GOLD IS STILL KING

Leaving aside for moment the subject of power and power plays, as in Egypt and Wikileaks, let's talk about the other great subject, wealth.
We saw in Tunisia that when a leader/dictator falls, or runs into trouble, the first thing they do is to ship gold out of the country - and rumour says that Mubarak's family has already shipped tons of gold to the Netherlands.

In time of civil breakdown and real trouble, gold is still king.

Maybe the psychologically flawed and incompetent UK ex Chancellor, Gordon Brown, forgot that, when between 1999 and 2102, in 17 auctions,  Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer, sanctioned the sale of 395 tonnes of gold, 60% of the UK gold reserves, just before a protracted bull market.  In other words, at the bottom of the market, at the lowest possible price, announcing in advance that he was going to do so, thus ensuring a loss to the country of 2 billion pounds.

Critics say that signalling such a large sale of bullion to gold traders, the Government helped to drive the precious metal to a 20-year low.

Philip Hammond, shadow secretary to the Treasury, said: "Gold traders confirm that it was because the Government announced in advance that it was planning to sell such a large quantity of gold that the markets became depressed. The low price Gordon Brown got for selling our gold wasn't caused by bad luck. It was a staggering display of economic incompetence that has landed taxpayers with a $7 billion black hole."

Figures released by the Treasury since show that the total proceeds from the sales was around $3.5billion. According to a Parliamentary answer, if the gold was sold last month, on December 15, it would have raised $10.5billion.

The difference - $7billion - would be worth £4.7billion if the proceeds were converted into pounds yesterday.

Returning to the present, the price of gold reached an all-time high of $1432 per ounce in December,  rising 29% in 2010 following uncertainty in the equity markets and European sovereign debt problems.

The biggest individual holders of gold - Central banks, International entities and governments - are believed to account for approximately 16.5 percent of the world's gold, holding about 29,978 tons.

So out of interest, let's look at the chart telling us which countries hold the most gold. Here's the top 15. Guess who is at No 1? Yes, you're right.




gold bar and roulette wheel

 
1. USA

Value: $387.32 billion dollars

Tons: 8,965.6

2 GERMANY

Value: $161.99 billion dollars

Tons: 3.749.8

3. IMF

Value: $135.56 billion dollars

Tons: 3,137.9


4 ITALY

Value: $116.75 billion dollars

Tons: 2,702.6

5. FRANCE

Value: $115.97 billion dollars

Tons: 2,684.6

6. CHINA

Value: £$50.90 billion dollars

Tons: 1,161.9

7 SWITZERLAND

Value: $49.53 billion dollars

Tons: 1,146.5

8. RUSSIA


Value: $36.91 billion dollars

Tons: 854.5

9 JAPAN

Value: 36.43 billion dollars

Tons: 843.5

10 NETHERLANDS

Value: $29.67 billion dollars.

Tons: 675.2

11. INDIA

Value: $26.56 billion dollars

Tons: 614.8

12. EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

Value: $23.88 billion dollars

Tons: 522.7

13. TAIWAN

Value: $20.17 billion dollars

Tons: 466.9

14 PORTUGAL


Value: $18.21 billion dollars

Tons: 421.6

15 VENEZUELA

Value: $17.33 billion dollars

Tons: 401.1

However, I have heard it said that gold is the most secretive of all markets, so all published statistics from whatever the source may be open to question!
(Photos courtesy of fotosearch.com).