The global recession sapped demand for all kinds of commodities — like steel and grain — yet small burlap bags are still arriving by the planeload at Russia’s state-owned diamond company.
Each day, the contents of the bags spill into the stainless steel hoppers of the receiving room. The diamonds are washed and sorted by size, clarity, shape and quality; then, rather than being sent to be sold around the world, they are wrapped in paper and whisked away to a vault — about three million carats worth of gems every month.
Russia quietly passed a milestone this year: surpassing De Beers as the world’s largest diamond producer. But the global market for diamonds is so dismal that the Alrosa diamond company, 90 percent owned by the Russian government, has not sold a rough stone on the open market since December, and has stockpiled them instead.
As a result, Russia has become the arbiter of global diamond prices. Its decisions on production and sales will determine the value of diamonds on rings and in jewelry stores for years to come, in one of the most surprising consequences of this recession.
Largely because of the jewelry bear market, De Beers’s fortunes have sunk. Short of cash, the company had to raise $800 million from stockholders in just the last six months.
The recession also coincided with a settlement with European Union antitrust authorities that ended a longtime De Beers policy of stockpiling diamonds, in cooperation with Alrosa, to keep prices up.
Though it is a major commodity producer, Russia has traditionally not embraced policies that artificially keep prices up. In oil, for example, Russia benefits from the oil cartel’s cuts in production, but does not participate in them.
Diamonds are an exception. “If you don’t support the price,” Andrei V. Polyakov, a spokesman for Alrosa, said, “a diamond becomes a mere piece of carbon.”
How the buy-in price for the stones will be set, and how the company will determine when the price goes up and down, is unclear, Mr. Malinin said.
“We have to tell people that diamonds are valuable,” he said. “We are trying to maintain the price, just as De Beers did, as all diamond producing countries do. But what we are doing is selling an illusion,” meaning a product with no utility and a price that depends on the continued sense of scarcity where there is none.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
G’s know that “Time is of the Essence”, and therefore the display and measurement thereof is crucial to the life, and lifestyle, of a G. There are many (too many in fact) brands of wristwatches for men, and there are too many men who just don’t care what goes on their wrist. This discussion is not for those men.
So you’re a G, or a wannabe G. You’ve got the Kiton / Henry Poole / Brioni / Borrelli / Turnbull & Asser thing down. You’ve got the Cleverly/E. Greene/Gucci/Lobb thing down. You’ve even got the Zimmerli/Hanro/Calida/Sunspel thing down (if you don’t have this down the fly girls will be laughing at just the wrong moment of intimacy). We’ll assume you’ve learned the difference between a .45 and a 9mm, as well as between Benson & Hedges and Nat Shermans or A. Fuente and Romeo y Julieta. Be that as it may, you’re probably still working on how a G puts the time on his wrist. This primer should get you where you need to be.
You’re ready to leave your abode, suited up, and the penultimate accoutrement, after the steel-and-lead, is the wristwatch. Depending on the task, or tasks, at hand, you may be wearing one, perhaps one of many, timepieces. What separates a G from a Joe the Plumber? Exclusivity, Precision, Refinement, and Comfort in All Environments. The same should stand for the wristwatch of a G. While a $40 Swatch can tell time with the same accuracy as a quartz Patek Phillipe (and the only quartz Patek is for women), I wouldn’t suggest a quartz at all. Quartz is accurate, but cheap. Quartz is accurate but battery powered. Quartz is accurate but mass-market. Batteries die. Quartz is disposable. An haute-horlogerie mechanical movement will last forever with proper servicing. Quartz-powered timepieces are simply very expensive, or very cheap, adornment that should be shunned. No further discussion need ensue.
Jadakiss – Happy 2 Be Here
Now, to the matter of which timepiece should, or should not, grace the wrist of a G:
G-Shock – Despite the name, this is a plastic piece of mass-merchandise, albeit a durable and accurate piece of mass merchandise. Thor Hyerdal wore an Eterna mechanical timepiece on the Kon Tiki (quartz didn’t exist back in 1947). NASA’s watch of choice since 1964 through today, is the mechanical Omega Speedmaster chronograph. Paul Newman’s watch of choice – Rolex Daytona Cosmograph automatic Chronograph Chronometer. Enough said.
There are certain manufactures of watches that have stood the test of time. They literally manufacture the entire watch, and are known for designing and manufacturing the movement, or the guts that keep the time. Swatch Group is, believe it or not, home to a number of highly respected Swiss manufactures. Richemont Group, another Swiss conglomerate, owns several well-respected manufactures, as does LVMH (owner of Louis Vuitton and Moet). The independent manufactures are perhaps the most exclusive.
A note about chronometers: They are often confused with chronographs, timepieces that measure fractions of a second and other time segments (hours, 10-minutes etc.). Chronometers are certified by official agencies in Switzerland and always come with certificates. Typically a chronometer will imply a higher quality movement and higher accuracy, but I’d stack a Patek, Girard-Perregaux, JLC, Grand Seiko, or other haute horlogerie piece against an “official” chronometer any time at all.
A note about case material: Yellow gold, while suitably expensive and flash, is no material for a G’s watch. White gold is subtle, platinum is rare, both are easily mistaken for steel except by those who truly know. I recommend steel as it is durable and subtle. Yellow or pink gold should be worn only with a band of alligator, crocodile, or other rare skin.
Here are the brands that merit our attention: Audemars Piguet – Royal Oak Breguet – Type XX chronograph Girard Perregaux – Laureato IWC – Ingenieur Jaeger-LeCoultre –Master Control, Master Ultra Thin, Reverso Duo Omega – Speedmaster Chrono, DeVille Chrono, Aqua Terra, Railmaster Patek Philppe – Nautilus. Their other pieces are too delicate for a G’s day-to-day mission. Rolex – Rolex, while being known on every street corner from Washington Heights to East LA, and everywhere else called earth, is in fact a well-made and solid timepiece. They are, however, overvalued in the market due to self-aggrandizing advertising. Their movements are solid, but I would put Omega’s George Daniels movement head-to-head, with the price/quality ratio favoring the Omega. Nevertheless, Rolex makes a durable watch (600,000 per year, and no, they are not handmade). Get a Sea-Dweller, Explorer II, or GMT. Seiko – Do not confuse their Grand Seiko and Phoenix lines with the department store quartz varieties. Their high-end pieces are brilliant, but unavailable in the States. Swoop the Phoenix automatic chronograph if you can find it. Zenith – Chronomaster. This same movement powered the Rolex Daytona for years.
There are many other high quality watchmakers in Switzerland, Germany, and even the States, but these are the names I’d suggest at the outset. So with these watchmakers a G can find (not always easily) the right watch for the right circumstances. Remember, we are focusing on Exclusivity, Precision, Refinement, and Comfort in All Environments.
Any of the above are well made classic machines that will get you everywhere you want to go, but should I choose to rank the above it would be difficult. Yet here are my top 5 G timepieces: #1 Thee A-P Royal Oak
#2 The JLC Master Control
#3 The IWC Ingenieur
#4 The Omega Railmaster
#5 The Rolex Explorer II
A G does his homework, and I would suggest that you supplement your watch knowledge with information from none other than the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry at http://www.fhs.ch/en/
In a speech this week summarizing his administration’s economic policies, President Obama grossly overstated the support these policies enjoy by claiming, “economists on the left and right agree that the last thing the government should do during a recession is cut back on spending.” There are a great many economists who were surprised to learn that, apparently, they now agree with the President.
Reading straight from the Keynesian playbook, Obama justified the creation of multi-trillion dollar deficits by asserting that the government must fill the spending void left by the contraction of consumer and business spending. As one of those mythical economists who do not agree with the President, I argue that it is precisely this type of boneheaded thinking that got us into this mess, and it’s the reason we are now headed for an inflationary depression.
We do not need, nor should we attempt, to replace lost demand. As Obama himself pointed out in the same speech, Americans have been borrowing and spending too much money. These actions created artificial demand, underpinned by the illusion of real wealth in overvalued stock and real estate markets. Given his intelligence and rhetorical training, it is hard to fathom how President Obama cannot notice the inherent contradiction in his argument.
While Obama commended millions of American families for making the hard choices to reduce spending, pay down debt and replenish savings, he later outlined the government’s intention to spend every American household deeper into debt, thereby undermining all the good that personal austerity would have otherwise produced.
Obama also made the clear-eyed observation that the foundation of our economy was unsound and that a sturdier one needed to be laid. To do this, he even asserted that we need to import less and export more. This has been one of my fundamental points. Our economy is unsound precisely because it is built on a foundation of consumer debt. Instead of spending for today, we need to invest for tomorrow. However, we cannot save more unless we spend less. Production requires capital, which only comes into existence when resources are not consumed.
However, by interfering with this process, Obama prevents the very transformation he acknowledges must take place. When the government spends what individuals save, private investment is crowded out. Society is deprived of the benefits such savings would otherwise have brought about. How can we lay a solid foundation if the government takes away all our cement?
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
The Pamplemousse will not run in the Kentucky Derby next month, although his racing career is not over.
The Pamplemousse was scratched because of a tendon problem hours before Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby in Arcadia, Calif. He was the 9-5 morning-line favorite. Pioneerof the Nile went on to win by a length.
A pre-race examination showed a problem in The Pamplemousse’s front left tendon.
Alex Solis II, whose father, Alex, rides The Pamplemousse, said the colt would run again.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
