Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown’s on the world stage, but his audience may not listen

Brace yourselves. For the next few weeks, we will be witnessing Gordon Brown’s attempt to have us believe he is saving the world again, brokering a new global deal for the recession. As Chancellor, he loved to promote global plans. Two are worth mentioning.  One was to persuade the IMF to sell its gold as he had done, when the price was about $275 an ounce (it’s now around $950). The other was for governments to adopt one of the the debt concealment tactics invented by investment banks, securitisation, and use it for African aid. His plan: participating nations would jointly take out a multi-billion dollar debt pile, and saddle their successors with repayments for the next 30 years. But they’d spend the cash instantly, taking credit for it. And, crucially, because no one nation was responsible for the bulk of the debt it wouldn’t show up on anyone’s accounts! He called this the International Finance Facilty (I called it Enron

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