Digital Commons Network^™

A monopoly is nothing but a magician’s trick—an illusion where producers artificially control supply to maintain the perception of scarcity. While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has successfully maintained control over crude oil prices, the question arises whether a similar organization will form to control the natural gas market. Monopolies are not a new international or domestic phenomenon. During the late nineteenth century in South Africa, DeBeers founder Cecil Rhodes recognized that if diamonds became commonplace their value would decrease substantially. The diamond industry was consolidated under Rhodes’s influence, and the international diamond cartel has since regulated the …