bobbyw24
Banned
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- Sep 10, 2007
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Gordon Brown’s untimely decision to sell cost the UK billions
Gordon Brown’s decision to sell the bulk of the Bank of England’s gold at historically low prices has cost the country $10 billion (£6,260 million).
In what might be regarded as the definition of calling the bottom of the market, Mr Brown, who was then Chancellor, sold nearly 400 tonnes of the Bank’s gold at an average price of $275 an ounce. The sale raised about $3.9 billion between 1999 and 2002 but had he sold the metal this year, he would have raised $13.8 billion, based on an average price of $978 an ounce.
With the Treasury frantically trying to cut spending and raise debt, the disposal of the UK’s bullion a decade ago looks to be a misjudgment. The Conservatives have called it a “spectacular display of economic incompetence”.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6969042.ece
Gordon Brown’s decision to sell the bulk of the Bank of England’s gold at historically low prices has cost the country $10 billion (£6,260 million).
In what might be regarded as the definition of calling the bottom of the market, Mr Brown, who was then Chancellor, sold nearly 400 tonnes of the Bank’s gold at an average price of $275 an ounce. The sale raised about $3.9 billion between 1999 and 2002 but had he sold the metal this year, he would have raised $13.8 billion, based on an average price of $978 an ounce.
With the Treasury frantically trying to cut spending and raise debt, the disposal of the UK’s bullion a decade ago looks to be a misjudgment. The Conservatives have called it a “spectacular display of economic incompetence”.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6969042.ece
