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Despite his large personal holdings of gold stocks, US congressman and 3-time presidential hopeful Ron Paul has taken gold’s precipitous decline in stride, claiming that the key issue is the value of the dollar and not the sharp movements in the precious metal market.
Gold suffered its worst two-day decline in over 30 years this week but Paul shrugged it off, saying that “market’s are like that…they’re erratic.”
To demonstrate his point, Paul recalled gold ownership legalization in the US in the 70s: “in 1975, summer of 1976, gold went from $35 up to $200! Now, $200 was really radical. From there it lost 50 percent.”
When asked about a repeat of this week’s gold price collapse, Paul was unworried. “It was an abnormal market phenomenon, but obviously the weak holders had to get out, and the strong holders are back and buying.”
Paul is more concerned about what he considers as the ongoing debasement of the US dollar, which he called “a subjective thing” with “a thousand reasons” for its rise and fall in value.
Sources: Slate; Wall Street Cheat Sheet; Reuters
