Dundorf

[Drax]

TLD ON PRIVATIZATION IN DIAMOND INDUSTRY

 ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER
 
Dunburg, March 22, 5716: ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER asked Team Liberaldemokraten (TLD) Floor Leader, former Defence Minister Friedrich von Schirach, what was the TLD position on privatizing Nationales Bergbaukonglomerat (BK), the Bundesrepublik’s national mining corporation that in fact does virtually all diamond mining in the Bundesrepublik.  The TLD Floor Leader responded:
 

It is not going to happen during the Reinhardt Administration; the votes are not there. We are among those who believe that if there was a privately owned business entity that wanted to buy a portion of our diamond mines that would abide by the Bundesrepublik’s ban on open pit mining, it should be allowed to do so provided financial viability and environmental safeguards were in place.
 
There have been administrations which have shared our view most recently led by Neues Dundorfische Zentrumspartei (NDZP). Even if TLD were willing for some pressing economic need to relax the open pit mining ban, NDZP is quite adamant that it would not.
 
The most recent entity to look at doing mining is Marcks Feiereisin Enterprises which buys and sells as a diamond wholesaler; it concluded that considerable investment could eventually lead to a marginal annual profit but that frankly its stockholders were better off with the government doing the diamond extraction.
 
TLD does not think this is case where privatization for the sake of privatization is desirable.
 
At the other end, one could look at Importunternehmen der Bundesrepublik (IdB) in the jewelry business. Silver mining in the Bundesrepublik produces a lot of the silver for setting for diamonds. We have no gold resources we know of, but Marcks Feiereisin Enterprises buys gold from Dorvik wholesalers to sell to jewelry makers in the Bundesrepublik both for gold jewelry and gold settings for diamonds.
 
But we also have an arrangement whereby Malivian producers of gold sell their product to IdB who then resells it to jewelry makers in the Bundesrepublik.  Nothing prevents producers of gold in Malivia or Dorvik selling directly to our jewelry makers which occasionally happens.
 
Think everyone pretty much thinks IdB is doing a service for business so there is no appetite to privatize it.  In any event IdB and BK are two of the three government corporations with special legislation protecting them from a general nationalizing bill that at one time was a common occurrence but has been rare for a long while.
 
A related question is whether Marcks Feiereisin Enterprises is a monopoly which sjhould be broken up. Marcks Feiereisin buys most of the diamonds extracted in the Bundesrepublik from BK.  Many  of these are then either sold or more likely turned over to the Steigerwald Group for diamond cutting and then sold as jewels to jewelry producers or retailers. 
 
Most others are turned over to Muselbergen Tol und Sterben who prepare diamonds for use in machine tools which buys some from Marcks Feiereisin but returns most for sale to machine tool manufacturers wanting diamond bits.
 
As indicated earlier, Marcks Feiereisin enterprises also buys gold from Dorvish producers and sells gold to jewelry makers.
 
As a practical matter, breaking it up could leave a giant hole in our jewelry business.  As big as nationalizing it.  Think if it were three business entities instead of one no one would worry about it.  But it is very big and it worries those worried about monopolies.