[tylerdurden]

I fired off a quick response last night after coming back from a party where I had a few too many. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Did they put a gun to anyone's head and make them buy a diamond?

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He wanted an example where a company, thanks to its size and power, can artificially push the price higher than it should be. I gave him one.

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Wait, what "should" the price be? Even though they control the supply, their prices are still subject to demand pressures. Prices might be lower if the supply were not controlled by one supplier, but that doesn't by itself prove any unjust action by debeers.

The real key to the question is *how* did they obtain their cartel position - how much governmental power did they leverage to get there? The answer is "a lot."

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The key word in that sentence was "also".

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Yeah, I saw that this morning.