Reply #4: It's all nuts to me, Mr Bush (on Bush's dollar stewardship) [View All]

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On January 22, 2001, two days after George W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the United States, the price of gold was $265.90 an ounce. Last week the gold price broke through the $500 dollars an ounce level; that means the dollar has been devalued in terms of gold by almost 50 per cent in the four years and ten months of this presidency.

That does not reflect well on Gordon Brown, who as Chancellor sold a large part of Britain’s gold reserve at a price that was way below the present level. It reflects even worse on President Bush. He is ultimately responsible for the management of the dollar. It has halved its gold value on his watch.

The rise in the gold price does not come as a surprise. Many commentators, including myself, had forecast that gold would rise to these levels. My forecast was that gold would reach $500, and when it broke through $500 would move on towards $1,000 an ounce. It would now require a radical change in US financial policy to stabilise the dollar; I do not think such a change is at all likely. So far, President Bush has been very reliable as an agent of dollar devaluation.

There are technical reasons, both on the supply and demand side, that make it probable that the gold price will continue to rise. Yet it was not these technical market reasons that led some of us to forecast the higher price, but the underlying weakness of the financial policy of the United States.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1052-1904459,00.html