From the latest Fortune magazine, a meditation on the current jewelry boom:

And while economic growth is obviously a big part of a country's growing bling factor, it's not the only one. People in fast-growing economies like Ireland, Vietnam and Guyana aren't buying as much jewelry as those in Chile, Brazil or Mexico. Differing tastes and demographics play a big role. Mexico, for example, is a country that's big on traditions, where arty jewelry that denotes a religious belief is popular.  . . .

"Culturally, it's all about jewelry. It's really blowing most everyone else away" says Jacques Voorhees, head of business-to-business online jeweler Polygon.