Revealed: why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold

Revealed: why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold-britains-gold-at-a-knock-down-price/ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/...) "When Brown decided to dispose of almost 400 tonnes of gold between 1999 and 2002, he did two distinctly odd things. First, he broke with convention and announced the sale well in advance, giving the market notice that it was shortly to be flooded and forcing down the spot price. This was apparently done in the interests of “open government”, but had the effect of sending the spot price of gold to a 20-year low, as implied by basic supply and demand theory. Second, the Treasury elected to sell its gold via auction. Again, this broke with the standard model. The price of gold was usually determined at a morning and afternoon "fix" between representatives of big banks whose network of smaller bank clients and private orders allowed them to determine the exact price at which demand met with supply. The auction system again frequently achieved a lower price than the equivalent fix price. It seemed almost as if the Treasury was trying to achieve the lowest price possible for the public’s gold. It was."