Allocation of IP Addresses

Fri Mar 15 20:54:59 UTC 1996

Jim Browning writes:
> DeBeers has controlled (or at least significantly influenced) the price of 
> diamonds for decades, ensuring that they appreciate in value by controlling 
> supply, and by buying diamonds on the wholesale market to keep the price up 
> (similar to what countries do to protect their currencies).  They could 
> flood the market at any time, driving the price down dramatically.  Of 
> course this isn't in their best interest, so they won't do it.  However 
> Russia might, as they have stockpiled large quantities of diamonds, and may 
> not have the same goal as DeBeers...

So in what way is this a demonstration of a monopoly able to
arbitrarily raise prices? What you've shown is that someone might be
able to arbitrarily drop prices...

.pm