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The View from our White House/Larry White/9-16-2020
“Whatever; the fact is that gold tends to sustain its value over time. National currencies, eroded by inflation and political manipulation, do not. …… As I say, a rising gold price reflects, above all other things, a loss of trust in the value of fiat currencies, for which there is good reason right now.” – Jeremy Warner, The Telegraph
“The sale [of a large portion of the UK’s gold holdings] was a personal decision by Gordon Brown on the advice of the Treasury mandarins who thought it would make him look “modern” and of course it all came unstuck. It would plague him for the rest of his career and remains one of the great blots on his reputation.” – Robert Pringle, Central Banking
USAGOLD note: We recall that the British government’s argument at the time was that the gold could be swapped for currencies that drew an interest rate. How shortsighted it all seems today. At a time when major currencies are being debased aggressively and Britain is suffering the economic pain of Brexit, how comforting would it be to have that gold sitting in the national vault gathering dust at nearly $2000 per ounce. (Gold, by the way, it sold at under $300 per ounce in 1999.) Robert Pringle is formerly head of public policy for the World Gold Council and founder of the Central Banking Journal.
Related note: If you have an interest in the 1999 UK gold sales, you might find “Britain’s gold sales ‘a reckless act” an engaging read. It includes the complete text of an important speech delivered in the House of Commons at the time by Sir Peter Tapsell – a speech by the way that still rings with clarity today as one of the most eloquent public appeals ever made on the merits of gold ownership for both nation-states and individuals. Reprinted with the permission of the United Kingdom Parliamentary Archives, it also includes comments from other members of Parliament and those of Patricia Hewitt, Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
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