There are some very clued up people on this forum and i would appreciate your views on the Gordon Brown gold sell off.

As i understand the situation Gordon Brown sold off 60% of Britain's/UK's gold reserves between 1999 and 2002.
So i have a few questions.
Did he sell the gold off?
Why did he sell the gold?
Did he need to sell the gold?
Who got the gold?
Was it to pay the banks off?
Is Gordon a thatcherite?

Yes. Well, 60% of Britain's reserves.It was supposedly to reduce Britain's 'risky' exposure to fluctuations in the gold market. Such as it increasing in value by about 700%, at its current peak, after he sold it.China (the world's second largest economy, soon to be the largest) are currently buying it very heavily. You can read about this here:

www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/01...-quantities-of-gold/

It's quite difficult to explain why without going into a lot of depth.
Apparently it was sold in auctions, so thinking about the quantity involved, it was almost certainly anonymous bidders. It's very hard to say exactly who it was, but it'll be investment banks, hedge funds, private capital, probably not nations or central banks. But it's impossible to say for sure.Not directly. Although ultimately all economic activity ends up in the hands of private banks sooner or later.I would suggest that 'Thatcherism' was the beginning in earnest of the privatisation of profit and the socialisation of risk, until today you have a completely fascist merger of State and corporate sector, so any major political figure you see on the European or North American stage is a Thatcherite nowadays.

So is china taking over, it seems? australia is selling them all the horrible mining stuff , and we ( aust gub) buying importing all their worthless plastic rubbish. tv tells us public that this is so good for our economy, meanwhile jobs are being lost in every sector, banks, manufacturing, etc etc...

china is taking over the world. ( but the chinese people , same as everywhere, as not doing well)

I am so confused and pissed off... all the little people are in strife... but they keep saying it is good for the economy.. like how?

curtaincat wrote:
I suppose it is good for the econony from 'thier' pov. They don't seem to be going without or having to suffer austerity measures. Things are going great for them!

[quote="wake_up_bomb" post=35311
[/quote]Apparently it was sold in auctions, so thinking about the quantity involved, it was almost certainly anonymous bidders. It's very hard to say exactly who it was, but it'll be investment banks, hedge funds, private capital, probably not nations or central banks. But it's impossible to say for sure.[/quote]

In theory what they give away with one hand they could take with the other by say erm invading Libya and taking their gold? LOL