Gordon Brown Is Coming to US for IMF Job

"to tackle world poverty", according to UK's Mirror.

Brown's heading to US for IMF role (5/16/2010 Mirror.co.uk)

"Gordon and Sarah Brown are prepared to make a life-changing move to the USA with their boys.

"The couple indicated to friends they see their long-term future there - with the ex-PM tipped to head the International Monetary Fund in Washington when the job comes up in 2012.

"Former Chancellor Mr Brown was widely praised for his role in fighting the global financial crisis. And before the election, as the Browns discussed their options with friends, Sarah said she expected him to take "one more big job".

"A source said: "The unspoken assumption was it would absolutely not be a Tony-and- Cherie style retirement into riches, lucrative speaking dates and globe-trotting.

""Gordon would relish the IMF job - not for the status - for a chance to tackle world poverty.""

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OT: Immigration Is a Big Issue Now in UK General Election

Talk about the perfect execution of "foot in the mouth". UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to have brought the chance of remaining in Downing No.10 and the chance of his party to remain in power to near-zero, when he described a Labour supporter who asked Brown about immigration "just a sort of bigoted woman" into a open microphone.

Now, with the general election in 4 days, Telegraph UK reports that three voters out of four now consider immigration is a significant problem in Britain.

It is hard to believe immigration has suddenly become a problem in the UK; it is more likely that people are now more comfortable openly talking about it after Ms. Gillian Duffy breached open the taboo subject (for politicians at least) and Gordon Brown didn't realize his mic was on.

But as far as I know, all three major parties, Conservative, Labour, and Lib Dems, are pro-immigration. I am just curious who Ms. Duffy and the 75% of voters who say immigration is a problem will vote for. Ms. Duffy has said she's not going to vote at all, though.

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10-Year Anniversary of Gordon Brown's Gold Sale

Gordon Brown, before he became prime minister, was the Chancellor of Exchequer. One fine day in May 1999, he decided that Great Britain needed to rid herself of some gold.

Between July 1999 and March 2002 the British Government sold 395 tonnes of gold, almost 60% of the UK's gold reserves, at a near-bottom price: average price of $280 (£186) per ounce. Mr. Brown then put the proceeds into Euro, US dollar, and Japanese yen.

The Gordon Brown Gold Rally Indicator flashes buy signal
(4/20/09, Michael J. Kosares, usagold.com):

The article has a nice chart showing how Gordon Brown insisting that IMF should sell gold can be used as an indicator for a fresh bull-run on gold. The article is very much worth reading, too.

It has a link to IMF's Q&A site about gold sale. There you can find that the IMF gold is priced at $88 per ounce on their balance sheet as of February 2008, that 2,814 metric tons of gold out of total 3,217 tons can be restituted (returned) to the member countries at about $56 per ounce.

I'm trying to find WHY (these days that's my theme) Gordon Brown decided to sell that much gold. So far, I can't find any (that's another theme). Here's Times London's article from 2 years ago. They think it might have been to prop up Euro.

Goldfinger Brown’s £2 billion blunder in the bullion market
(4/15/07, Times Online)

"GATHERED around a table in one of the Bank of England’s grand meeting rooms, the select group of Britain’s top gold traders could not believe what they were being told.

"Gordon Brown had decided to sell off more than half of the country’s centuries-old gold reserves and the chancellor was intending to announce his plan later that day."

Just like that.

And he did it by auction. According to one gold trader quoted in the article,

“The joke in the market was that Gordon had guaranteed he would get the worst price,” said the former gold dealer Dominic Hall. “The world and his grandmother shorted the market...."

10 years later, gold is approaching $1,000 for the 4th time in 2 years. It is trading at $982 per ounce today.

(And who bought that Gordon Brown's gold, cheap, at those auctions?)

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