The Economist:

HOW is bond-buying by the Federal Reserve supposed to help the real economy? Last week, my colleague and I debated the potency of monetary stimulus when household balance sheets were constrained. Instead of arguing in a vacuum, perhaps it would be better to ask Ben Bernanke, the Fed’s chairman, how he thinks the Fed is assisting the recovery. Fortunately, a reporter from Reuters did just that at the press conference held in the afternoon after the announcement of QE3. Mr Bernanke’s response:

Edward Jay Epstein:

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

Adam Thompson:

Today, after years of bloodshed, the mortuary is all but empty and the growing sense is that the war may be over.

Bars and restaurants once closed and boarded up because of extortion and fear are reopening. Families that fled to El Paso across the US border are returning, and teenagers, who not so long ago spent weekends indoors to avoid getting caught in a massacre, are rediscovering clubs and discos.

“People are starting to go out and spend money again,” says Cristina Cunningham, president of the national restaurant industry chamber. “The city is coming back to life.”

John McDermott:

Physics suggests that pulling into a residential driveway at 50 miles per hour from a state highway is a bad idea. About one-eight of the Chevy makes it on to Magnolia. It soon joins the majority of the car hurtling towards the bottom of a ditch, propelled by the combined forces of spin, gravity and incompetence.

This is not ideal. I’m in a corpse of an automobile six feet below a gravel path. The engine sounds like a helicopter scything through a migratory flock of sparrows. Fox News confirms that Mitt Romney has begun speaking. Redemption was an adroit turn away.

Fortunately, this is Iowa. A pick-up truck pulls over next to the ditch. “Did you mean to do that?” asks the driver, throwing doubt on America’s trouble with sarcasm. I explain that I am collateral damage in Mr Romney’s war on punctuality. “That’s a lot of trouble to get yourself in for politics,” he says.