News

November 06, 2009

India Buys Up The First Tranche Of The IMF’s Proposed 403 Tonne Gold Sale – Who Will Buy The Second?

By Charles Wyatt

It is hard to imagine that the news that the Reserve Bank of India has bought the first tranche of gold sold by the International Monetary Fund under a recently agreed deal with constituent members will hit the headlines in the Minnesota Mail or the South Carolina Chronicle, but it should have. It is yet another small sign that the leadership claimed by the US over the world’s economy since the late 1930s is diminishing. The geopolitical axis of the world is moving to the east and the US will be rewarded, as was Rome many centuries earlier, with its comeuppance for having too many enemies and a currency which is devaluing. There is always a new high flier wanting to take over. In the case of Rome it was the Huns, but that was many years before America was discovered by Columbus in 1492. In the case of America it is the countries of the Middle and Far East led by China and India.

In September it was agreed that a total of 403.3 tonnes of gold held by the IMF would be sold so that its finances could be shored up and it could continue its prime job of providing funds to needy countries. The IMF is very much an arm of the US. It is run from Washington and was originally formed with a stated objective of stabilizing international exchange rates and facilitating development. The US has the largest single vote in an organisation consisting of 186 countries, but the EU has...