Ron Paul is Running for President But Betting Against America

It is awfully peculiar to want to be president while you are actively engaged in stock market bets that the economy will crash and you are using your political power in Congress to try to get the US to default on its debt so you can cash in on your stock market bets, but that's Ron Paul for you... a refreshingly "honest" politician with Republican views.

Here's a bit from a post by Barry Ritholtz on his The Big Picture blog:

But this week, I found Jim McTague’s column — he writes the political coverage for Barron’s — rather fascinating. He looks at the financial holdings of Ron Paul via congressional financial disclosures:

“Gold-mining stocks, where Paul has the bulk of his money, have also hit pay dirt, albeit rising at a slower pace. Gold is up about 28% this year, through Thursday, to $1,823.80 a troy ounce, and 106.8% since 2009. In the same periods, the NYSE ARCA Gold Miners Index is down 2.9% and up 78.6%. The S&P 500 is down 9.3% and up 26.3%.

In his most recent financial disclosure, which covers the year 2010, Paul had $1.6 million to $3.5 million in gold- mining stocks. He also has a stake in three bear-market funds—and has for many years.

In all, Ron Paul’s portfolio amounts to a super bearish bet against the U.S. economy. If the country had defaulted on its debt earlier this month, he likely would have made a bundle. The congressman voted against House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to lift the nation’s $14.3 trillion spending cap.”

Rather intriguing.

I would have thought that Americans would want to vote in a leader who believes in America and who is actively doing everything in his power to make the US a stronger economy and a better place to live. But looking at the Republican field, it is pretty clear that Republicans favour fanatics who want to run the country over a cliff. Ron Paul is a bit more extreme than the rest and is busy betting against the country, but all the Republicans are selling the same Kool-Aid.

Meanwhile the Democrats are rallying around a "do nothing" president who is happy to let the Republicans create mayhem and drive the economy in the ground in their attempt to stick the mess on him. He is betting that by "staying calm" and "rising about it all" he can sell voters that his is a better "leader". But a real leader actually leads, a concept that seems foreign to "I'll just delegate to Congress" and "I want the American people to put pressure to get us to do the right thing" Obama. He has no plan. He has issued no challenges. He hasn't countered the Republican arguments. He has simply let things slide. Worse, he failed to carry out most of his 2008 electoral promises.

Obama is a failure as a "leader" but his looks like a "giant" compared to the pygmies that the Republicans want to field to contest the election. Incredible!