September 29, 2007 (LPAC)--Reports in the London Times of Britain that there are cracks in the Bank of England's reserve gold bars--indicating debasing of the gold--and the news that Britain has no more than 320 tons of gold--a fraction of the gold held by other, much smaller nations as well, simply means that the pound sterling ``is a debased currency.'' This is an interesting point, considering the the British pound is running at the highest levels in decades against the U.S. dollar.

Lyndon LaRouche, the American economist and statesman emphasized that ``according to monetarist theory, this report means that the British pound is a debased currency.''

The London Times report of Sept. 29, citing experts, writes that cracks in gold indicate that it has been debased, being rumored among gold experts for years that there were problems with the Bank of England's gold. Last May the trade journal Metal Bulletin, filed a freedom of information request in order to ascertain the truth. The BoE claims there are no problems and that all its gold in 99.9% pure. But, "all that glitters is not gold," and questions are still being asked.

More interesting is the fact that Britain has no more than 320 tons of gold, now worth about 4 billion pounds. This is extremely small compared with other countries. According to www.Galmarley.com., The U.S. has 8,139 tons; Germany, 3,469 tons; the IMF, 3,217 tons, France 3,025 tons, Switzerland 2,590 tons and Italy 2,452 tons.

Gordon Brown, when he was chancellor, sold 395 tons of British gold reserves between 1999 and 2002, a move for which he has come under criticism.