Friday, March 14, 2008

The Flight To Commodities

Fear and panic are sweeping the world's financial markets as the effects of the ongoing credit crunch, self inflicted by the greed and stupidity of the banks, claimed another high profile victim.

Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), a $21BN mortgage fund, collapsed. This fund, although it invested in "high quality" mortgages, had leveraged itself to hilt. Thus proving the old adage, don't invest with money that you can't afford to lose.

The City is bracing itself for a string of similar fund collapses.

The result of this carnage is that there is a flight away from financial products to commodities. Gold is leading the way, breaking through the $1000 an ounce barrier.

This should come as "heartening" news to Gordon Brown who, when he was chancellor, sold much of Britain's gold reserves off for less than a third of that amount.

Could someone please ask him why he did that?

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