Diamonds: Epstein’s short course

415gAFTtU6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-63,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_ I’ve said here a time or two before that Edward Jay Epstein is incapable of writing a dull book. Ed is the author, for example, of The JFK Assassination Diary: My Search for Answers to the Mystery of the Century, published recently in paperback (available here) and as an ebook (available on Amazon here), drawn from the contemporaneous journals Ed kept as he worked on three books on the Kennedy assassination books. Each of the three books is fascinating in its own right, but I found the book almost unbelievably interesting. There is much to be learned from it, and not just about the Kennedy assassination.

Ed is also the author, most recently, of Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? And Other Investigations of the Diamond Trade. Ed’s first book-length investigation of the business was The Rise and Fall of Diamonds, dating back to 1982. He writes regarding the new book:

The reason I have been fascinated with the De Beers cartel is it has invented and perpetuated one of the most successful myth of the twentieth century–namely, the myth that “Diamonds Are Forever.” It has been one of the few cartels to adapt to the geopolitics of both hot and cold wars, even to the extent of allying itself with the Soviet Union to get control of Siberian diamonds.

Its future in the 21st century is far less certain since the Oppenheimer dynasty is no longer in control and the task of suppressing global production has been largely transferred to a Russian company controlled by Putin’s government. Whether or not it can keep the price of diamonds from crashing remains to be seen. My investigation of this question, which began 34 years ago in the diamond mines of Africa, is addressed in my updated short-form book Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond? And Other Investigations of the Diamond Trade (Kindle ebook here, Nook ebook here).

Below is a YouTube video of Ed responding to questions related to the publication of the new book. The questions appear in print on the screen as the preface to Ed’s answers.

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