Revealed: why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price
By Thomas Pascoe
5 July 2012
A great deal of Gordon Brown’s economic strategy would strike a sane man as troubling. Not a great deal was mysterious. The orgy of consumption spending, frequent extensions of the cycle over which he would “borrow to invest”, proclamations of the “end of boom and bust”: these are part of the armoury of modern politicians, of all political hues.
One decision stands out as downright bizarre, however: the sale of the majority of Britain’s gold reserves for prices between $256 and $296 an ounce, only to watch it soar so far as $1,615 per ounce today.
When Brown decided to dispose of almost 400 tonnes of gold between 1999 and 2002, he did two distinctly odd things.
First, he broke with convention and announced the sale well in advance, giving the market notice that it was shortly to be flooded and forcing down the spot price. This was apparently done in the interests of “open government”, but had the effect of sending the spot price of gold to a 20-year low, as implied by basic supply and demand theory.
Second, the Treasury elected to sell its gold via auction. Again, this broke with the standard model. The price of gold was usually determined at a morning and afternoon "fix" between representatives of big banks whose network of smaller bank clients and private orders allowed them to determine the exact price at which demand met with supply.
The auction system again frequently achieved a lower price than the equivalent fix price. The first auction saw an auction price of $10c less per ounce than was achieved at the morning fix. It also acted to depress the price of the afternoon fix which fell by nearly $4.
It seemed almost as if the Treasury was trying to achieve the lowest price possible for the public’s gold. It was.
One of the most popular trading plays of the late 1990s was the carry trade, particularly the gold carry trade.
In this a bank would borrow gold from another financial institution for a set period, and pay a token sum relative to the overall value of that gold for the privilege.
Once control of the gold had been passed over, the bank would then immediately sell it for its full market value. The proceeds would be invested in an alternative product which was predicted to generate a better return over the period than gold which was enduring a spell of relative price stability, even decline.
At the end of the allotted period, the bank would sell its investment and use the proceeds to buy back the amount of gold it had originally borrowed. This gold would be returned to the lender. The borrowing bank would trouser the difference between the two prices.
This plan worked brilliantly when gold fell and the other asset – for the bank at the heart of this case, yen-backed securities – rose. When the prices moved the other way, the banks were in trouble.
This is what had happened on an enormous scale by early 1999. One globally significant US bank in particular is understood to have been heavily short on two tonnes of gold, enough to call into question its solvency if redemption occurred at the prevailing price.
Goldman Sachs, which is not understood to have been significantly short on gold itself, is rumoured to have approached the Treasury to explain the situation through its then head of commodities Gavyn Davies, later chairman of the BBC and married to Sue Nye who ran Brown’s private office.
Faced with the prospect of a global collapse in the banking system, the Chancellor took the decision to bail out the banks by dumping Britain’s gold, forcing the price down and allowing the banks to buy back gold at a profit, thus meeting their borrowing obligations.
I spoke with Peter Hambro, chairman of Petroplavosk and a leading figure in the London gold market, late last year and asked him about the rumours above.
“I think that Mr Brown found himself in a terrible position,” he said.
“He was facing a problem that was a world scale problem where a number of financial institutions had become voluntarily short of gold to the extent that it was threatening the stability of the financial system and it was obvious that something had to be done.”
While the market manipulation which occurred when the gold reserves were sold was not illegal as the abuse at Barclays may have been, the moral atmosphere in which it took place was identical.
The crash which began in 2007 and endures still was the result of an abdication of responsibility across the financial sector. This abdication ranged from the consumer whose thirst for goods pushed him beyond into grave debt to a government whose lust for popularity encouraged it to do the same.
Responsibility is evaded by all bar those on whose shoulders it ought to rest. The gold panic of 1999 was expensively paid for by the British public. The one thing politicians ought to have bought with that money was a lesson in the structural restraints which needed to be placed on banks now that the principle that they were ultimately public liabilities had been established.
It was a lesson which could have acted to restrain all players in the credit market boom of the 2000s. It was a lesson which nobody learnt.
This makes perfect sense. This is exactly the same principle as J.P. Morgan and silver today.
The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. The true measure of a man is this: how quickly he can respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give - Philip K. Dick.
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 19:23 #3
People thought Gordon didn't know what he was doing & was just some blundering buffoon who'd just made a monumental error...
he knew exactly what he was doing and the whole thing had 'scam' imprinted all over those gold bars.
Set the controls for the heart of the earth.
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 19:47 #4
I have often wondered why the puppet Brown got rid of the gold. The OP gives some plausible reasons for it.
If you were a sovereign being or state (like a king or a country), and you got rid of your most valuable assets, it would very likely make you eventually become dependant on others and you would no longer be a sovereign being/state. The agenda IS to get rid of our sovereignty and for global governance. The details mentioned in the OP are like a fog that makes us not fully see what is going on. Just my 2cents,.
Andyh I'm not saying that your OP is wrong btw, I'm just trying get this clear in my mind.
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
I have often wondered why the puppet Brown got rid of the gold. The OP gives some plausible reasons for it.
If you were a sovereign being or state (like a king or a country), and you got rid of your most valuable assets, it would very likely make you eventually become dependant on others and you would no longer be a sovereign being/state. The agenda IS to get rid of our sovereignty and for global governance. The details mentioned in the OP are like a fog that makes us not fully see what is going on. Just my 2cents,.
Andyh I'm not saying that your OP is wrong btw, I'm just trying get this clear in my mind.
Well the sovereign state thing was over a long time ago if you're realistic about it.
Its more a case of bankers getting hold of phsyical assets at the moment, they're raping us to pieces while dumb politicians get paid for it.
The global governance will come about from merger of business interests, 100% digital money with different names for the digital money, recovery of the EU as 'example' for it, then similar EU style superstates elsewhere, then single digital currency and single global superstate with single government later on.
I myself am opposed to nation states and governments completely for precisely the very reason that their existence allows this to happen
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
I have often wondered why the puppet Brown got rid of the gold. The OP gives some plausible reasons for it.
If you were a sovereign being or state (like a king or a country), and you got rid of your most valuable assets, it would very likely make you eventually become dependant on others and you would no longer be a sovereign being/state. The agenda IS to get rid of our sovereignty and for global governance. The details mentioned in the OP are like a fog that makes us not fully see what is going on. Just my 2cents,.
Andyh I'm not saying that your OP is wrong btw, I'm just trying get this clear in my mind.
The working classes have never had "sovereignty" what even is that but an empty word?.
What is wrong with people, working people, the poor oppressed masses of humanity organizing the allocation of resources globally?
How did Gordon Brown, the champion of “a strong economic democracy”, become the champion of privatisation, of the market, of the interests of the super-rich, of globalisation, of the whole neoliberal agenda? The Brown who in 1989 warned of the danger posed by “huge concentrations of private unaccountable power” went on to embrace them, court them and govern in their interests. And this was openly celebrated: in March 2006, for example, Brown proudly announced the establishment of an International Business Advisory Council to help ensure that British economic policy remained in the best interests of global capital. Its members included Lee Scott, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Wal_Mart; Lord Browne, chief executive of BP; Jean Pierre Garnier, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline; Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft; Robert Rubin, chairman of Citigroup; Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group; Sir John Rose, CEO of Rolls Royce; Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco; and Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay.6 Needless to say, these people are not friends of the labour movement, either in Britain or abroad; they are its enemies, extreme examples of those whose huge wealth Brown had once considered made it difficult to believe that they still had any “common interest” with the rest of humanity.
Brown’s courtship of Rupert Murdoch, conducted in competition with Tony Blair, has been even more grotesque. This competition between the prime minister and chancellor led Murdoch to complain in a recent interview that whenever he visited Britain he always had to “have tea” with both men “or they are very suspicious that you are lining up with the other one”. For Murdoch, the test for Brown as prime minister will be “how much would he let the private sector get involved in health and education”.7 This courtship of the reactionary, union_busting, tax_dodging Murdoch, something unprecedented in Labour Party history, tells us everything we need to know about the politics of New Labour.
Brown is a shite socialist. infact so was Blair, enemies from within the Labour movement.
He gives it away in this speech from 49 seconds specifically
"Driven forward by the balance of military strength from Cold War Times
"Driven by a Seismic Shift (Neo-Liberalism) in economic power we see around us
Dirty capitalist subversive in the Labour movement, I am inclined to think of these people with their support of war actually as Third position Fascists, like Mussolini transcending the balance of Left and Right, into this Centre populist ritual tied to media, military, and economic dominance of society.
He illustrates his departure from Marx not only with his famous "This is the end to boom and bust...." quote but with his every action as a New Labour Politician, that he would give time of day to Murdoch is a stab in the back of the Unions who's political platform he pissed all over
The meanings that are the most directly practical are the ones that are sacrificed: the flavor, aroma and touch are abolished to the profit of the delusions that permanently lead sight and hearing astray.
I think that basically we are saying the same thing Andy as to why Gordon the Gopher sold the gold.
To lose sovereignty (and more importantly to get the PEOPLE to believe that all is lost), they need to first dismantle this country. We are now almost completely reliant on other countries for everything that we need (all planned). Andy you have mentioned some details of how corporate fascism is used BASICALLY to create a "revolution" that leads to a global government (communist style).
The PTB use an extreme (eg fascism) in order to get to the other SUPPOSEDLY OPPOSITE extreme, and when the PTB (and the people) are fed up with THAT extreme (system/society) they then REVOLVE and the same cycle happens again. Problem Reaction Solution (sorry to quote Icke for all you Icke haters out there). The only difference THIS time is that it looks like there wont be another revolution after this one. Humanity is in a right bloody situation now.
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:32 #8
Dirty capitalist subversive in the Labour movement, I am inclined to think of these people with their support of war actually as Third position Fascists, like Mussolini transcending the balance of Left and Right, into this Centre populist ritual tied to media, military, and economic dominance of society.
There's 1 lesson you really need to learn hard and have it rammed home Gue.
Its that Brown and Blair and in fact just any pm or president you can care to shake a stick at, are NOT capitalists.
In fact we have NEVER had capitalism anymore than we have ever had communism.
Its a long story but definitely well worth understanding.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
I think that basically we are saying the same thing Andy as to why Gordon the Gopher sold the gold.
To lose sovereignty (and more importantly to get the PEOPLE to believe that all is lost), they need to first dismantle this country. We are now almost completely reliant on other countries for everything that we need (all planned). Andy you have mentioned some details of how corporate fascism is used BASICALLY to create a "revolution" that leads to a global government (communist style).
The PTB use an extreme (eg fascism) in order to get to the other SUPPOSEDLY OPPOSITE extreme, and when the PTB (and the people) are fed up with THAT extreme (system/society) they then REVOLVE and the same cycle happens again. Problem Reaction Solution (sorry to quote Icke for all you Icke haters out there). The only difference THIS time is that it looks like there wont be another revolution after this one. Humanity is in a right bloody situation now.
If you replace communist in your text above with corporatist then that would be about right.
The corporations are worth more than govts now and are moving in for the kill with the collusion of bankers and politicians who are too stupid and/or greedy to know better.
As I explained above to Gue, communism never happened anymore than capitalism...BOTH were subverted as and when revolutions happened into a type of fascism that mussolini mentioned..a merger of corporate and state interests.
What we call communism today is quite radically different from what the original revolutionaries such as Bakunin and Proudhon envisioned originally. Marx was a hardcore authoritarian shill brought in to subvert the original movement in Russia.
In Spain it was trampled out by Franco.
In the UK and US it was done slowly and by stealth, we never even got the chance to rebel.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:41 #10
Dirty capitalist subversive in the Labour movement, I am inclined to think of these people with their support of war actually as Third position Fascists, like Mussolini transcending the balance of Left and Right, into this Centre populist ritual tied to media, military, and economic dominance of society.
There's 1 lesson you really need to learn hard and have it rammed home Gue.
Its that Brown and Blair and in fact just any pm or president you can care to shake a stick at, are NOT capitalists.
In fact we have NEVER had capitalism anymore than we have ever had communism.
Its a long story but definitely well worth understanding.
Don't give me that shit, Keynesian policies still serve the interests of capital, the owners of the means of production and surplus value.
The meanings that are the most directly practical are the ones that are sacrificed: the flavor, aroma and touch are abolished to the profit of the delusions that permanently lead sight and hearing astray.
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:42 #11
I think that basically we are saying the same thing Andy as to why Gordon the Gopher sold the gold.
To lose sovereignty (and more importantly to get the PEOPLE to believe that all is lost), they need to first dismantle this country. We are now almost completely reliant on other countries for everything that we need (all planned). Andy you have mentioned some details of how corporate fascism is used BASICALLY to create a "revolution" that leads to a global government (communist style).
The PTB use an extreme (eg fascism) in order to get to the other SUPPOSEDLY OPPOSITE extreme, and when the PTB (and the people) are fed up with THAT extreme (system/society) they then REVOLVE and the same cycle happens again. Problem Reaction Solution (sorry to quote Icke for all you Icke haters out there). The only difference THIS time is that it looks like there wont be another revolution after this one. Humanity is in a right bloody situation now.
If you replace communist in your text above with corporatist then that would be about right.
The corporations are worth more than govts now and are moving in for the kill with the collusion of bankers and politicians who are too stupid and/or greedy to know better.
As I explained above to Gue, communism never happened anymore than capitalism...BOTH were subverted as and when revolutions happened into a type of fascism that mussolini mentioned..a merger of corporate and state interests.
What we call communism today is quite radically different from what the original revolutionaries such as Bakunin and Proudhon envisioned originally. Marx was a hardcore authoritarian shill brought in to subvert the original movement in Russia.
In Spain it was trampled out by Franco.
In the UK and US it was done slowly and by stealth, we never even got the chance to rebel.
Nonsense.
The truth is the Socialist Revolution occured in order to establish Communism in Russia, China, Cambodia but failed, where the Socialist Revolution could have succeeded, and supported the Success of the Revolutions in Russia, China and Internationally the forces of Private Property and Profit through Fasism suppressed it, namely the places Marx wrote were ripe for the Socialist Revolutional, the already heavily industrialized nations of England, France, Germany, Spain etc.
The reason Socialism descended into Totalitarian, barbarity and bureaucracy in Russia, China and elsewhere was their international isolation and relative lack of abundance compared to the places Marx envisaged the Socialist Revolution occuring first.
The meanings that are the most directly practical are the ones that are sacrificed: the flavor, aroma and touch are abolished to the profit of the delusions that permanently lead sight and hearing astray.
Dirty capitalist subversive in the Labour movement, I am inclined to think of these people with their support of war actually as Third position Fascists, like Mussolini transcending the balance of Left and Right, into this Centre populist ritual tied to media, military, and economic dominance of society.
There's 1 lesson you really need to learn hard and have it rammed home Gue.
Its that Brown and Blair and in fact just any pm or president you can care to shake a stick at, are NOT capitalists.
In fact we have NEVER had capitalism anymore than we have ever had communism.
Its a long story but definitely well worth understanding.
It's just different degrees of dictatorship with different labels attached to them so that we think we are free (left and right are an illusion that only exist in our minds).
And Gue, I know that people have not yet claimed (or acted upon) their individual sovereignty yet. Sovereignty IS freedom - The PTB know that (obviously) and that is why we have moved further and further away from it, and a global government is the pinnacle. A human being who is dependent on people outside their "tribe", means that their security has been compromised and is vulnerable(sorry to use that word "tribe", I know that the notion of tribes is looked down upon on this forum by a few of you).
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:47 #13
This is all well documented Gue.
You can read all about how Bakunin and Proudhon and the rest fell out with Marx, its public knowledge.
Its not taught in schools though.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:49 #14
This is all well documented Gue.
You can read all about how Bakunin and Proudhon and the rest fell out with Marx, its public knowledge.
Its not taught in schools though.
You like the Marxist ideology dont you Andy No offense meant btw.
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:50 #15
Dirty capitalist subversive in the Labour movement, I am inclined to think of these people with their support of war actually as Third position Fascists, like Mussolini transcending the balance of Left and Right, into this Centre populist ritual tied to media, military, and economic dominance of society.
There's 1 lesson you really need to learn hard and have it rammed home Gue.
Its that Brown and Blair and in fact just any pm or president you can care to shake a stick at, are NOT capitalists.
In fact we have NEVER had capitalism anymore than we have ever had communism.
Its a long story but definitely well worth understanding.
It's just different degrees of dictatorship with different labels attached to them so that we think we are free (left and right are an illusion that only exist in our minds).
Quite correct, it is all authority and it is all wrong.
And Gue, I know that people have not yet claimed (or acted upon) their individual sovereignty yet. Sovereignty IS freedom - The PTB know that (obviously) and that is why we have moved further and further away from it, and a global government is the pinnacle. A human being who is dependent on people outside their "tribe", means that their security has been compromised and is vulnerable(sorry to use that word "tribe", I know that the notion of tribes is looked down upon on this forum by a few of you).
Yes, what we are missing here is the concept that ONLY a human being can have sovereignty. Entities such as companies,corporations or governments cannot have sovereignty because they only exist as a concept on paper.
There should be no such thing as a 'legal person' just human beings who are all equally responsible for their own actions.
When we cut to the chase of it, do we not all want the same thing? A decent life for everyone?
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:52 #16
This is all well documented Gue.
You can read all about how Bakunin and Proudhon and the rest fell out with Marx, its public knowledge.
Its not taught in schools though.
You like the Marxist ideology dont you Andy No offense meant btw.
Not sure what you mean there lol
I like the anarchists ideology which is in fact what humanity should be aiming for. It should in fact be the job of government to work towards educating people to evolve towards the point where they no longer need government.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:57 #17
Not sure what you mean there lol
I like the anarchists ideology which is in fact what humanity should be aiming for. It should in fact be the job of government to work towards educating people to evolve towards the point where they no longer need government.
Completely agree there (although I am not an anarchist...or any 'ist). However care ALWAYS has to be taken because even Anarchy (or ANY 'ism) that could/should be taught in schools can be manipulated to make it sound like something completely different and dangerous. That is why it is extremeley important for AWARE PARENTS to do alot of teaching to their kids rather than just relying on a dodgy state to do it.
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 20:59 #18
This is all well documented Gue.
You can read all about how Bakunin and Proudhon and the rest fell out with Marx, its public knowledge.
Its not taught in schools though.
Where you say "fell out with", having read the Critiques of Engels, Lenin and Marx against Proudhon, Bakunin and a whole plethora of other "great" thinkers on "Anarchism" or "Utopian Socialism" I say lost out to.
The meanings that are the most directly practical are the ones that are sacrificed: the flavor, aroma and touch are abolished to the profit of the delusions that permanently lead sight and hearing astray.
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 21:04 #19
Not sure what you mean there lol
I like the anarchists ideology which is in fact what humanity should be aiming for. It should in fact be the job of government to work towards educating people to evolve towards the point where they no longer need government.
Completely agree there (although I am not an anarchist...or any 'ist). However care ALWAYS has to be taken because even Anarchy (or ANY 'ism) that could/should be taught in schools can be manipulated to make it sound like something completely different and dangerous. That is why it is extremeley important for AWARE PARENTS to do alot of teaching to their kids rather than just relying on a dodgy state to do it.
People should simply want freedom. They should want to become adults and not need mummy anymore.
The trouble with authority is that it simply begets more authority. It awlays has and always will to perpetuate itself.
For example, the current banking bailouts are a prime example of new laws and new actions to try and solve a 'problem'.
If there were no problems then govt would no longer have a reason to exist...so why would they ever work to actually solve problems?
Why would they work towards putting themselves out of a very profitable career?
So they work in collusion with business to keep the business wheel turning when in actual fact humans don't need it.
They don't need money, they don't need govt they don't need thousands of rules and regulations they are quite useless.
They exist simply because we believe in it. Thats your man made reality if you see what I mean. None of its actually real.
Money doesn't make food appear by magic lol. People make it happen, they simply believe that they need pieces of paper to make it happen.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” - Hugo Chávez
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Re: Why Gordon brown sold the Gold.
27 Jul 2012 21:08 #20
People should simply want freedom. They should want to become adults and not need mummy anymore.
The trouble with authority is that it simply begets more authority. It awlays has and always will to perpetuate itself.
For example, the current banking bailouts are a prime example of new laws and new actions to try and solve a 'problem'.
If there were no problems then govt would no longer have a reason to exist...so why would they ever work to actually solve problems?
Why would they work towards putting themselves out of a very profitable career?
So they work in collusion with business to keep the business wheel turning when in actual fact humans don't need it.
They don't need money, they don't need govt they don't need thousands of rules and regulations they are quite useless.
They exist simply because we believe in it. Thats your man made reality if you see what I mean. None of its actually real.
Money doesn't make food appear by magic lol. People make it happen, they simply believe that they need pieces of paper to make it happen.
Now that is a post that I will give a
"This aint no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell!" ~~ Chris Rea
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