Brown's poorly timed gold sales cost taxpayer £2 billion

Bill Jamieson, The Scotsman: "Higher still and higher climbs the price of gold... This is all deeply embarrassing for our Chancellor, Gordon Brown.  Remember how some six years ago he declared he would sell 60 per cent of Britain's gold reserves held by the Bank of England?  Many suspected the exercise was designed to inspire confidence in the then soon-to-be-launched European single currency. This was because some of the proceeds were to be earmarked for the purchase of euros.  In due course, Brown sold off 300 tonnes at just $275 an ounce - close to a 20-year low.  Roughly a third of the proceeds were then invested in euros - which then proceeded to plummet.  The gold price did not do much for a time. Now it has enjoyed a stunning rally.  The result is a stonking loss on those Gordon Brown gold sales. In fact, the Chancellor's disastrous foray into international asset management now looks to have cost the British people some £2 billion."  More.

Comments

[Sabretache]

£2 Billion ??

More like £3.5 billion - and counting.

It amazes me that the Conservative Party don't make more of this. The reason of course is that for them, like all politicians wedded to fiat Dollar hegemony globalisation paradigm, gold really is a 'barbarous relic', whose price must be supressed at almost any cost. Looks like the wheels are coming off the wagon though.