Are Diamonds Really A Girl’s Best Friend?

Many economies, wars and at the very least male female romances/ contentions are all driven by diamonds. Yes they are shiny and almost indestructible … but their value is driven by someone telling girl kids to lust for diamonds … and by Marilyn Monroe and Beyonce writing stupid pop songs … and the general scarcity of diamonds. So is the female affinity for these jewels merely pavlovian? Are there many men who bear similar proclivities?

Based on the $57.41M price for the 15.1-carat De Beers Cullinan Blue that sold two days ago in Hong Kong, perhaps not. This is second only to the 16.63-carat Oppenheimer Blue, sold for at auction in 2016 at $57.54 M. Look how tiny the 3 gram (yes thats what 15 carats weighs) gem actually is:

Is the female fascination for this allotrope of Carbon driving such high valuations? Just how much did Beyonce inadvertently stoke the $79B worldwide diamond market by crooning “cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it”? Did she realize she might have fueled “blood or conflict diamonds” and nearly gotten Naomi Campbell in trouble?

Interestingly enough, Marilyn Monroe’s song:

A kiss may be grand
But it won’t pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat.

Men grow cold
As girls grow old,
And we all lose our charms in the end.

But square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don’t loose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

is borne out by Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online jeweler 77 Diamonds, statement fo Forbes:

“Against a backdrop of anticipated hyperinflation and unstable geopolitics, we are now witnessing an oft-seen tendency for the uber wealthy to turn towards hard assets for investment.”

Do women lust for diamonds as an asset or as a metric of romance? Why are girls fixated on getting diamonds? Is there no way to disrupt this unjustifiable desire? Yes I said unjustifiable. One could own stocks or real estate or something else but its a diamond that is desired.