Goldfinger's £3bn blunder

Gordon Brown, exhibiting his towering intellect and in defiance of the Bank's advice, instructed shortly after Labour took power that some 395 tonnes of the country's gold be sold. The sales took place between 1999 and 2002, with the bulk of the sales during 2000/2001. Exchange rates back then were around $1.45/$1.50 - not much different to today.

Using the figures from the Treasury's report on the sales, and the Treasury's GDP deflator, I come up with the following:

	2000/2001	2007/2008
Ounces of gold	12712000	12712000
Price $ / oz	274.92	692.5
GDP inflator	1.2041	1.0000
Net current value ($ millions)	4,208	8,803
Gordon's blunder ($ billions)		4.6

(current Gold price Friday's fix not 2007/08 average)

Brown's gigantic blunder has cost us some £3bn at current prices. Who would trust this man to manage a whelk stall?