UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's gold sale losses pile up
Updated Oct 31, 2007 (BROWN'S GOLD SALE COST £3BN)
Updated Nov 29, 2005 (Chancellor's disastrous foray into international asset management now looks to have cost the British people some £2 billion)
Updated Feb 23, 2003 (UK Chancellor Gordon Brown loses us £850m)
Updated Jan 28, 2003 (UK Chancellor Gordon Brown loses us over £739m)
Updated Dec 23, 2002 (UK Chancellor Gordon Brown loses us over £540m)
Updated May 31, 2002 (UK Chancellor Gordon Brown loses us over £500m)
Updated May 26, 2002 (UK Chancellor Gordon Brown loses us over £400m)
BROWN'S GOLD SALE COST £3BN [Oct 31, 2007]"GORDON Brown has cost the taxpayer more than £3billion by selling off half of Britain's bullion reserves just before the price of gold rocketed. As Chancellor, he sold 400 tons of gold between 1999 and 2001, raising £2.3billion to fund his lavish spending plans. This week, as bullion drew near a 28-year high price, experts calculated the loss to the Treasury resulting from his decision at £3.1billion.
The massive shortfall is only £2million less than £3.3billion lost under John Major during Black Wednesday in 1992...
Brown's gold sale losses pile up as bullion price surges [Feb 28, 2005]"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?..."
"... 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..."
Brown's gold sell-off leads to £850m loss [Feb 23, 2003]"... the mixed currency portfolio of euros, United States dollars and yen bought by selling gold is now worth £2.1bn..."
"... if the money had been kept in gold stocks, it would now be worth £2.95bn..."
Brown's sale of the century cost Britain $1bn in lost reserves [Jan 28, 2003]"The loss - equivalent to £739.9 million at yesterday's prices and exchange rate - came after gold prices soared by more than 15 percent in the past 60 days. The £739.9 million lost by the Chancellor in a series of transactions between 1999 and 2001 could have paid for two Scottish parliaments, 200 primary schools, 60 secondary schools or six state of the art hospitals. It could also have paid for 40,000 nurses, 45,800 police officers, or 9,411 average Scottish homes.
Instead, the money has disappeared into the pockets of gold traders who took advantage of prices that were dented by the sudden influx of hundreds of tonnes of UK government gold..."
Brown's bullion sell-off 'has cost Britain pounds 540m' [Dec 21, 2002]"GORDON Brown cost the country pounds 540m in lost profits by selling gold reserves at depressed prices over three years.
No-one can call the market perfectly, but the Chancellor's decision to start dumping reserves in 1999 looks especially badly timed."
"Gordon Brown has cost taxpayers an estimated £500m - equivalent to the cost of 10,000 new hospital consultants - by selling off half of Britain's gold reserves, it was claimed today.
The Government has auctioned 395 tonnes of gold reserves in 17 tranches since the disposal programme was announced in May 1999, netting the Treasury $3.5bn. But the average selling price was $275 an ounce, more than $50 lower than the current $326.
TheBullionDesk.com, a precious metals news service, has calculated that at today's price, the auctions would have raised around $4.1bn, a difference of about $600m or £440m.
The figure rises to £500m because further losses have been incurred by investing the proceeds in currencies such as the euro and the yen which have depreciated over the past three years. The World Gold Council came up with a lower, but still-significant, figure of £324m.
Ross Norman at TheBullionDesk.com said: 'The Chancellor is very fond of the word 'prudent' but I am afraid that selling over half of this country's gold reserves when the price was just above a 22-year low was hardly prudent.' "
Brown's gold sale 'cost us £500m' [May 31, 2002] "Gordon Brown has cost taxpayers an estimated £500m - equivalent to the cost of 10,000 new hospital consultants - by selling off half of Britain's gold reserves..."
Chancellor
under attack over sale of gold reserves [May 26, 2002] "an example of gross
incompetence which has cost the British taxpayer dear"
Enron could
happen here, say lawyers [May 26, 2002]
'Meltdown'
claim at Credit Suisse [May 26, 2002] "Credit Suisse Securities declined to comment on
the case this weekend, but is understood to deny all of Johnston's claims"
