Word: cartels
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...them. At one point De Beers controlled 90% of the global diamond supply, sustaining an empire worth $20 billion. But over the past decade, that monopoly has eroded, thanks to the discovery of new diamond reserves and the emergence of upstart producers determined to peddle their goods outside the cartel. De Beers now controls just 60% of the $7 billion market. This summer in London, De Beers all but acknowledged the end of its dominance; the company told its select group of 125 clients that it would no longer be the diamond producers' "buyer of last resort" and would begin...
...supporting the international crackdown on blood diamonds, the cartel is also helping itself by preventing competitors from flooding the market with cheap gems. But while De Beers' cooperation with the embargo may spare the industry the sort of organized boycott that shook the fur trade in the 1980s, it probably won't stamp out trafficking. De Beers claims that only 3% of the global diamond supply comes from African conflict regions. London analysts believe the amount may be as high...
...does not have an oil equivalent of Alan Greenspan, an appointed official working very closely from an established charter. Venezuela has an oil minister - he's president of OPEC right now. Maybe Clinton is jealous, because the U.S. apparently has just appointed one now, just in time for the cartel's meeting next week...
...cheered at their fleeting glance of Clinton. The National Assembly and President Olusegun Obasanjo both gave him rousing ovations. But each leader wants something from the other: Clinton wants Nigeria, an OPEC member and the sixth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, to encourage its fellow cartel members to pump more oil to reduce its price below inflation-inducing $30-a-barrel levels. In exchange, Obasanjo wants Clinton to fight to reduced the crushing $30 billion the nation owes the industrial powers, debt amassed by military autocrats...
...model for his vision of an oil-financed social revolution, but his country is also one of the United States' leading oil suppliers. And the weight of his opinions is amplified by the fact that he's the current chair of OPEC and is looking to beef up the cartel's ability to keep prices high by restricting supplies. That, of course, puts him on a collision course with Washington, which recently leaned on Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to open OPEC's spigots to ease U.S. gasoline prices, which had climbed past $2 a gallon. While...