A synthetic diamond is made in a controlled technological process rather than formed underground over geological time. It is made of pure carbon arranged in the same crystal structure as a natural diamond, so its chemical and physical properties are identical. Before 2010, most synthetic diamonds were smaller than half a carat, but improved technology and larger starting seeds have pushed the record to 125 carats by 2025. Two methods dominate production, high pressure high temperature and chemical vapor deposition. Today about 98 percent of industrial diamond demand is met by synthetic stones, and gem-quality versions are also sold, which created a need for special testing devices to tell them apart from mined diamonds.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.