Wednesday, Mar 24, 2010
Wonder how much he sold to his own family?
Yahoo: Explain why you sold Britain's gold, Gordon Brown told
Explain why you sold Britain's gold, Gordon Brown told.
Posted by mark @ 12:25 PM (1548 views) Add Comment
16 Comments
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1. neo-serf said...
Gordon Brown - Explain why you sold Britain's gold.... "Because Goldman Sachs needed me to as they were on the wrong side of a hedge".
Is that too blunt?
2. layers said...
What really bites is the sheer arrogance and contempt Brown displays by blocking ANY transparency of the decision!!! How can this be in a democracy? I applaud the Telegraph (albeit that the timing smells of politco motives), but I doubt we'll ever have any real accountability.
Maybe they new the bars were all 'salted', or indeed swapped for salted bars and sold. Maybe the real gold is still with us in the BoE vaults somewhere.... Either way we, the public have yet again been robed by the politico / elite 'masters'.
3. orcusmaximus said...
It's an easy enough answer. The man is financially incompetent.
4. orcusmaximus said...
No, I take back my previous statement. He might be financially incompetent, but that's not why he sold the gold.
He has a need to spend other people's money akin to a junkie's need to get the next fix. And, just like the junkie, he'll sell anything which isn't nailed down to finance his habit.
5. Jacobite said...
There is definitely a sinister reason as to why he sold the gold all is not as it seems, will be very interesting to see what the treasury releases.
6. mr g said...
"Ed Balls, who is now the Schools Secretary, Ed Miliband, now the Climate Change Secretary, and Baroness Vadera, another former minister, were all close aides to the chancellor during the relevant period."
Say no more.
7. sneaker said...
The reason Brown sold Britain's gold is he wanted to show "solidarity" with the Euro project, even if the UK remained outside it.
He sold gold and with the Pounds he raised, he bought Euros. Recently he claimed this was vindicated because the Euro had risen.
A critique
- the price of gold, as measured in Euros, rose multiple times
- thus selling gold to buy Euros was a massive losing trade - costing £10bn or more
- that is a comparable loss to what caused some of the smaller financial institutions to go under
- yet despite such a glorious losing trade (the numbers don't lie - forget the rhetoric) we are constantly told of our government's desire to "invest" (though I see none of them have any career whatsoever of beating benchmarks before entering government)
If Brown ran a hedge fund, it wouldn't have made it even to 2007. Its investors would have pulled the plug a few weeks after the gold sale.
Yet now Brown and co. reckon they know how to regulate the financial industry, as well as how to "invest" in Britain?
It's all a sham. "Invest" just means "spend". "Regulate" just means "be seen to do something to try and save face".
And it's proof that the even people who think they are smart tend to lose money with active investment decisions.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a defence of investors or hedge funds, many of whom add little value. It's just a sobering evaluation of the skill of those who claim to have the answers.
8. debtfree said...
Looking at the 10 year chart, only the Mexico Peso and South African Rand have out performed Sterling as the big losers against gold.
Say's it all really, but; it's not just the selling of the gold, its the devaluation of Sterling against gold. That's what people should be talking about. The country has been bled dry and is falling into a spiral of debt that will be beyond repayment.
If Brown had sold the gold and created a strong productive country with a worthy currency, then it wouldn't be an issue would it ?
The price of gold in Sterling is telling us the UK's in an extremely poor financial mess. Why ? Because gold is real money, not a commodity, which is something every doubter will soon find out.
9. estrader said...
@7 debtfree - Currencies don't devalue against gold. The world reserve currency is the $US which means commodities like gold are priced in $US. So what you actually mean is the Sterling has devalued against the $US. The reason I stress this is because the price of gold/ounce may change but that doesn't necessarily mean the value of the £GBP has changed. This is something that all gold investors must keep in mind...or anyone buying a commodity priced in a foreign currency.
10. general congreve said...
Leave Gordon alone, I've made out big time because of his incompetence. I'm going to vote for him in the election as well, so he can total the pound and make me a mint in gold! Go Gordon, Go Gold!!!
11. markj69 str05 said...
Probably sold in to Scotland!
Beware the wolf in sheeps clothing!
What is the penalty for crimes against your country? Treason? Hmmm. Hung parliament!
12. sneaker said...
To anyone truly interested, research the work of Vladimir Bukovsky - former Soviet dissident
13. debtfree said...
8. estrader said...
@7 debtfree - Currencies don't devalue against gold.
That's like saying, birds don't fly.
estrader, the dollar has consistently lost value since coming off the gold standard and has lost 98% of it's purchasing power since 1913.
what are you on about ?
14. Jeremiah said...
I'm always surprised at people's reaction on the sale of the gold. Wasn't it Eddie George who clearly stated that one or two US investment banks were severely short of several million ounces at the time and were 'staring into the abyss' Their demise would have brought the whole banking system down even back then. So Gordon was only showing solidarity by selling up (making a point of advertising the fact in advance to cause the price to plummet as much as possible) and allowing those banks to save their skins. Wrongly or rightly, if the UK is prepared to shed the blood of its soldiers in a show of solidarity with the US, what's a few tons of gold between friends? Shows how deep the rabbit hole goes though, doesn't it? Wasn't that a nice plummy job Blair got with that US investment bank, wonder if Gordon can expect a similar payoff?
15. estrader said...
@12 debtfree
I am not an expert in currencies but I would say that currencies devalue against a basket of foreign currencies. Gold is worth $X/ounce based on supply and demand of gold. Yes, demand goes up if there is a fear of inflation or devaluation but you need to consider the following:
The current GBP/US exchange rate is 1.496
Gold is selling at US$1092/Ounce
This means it would cost £730/Ounce
If the gold price was to fall by 50% to $US546/Ounce and the value of the £GBP increased against the $US to say 1.55 then your ounce of gold will now only be worth £352.25. In other words the price of gold has fallen by 50% but you have lost more than 50% on the value of your investment due to the exchange rate.
“estrader, the dollar has consistently lost value since coming off the gold standard and has lost 98% of it's purchasing power since 1913”
I don’t disagree, but things are not priced in ounces of gold, they are priced in $US and just to re-iterate, by definition - The US Dollar Index (USDX) is an index (or measure) of the value of the United States dollar relative to *a basket of foreign currencies*.
16. debtfree said...
Thanks estrader for your response.
When us dollar index weakens the gold price moves up and visa versa, so therefore it would be save to say that the value of the dollar index is directly linked to the price of gold.