A sweet piece of political-financial reporting from Barron's:
Candidate of Doom and Gloom
Note to voters: Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul's multi-million investment portfolio is a big bet against the U.S. economy.
Say this for him: Ron Paul puts his money where his mouth is. Over the past 16 years, the dollar-doom-and-gloom prophet has invested heavily in gold-mining stocks. It's his hedge against what the Texas Republican congressman and perennial presidential candidate calls "The Great Inflation," which he has long preached is inevitable, given the profligacy of the federal government and the easy monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. Fortunately for Ron Paul and his army of gold-bug disciples, the "stopped clock" investment strategy finally seems to be paying off. Gold and gold futures prices have been hitting record highs.(he beats the S&P and most money managers)
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.
TO OUR SURPRISE, Paul's financial disclosures reveal no holdings of physical gold, gold coins, or gold equivalents like certain exchange-traded gold funds, which is confounding, given his strident advocacy of the metal as an insurance policy against the almost-certain debasement of the currency by politicians and central bankers. So we dug around a little. In his financial-disclosure form for the years 1994 through 2002, Paul reported holding "semi-numismatic" coins worth between $100,001 and $250,000. But from 2003 onward, they were never mentioned again.
Paul, who vows that as president he would abolish the Federal Reserve, also owns stakes valued at $1,001 to $15,000 apiece in three contrarian mutual funds: Federated Prudent Bear (BEARX); Rydex Dynamic Nasdaq-100 2X (RYVYX), an inverse bet on the Nasdaq; and Rydex Inverse S&P 500 Strategy (RYURX), which bets against the S&P 500. And he owns $1,001 to $15,000 worth of Dundee Corp. (DC-A.Canada), a Toronto-based investment management firm heavily into minerals....MORE, including performance of his top ten holdings.
| Return* | Return* | Size of | |
| Company/Ticker | 1-Yr | 3-Yr | Holding |
| Goldcorp / GG | 19.13% | 17.00% | $500,001 - $1,000,000 |
| Barrick Gold / ABX | 12.24 | 15.49 | $250,001 - $500,000 |
| Newmont Mining C Stock / NEM | 1.12 | 12.02 | $250,001 - $500,000 |
| Agnico Eagle Mines / AEM | 1.13 | 5.88 | $100,001 - $250,000 |
| AngloGold Ashanti / AU | 2.02 | 19.33 | $100,001 - $250,000 |
| IAM Gold / IAG | 3.69 | 52.07 | $100,001 - $250,000 |
| Mag Silver / MVG | 39.97 | 9.75 | $50,001 - $100,000 |
| Pan American Silver / PAAS | 22.72 | 4.71 | $50,001 - $100,000 |
| Silver Wheaton / SLW | 74.51 | 49.54 | $50,001 - $100,000 |
| Virginia Mines / VGMNF.OTC | 28.05 | 31.11 | $15,001 - $50,000 |
| Gold | 48.34 | 31.61 | |
| S&P 500 | 6.04 | -1.25 | |
| *All returns are as of 8/18/11; three-year returns are annualized. Sources: Bloomberg; OpenSecrets.org | |||
