Brown: A Fool with the UK's Gold

Gordon Brown isn't just an average fat bloke. No, he's been Chancellor of the Exchequer (that is, the UK's Finance Minister) for 10 years. Unfortunately, he's useless at finance and economics. As Mark Twain would have said: ".. it's not that he doesn't know any economics, it's just that everything he does know is wrong". Faced with the problem of managing the nation's gold reserves, he and his advisers (bad at economics) ignored the Bank of England's (they're good at economics). See here:

GORDON BROWN is to face questions in parliament after revelations that he disregarded advice from the Bank of England before he sold off more than half the country’s gold reserves at the bottom of the market.

Insiders involved in the decision have broken ranks after an 18-month battle in which the Treasury has blocked attempts by The Sunday Times to make public the official advice received by Brown before he sold the gold.

They have revealed that Bank of England officials had serious misgivings over the chancellor’s determination to sell 400 tons of bullion in a series of auctions between 1999 and 2002, when the price was at a 20-year low. Since then the price has almost trebled, meaning the decision cost the taxpayer an estimated £2 billion.