After stepping down as an MP ahead of the general election, Gordon Brown has taken up a role on the advisory panel of Pimco, a global investment management firm. He joins a panel of ‘world-renowned experts’ who include Jean-Claude Trichet, the former president of the European Central Bank, and Ben Bernanke, the former US Federal Reserve chairman.
Pimco have released a statement speaking of their delight at their global advisory board which they say boasts ‘an unrivalled team of macroeconomic thinkers and former policymakers’:
‘The global advisory board is an unrivalled team of macroeconomic thinkers and former policymakers, whose insights into the intersection of policy and financial markets will be a valuable input to our investment process.’
However, when it come to Brown — who says he will not financially benefit from the role — it hasn’t always been the case that staff at Pimco have seen him as such an asset. In fact back in 2010 when Brown was Prime Minister, the co-founder of Pimco Bill Gross — who resigned from the fund in 2014 — dealt a big blow to the Labour government when he warned investors that the UK was a ‘must to avoid’ as its debt was ‘resting on a bed of nitroglycerine’:
‘The UK is a must to avoid. Its gilts are resting on a bed of nitroglycerine. High debt with the potential to devalue its currency present high risks for bond investors.’
At the time, his views were of particular embarrassment to Brown’s government as Ed Balls’s brother Andrew was heading up Pimco’s European team.
While Labour continue to be dogged by concerns that they cannot be trusted with the economy, Mr S is happy to see that no such doubts haunt Brown.
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