaker 1: couldn't be stopped, they would be devalued. Debiers wanted to 546 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,520 Speaker 1: crash the price, strip the romance, and frame them as 547 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: disposable like cubic zirconia, all to preserve natural diamonds as 548 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: the only stones that truly mattered. It was a calculated gamble, 549 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,880 Speaker 1: and in the short term it worked. Lab grown diamond 550 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:49,879 Speaker 1: prices collapsed forty percent almost overnight. But what debiers could 551 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:54,640 Speaker 1: not contain was the psychological spillover, because once consumers accepted 552 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,799 Speaker 1: that lab grown diamonds were real diamonds, not fake like 553 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:05,080 Speaker 1: cubic zirconia, the price gap became impossible to ignore, and 554 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:08,280 Speaker 1: the shock didn't stop with lab grown stones, it bled 555 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,640 Speaker 1: into the natural market. Between twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, 556 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,600 Speaker 1: polished natural diamond prices fell roughly ten percent, then another 557 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,839 Speaker 1: fifteen percent. For the first time since the cartel era. 558 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:23,480 Speaker 1: The market was behaving like a market, a luxury category, 559 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: responding to supply, substitution and price pressure. Then came acceleration. 560 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 1: By twenty nineteen, lab grown diamond production was doubling year 561 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:38,400 Speaker 1: over year. Retailers began openly promoting lab grown engagement rings 562 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,560 Speaker 1: not as alternatives, but as smart choices. In twenty twenty, 563 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:46,600 Speaker 1: the pandemic pushed diamond shopping online, where price comparisons were 564 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:51,560 Speaker 1: unavoidable and romance was filtered through spreadsheets. Younger buyers, raised 565 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: on transparency not tradition, began choosing size and value over narrative. 566 00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,120 Speaker 1: By twenty twenty two, lab grown diamonds accounted for roughly 567 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:05,440 Speaker 1: half of all US engagement rings by unit volume, and 568 00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,919 Speaker 1: by twenty twenty three, wholesale lab grown diamond prices had 569 00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,480 Speaker 1: fallen to around three hundred dollars per carrot, down from 570 00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:16,600 Speaker 1: thousands just five years earlier. The illusion was gone. The 571 00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:21,120 Speaker 1: following year, the reckoning arrived. Natural diamond prices fell hard. 572 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: One carrot stones dropped by roughly fifty percent from their 573 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,520 Speaker 1: peak three carrot and larger stones fell by as much 574 00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 1: as seventy percent. The stone that had been sold as 575 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,719 Speaker 1: forever was now behaving like what it had always been 576 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,800 Speaker 1: beneath the marketing, a discretionary luxury good, not a store 577 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,560 Speaker 1: of value or airloom guaranteed to endure it was a 578 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,520 Speaker 1: product again Kevin de Merit of lear Capital. 579 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:49,040 Speaker 3: Gold and silver really possessed this rare combination of traits 580 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:53,239 Speaker 3: that really no other material has ever matched simultaneously. And 581 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 3: you know, they're six or seven of them. Durability, you know, 582 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 3: gold or silver, they don't rot, they don't rush, they 583 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,239 Speaker 3: don't decay. Fungibility, one ounce is identical to the other, 584 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,520 Speaker 3: exactly the visibility. They can be melted and reformed without 585 00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:11,880 Speaker 3: losing value. Portability, enormous value in an incredibly small space, 586 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:16,520 Speaker 3: especially at today's prices. It's globally recognizable, it's instantly recognizable 587 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 3: across cultures, different countries, so on and so forth, and 588 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,840 Speaker 3: it's naturally scarce. It can't be created or manufactured. And 589 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,280 Speaker 3: then you have this faith in demand. From the beginning 590 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 3: of time, there was the gold rush, and people, you know, 591 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,879 Speaker 3: demanded this goal. They would come all the way out 592 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,520 Speaker 3: and risk their lives to the West coast to try 593 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:37,000 Speaker 3: to dig up some gold. So when you have all 594 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,080 Speaker 3: of that together that no other material has, that's really 595 00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 3: what's unique about the gold and silver market. In my opinion, 596 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,719 Speaker 3: diamonds and pearls failed because they lack fungibility, They lack 597 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 3: true scarcity. Each one is different, requires a grading expert, 598 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:55,399 Speaker 3: and is really vulnerable to sudden supply shocks, especially now 599 00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,280 Speaker 3: that they can make diamonds and pearls. So if money 600 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:00,759 Speaker 3: requires an expert to tell you what it's worth, it's 601 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:01,560 Speaker 3: really not money. 602 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:06,400 Speaker 1: History had repeated itself. Just as cultured pearls had shattered 603 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,680 Speaker 1: the natural pearl monopoly, lab grown diamonds had done the 604 00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:13,920 Speaker 1: same to natural diamonds, and the parallels were impossible to ignore. 605 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:20,680 Speaker 1: Pearls never disappeared, they simply fell from the throne. Diamonds 606 00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:23,920 Speaker 1: were now following the same path. In May of twenty 607 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,400 Speaker 1: twenty four, a brief announcement landed with almost no fanfare. 608 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,240 Speaker 1: Anglo American announced that it was exploring options to divest 609 00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:34,560 Speaker 1: its stake into Beers. This was the South African mining 610 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,920 Speaker 1: firm that once dictated the global price of diamonds, the 611 00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:42,080 Speaker 1: company that had engineered the most successful cartel in modern history, 612 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:46,280 Speaker 1: the corporation that convinced generations of Americans that a diamond 613 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:50,200 Speaker 1: is forever, and now Anglo American viewed to Beers as 614 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: a troubled asset. By May twenty twenty five, while Anglo 615 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,040 Speaker 1: American was still looking for a buyer. The Beers made 616 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,640 Speaker 1: their own announcement light Box, its lab grown diamond brand, 617 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,360 Speaker 1: was shutting down. The official explanation it wanted to refocus 618 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:07,919 Speaker 1: on natural diamonds, but the reality was that lab grown 619 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,360 Speaker 1: diamond prices had collapsed so far, so fast, that the 620 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,960 Speaker 1: economics no longer worked. The very strategy to Beers used 621 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:18,920 Speaker 1: to try and save there forever diamond illusion backfired. Light 622 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,520 Speaker 1: Box hadn't protected the illusion. It exposed the fiction behind 623 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:31,439 Speaker 1: the story that the Beers had been peddling, which leads 624 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:38,360 Speaker 1: us back to the question what makes something valuable. Something 625 00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,080 Speaker 1: is truly valuable if it helps you protect your freedom 626 00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:45,200 Speaker 1: when everything is falling apart. Across history, things with enduring 627 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:50,400 Speaker 1: value share the same core traits, things like durability, portability, fungibility, 628 00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:56,120 Speaker 1: global recognizability, utility, and genuine scarcity. For centuries, diamonds were 629 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:59,319 Speaker 1: valuable because they carried most of these traits. But then 630 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: they lost perhaps the most important trait of them all. 631 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:05,960 Speaker 1: So diamonds had to be propped up with a good story, 632 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,840 Speaker 1: and for most of the twentieth century, nobody told a 633 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,840 Speaker 1: better story than De Beer's. They didn't just sell a stone, 634 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,480 Speaker 1: they sold a promise. De Beers wrapped diamonds in romance. 635 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,799 Speaker 1: They told you they were rare, eternal, forever, and for 636 00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,400 Speaker 1: a while the world nodded along. But diamond rarity was 637 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:26,280 Speaker 1: manufactured before they were fabricated in a lab. The natural 638 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,040 Speaker 1: pearl should have been a warning. It once was queen 639 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,760 Speaker 1: of the gems. Then technology changed the math, first for pearls, 640 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:36,520 Speaker 1: then for diamonds. To understand what makes something valuable, Look 641 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,320 Speaker 1: at gold. It can be buried for a thousand years, 642 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,640 Speaker 1: dug up, and turned instantly into money. It was valuable 643 00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:46,560 Speaker 1: before there were banks, ad agencies, engagement rings, and Hollywood 644 00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:52,560 Speaker 1: close ups, before there were even governments. Gold has survived empires, wars, revolutions, 645 00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:57,120 Speaker 1: and technological change because its value didn't depend solely on belief. 646 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:01,360 Speaker 1: No cartel was needed, no story required. Something that is 647 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 1: truly valuable works whenever breaks. That's why central banks hold gold, 648 00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,520 Speaker 1: why nations stockpilot, and why when paper promises fail, gold remains. 649 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:14,040 Speaker 1: In the end. The real precious asset wasn't the sparkling 650 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,360 Speaker 1: stone on her finger. It was the ring it was 651 00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,719 Speaker 1: mounted on. Diamonds might be a girl's best friend, but 652 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:22,560 Speaker 1: gold is actually forever red. 653 00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,520 Speaker 4: Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned and 654 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:30,000 Speaker 4: produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for Informed Ventures. Now, 655 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,760 Speaker 4: you can get ad free access to our entire catalog 656 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 4: of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just 657 00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:38,879 Speaker 4: visit Redpilled America dot com. 658 00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,280 Speaker 2: And click join in the topmenu. Thanks for listening.