Individuals who become well-known for their political career are rarely associated with strong opinions on gold and precious metals. Ron Paul,  the retired politician, has always had some very interesting opinions on the financial sector, to say the very least.

Ron Paul in a Nutshell

It is impossible to boil down a political career down to just a few paragraphs. Ron Paul is best known for his tenure as the US Representative for Texas, as well as actively trying to become President of the United States. He tried to achieve that latter goal three times, once as a Libertarian Party nominee and twice as a candidate in the Republican primaries. 

For most politicians, being in the running for Presidency three times would be the highlight of their career. In the case of Ron Paul, however, the highlight was serving concurrently with his son Rand Paul in 2010. Ron Paul eventually retired from Congress in 2013.

Ron Paul has not always been a politician, however. He also serves as a flight surgeon in the US Air Force and performed duties as an obstetrician-gynecologist. Now that his political career has come to an end, he is an active speaker on college campuses, during which he shares his libertarian vision.

Ron Paul the Critic

When looking beyond the political feats, it also becomes apparent that Ron Paul has strong opinions on the financial system and what will need to change. In his opinion, the main purpose of the Federal Reserve is “immoral and unworkable“. A very strong negative sentiment regarding the US’ central bank, albeit the Fed has been criticized many times over the past two decades. 

At one point, Paul even made a strong case for gold. Replacing the dollar with gold or cryptocurrencies is an option worth exploring, in his opinion. Paul is still dismayed over the collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971, even though it helped the gold price to skyrocket from $35 to $800 per ounce.  Despite that positive bullion spike, it quickly became apparent that the collapse of this agreement would have major repercussions for the financial industry for some time to come.

Over the past few years, several people have voiced support for reinstating the gold standard. Ron Paul would not be opposed to this idea either, as he still thinks it is the best asset to use for building a viable monetary system. 

Noteworthy Ron Paul Quotes

As is always the case with former politicians and strong-willed individuals, there are some very peculiar quotes attributed to Ron Paul. Some of these may strike a chord with a lot of people, especially now that the global distrust toward the existing financial system continues to grow. 

One of the quotes by Ron Paul goes as follows:

“A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank.”

Central banks have effectively made an impact on the financial system, although not always for the better. The same goes for the government, which is also mentioned in this intriguing Ron Paul quote:

“When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans.”

Most people do not know that Ron Paul also has an interesting thought on Bitcoin, and how it may affect the greenback moving forward:

“When the dollar is in trouble, that will be one of the alternatives, and the more Bitcoins are used, the worse it will be for the dollar.”

All of these quotes show that the future financial model may look very different from what people are used to today. Which role both gold and Bitcoin will play in the bigger picture, has yet to be determined.