Barron's takes a look at Ron Paul's portfolio. Not surprisingly, he's uber-bearish on the U.S....

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Herr Hansa Comments (2923)
 
A large position in gold gives him something in common with Hugo Chavez. Now that's hilarious.
20 Aug 2011, 04:39 PM Reply Like

j-dub Comments (1234)
 
No, he does not have a big bet against the U.S. economy.
He has a big bet against the success of the lunatic policies of those in charge. Seems logical to me. The sky is blue, the grass is green and our political losers are f'ing everything up. Until this changes, who the hell would bet on the U.S. economy?

And...........I'll vote for Ron as well. If we're going down, at least we'll go down swinging.
20 Aug 2011, 04:50 PM Reply Like

bearfund Comments (1537)
 
Considering how little regard I have for US leadership as an outsider, I can't imagine what I'd think of it with the kind of access Dr. Paul has.

Amen, j-dub. I'd much rather elect Dr. Paul and prove the naysayers right about the impact of his policies on the economy. What we've had for the last hundred years or so is a proven failure and a certain disaster. Let's try something different, something that has at least some chance of being sensible.
20 Aug 2011, 05:00 PM Reply Like

varan Comments (1991)
 
If you are looking for a White Knight or a Messiah, Paul Ryan ain't it. He is lost in the fantasy-land of Ayn Rand.
20 Aug 2011, 10:07 PM Reply Like

bearfund Comments (1537)
 
Who mentioned Paul Ryan?
21 Aug 2011, 09:50 PM Reply Like

j-dub Comments (1234)
 
Agreed bearfund, agreed.
20 Aug 2011, 05:01 PM Reply Like

dividend_growth Comments (2749)
 
Dr Paul is actually getting fleeced by the Wall Street, as bear funds are absolutely disasters: although S&P is today about 30% below the 2007 level, SH (Proshares Short S&P500 Fund) is 3% lower than its 2007 low.

If you are bearish, short the damn SPY or ES, don't ever touch those blood-sucking bear funds.
20 Aug 2011, 05:09 PM Reply Like

bearfund Comments (1537)
 
I'm not a subscriber so I can't read the article, but without knowing what funds he's actually holding it's difficult to know whether he's getting a good deal. There are plenty of closed-end funds that have net short positions but don't suffer from the kinds of problems that SH, SDS, etc. do. The "daily short" strategy is an obvious loser under almost any market conditions and I'm fairly sure Dr. Paul knows that. In fact those are not properly bear funds at all; a bear market almost never occurs in a single day yet they are explicitly marketed only to day traders (for good reason).
20 Aug 2011, 07:00 PM Reply Like

CostBasis Comments (10)
 
The fulltext of the article says that Paul "owns stakes valued at $1,001 to $15,000 apiece in three contrarian mutual funds: BEARX, RYVYX, RYURX" and "He [...] has a stake in three bear-market funds-- and has for many years". The article also said that "Paul had $1.6 million to $3.5 million in gold-mining stocks". So although bear funds may have problems, due to Paul's relative allocations, it doesn't appear to be critically harming his overall wealth.
20 Aug 2011, 08:26 PM Reply Like

bonehead69 Comments (212)
 
What gives you the crazy idea that anyone has been holding a bear fund since 2007? I get daily returns of 7-20% returns on my bear funds and hold for a day or so. If you held the sds double short the S&P for the last 2 months...well, you figure it out!
21 Aug 2011, 02:06 AM Reply Like

Uncle Pie Comments (1583)
 
A news item that was not in the news last week: it now costs $1,000 to buy a US ten dollar gold piece. Or 100 times face value. Or to put it another way, the US dollar has lost 99% of its purchasing power since Franklin Roosevelt began the Great Dollar Debasement in 1933. The $10 gold piece, or eagle, was minted from 1792 to 1933. For 141 years, ten US dollar would buy about 1/2 oz. of gold. In the last 78 years, the US dollar has lost 99% of its value. It appears that money printing is the only course our broken government can take to inflate away our national debts.
20 Aug 2011, 06:23 PM Reply Like

New Century Comments (129)
 
this reoccurring comment is so dumb. the amount of wage-earning work necessary to buy anything today is lower than at almost any time in the past... so who cares if the price of yellow metal changes when the cost of a loaf of bread is now a few minutes of work compared to an hour a century ago.
21 Aug 2011, 11:52 PM Reply Like

The Geoffster Comments (3701)
 
There is no excuse for anyone in Congress to lose money in the market. They are exempt from insider trading laws.
20 Aug 2011, 07:05 PM Reply Like

Tom Au Comments (6708)
 
At least the man practices what he preaches. Not all of them do.
20 Aug 2011, 07:13 PM Reply Like

Econdoc Comments (2944)
 
MoRon Paul watching this guy chair hearings is more entertaining than watching Jon Stewart or Stephe Colbert.

E
20 Aug 2011, 07:17 PM Reply Like

bearfund Comments (1537)
 
So you're advocating more of the same, then? Come on, admit that what we have is not working and never will. If you're a socialist at heart then at least stump for Kucinich.
20 Aug 2011, 08:04 PM Reply Like

Stoploss Comments (1727)
 
Are you still "buying all the way down"??

Inquiring minds want to know.
20 Aug 2011, 08:19 PM Reply Like

varan Comments (1991)
 
When I was a kid, I saw a movie where a father-child duo in window repair business used to go around the various neighborhoods with the child in front throwing stones at the glass windows, followed by the repairman father.

The man-child Paul Ryan (what is an adult still in his Fountainhead phase but a man-child?) is the father-child duo in one.
20 Aug 2011, 09:23 PM Reply Like

valueinvestor123 Comments (327)
 
He is not uber bearish. He just realizes that gold is priced in dollars and that Bernanke is on a mission to destroy the value of the dollar.
21 Aug 2011, 05:02 PM Reply Like

Uncle Pie Comments (1583)
 
You have to remember that Barron's is owned by Rupert Murdoch. As is evident from the fanatics at Fox News, he's on a campaign to discredit Ron Paul. For some reason.
The world would be a better place if the Murdochs went back to Australia and News Corp were shut down.
21 Aug 2011, 08:25 PM Reply Like

tiremeup Comment (1)
 
The article looks at a 3 year return. Why don't they look at the return since Ron Paul owned these stocks? You'll find his worst performing stock had a return of 300%. A few had returns over 1000%. Ron Paul puts his money where is mouth is. Reducing the national debt and not raising the debt ceiling would actually be bearish to his investments in gold miners, but like me he has no confidence that Washington D.C. will do the right thing and is investing accordingly.
22 Aug 2011, 11:27 AM Reply Like