Friday, May 25, 2012
Grandfather’s Millions Make Paul Fan A Political Player
John Ramsey became old enough to buy a Carlsberg nine months ago. The 21-year-old college student from east Texas isn’t old enough to serve in Congress. His intellectual role model, U.S. Texas Representative Ron Paul, has been in Congress 22 years — longer than Ramsey has been alive.
Yet, Ramsey is leaving a mark on U.S. politics that may outlast his political mentor and presidential candidate, Paul. The college senior spent $1.3 million of his own money to create a super-political action committee, Liberty for All Super PAC, that backs candidates who endorse what Ramsey calls “freedom philosophy.” The dogma includes policies championed by Paul, such as supporting free-market economics, protecting civil liberties, slashing government spending and opposing most U.S. military action.
Ramsey’s super-PAC passed its first test on May 22. It spent more than $561,000 on television and radio ads to help Tom Massie, a Kentucky engineer, defeat two experienced politicians in a House Republican primary election. Ramsey’s super-PAC spent more than any of the candidates.
“This is the first step. We’re looking to spread our message,” Ramsey, who’d shed his afternoon blue-jeans for a gray suit, told about 20 people in their teens and 20s who gathered for a victory party at one of the PAC’s headquarters in Bellevue, Kentucky.
Hunting and Fishing
Towering over the other attendees at 6-feet, 7-inches, the one-time, daily tennis player still finds time for matches — as well as hunting and fishing — between his political project, investments and studies.
Ramsey attends Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he’s several courses shy from a double-major in business economics and finance.
He enjoys studying central banking systems, including the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, which, like Paul, he says should be audited. Among his favorite authors is Frederic Bastiat, a French economist who promoted free markets as a source of “economic harmony” in the early half of the 1800s.
His interest in economics and finance comes from his grandfather, Justin Robert Howard, a banker who died on Thanksgiving 2010 and left a fortune to his survivors, including Ramsey and his two older siblings.
‘Big Papa’
Howard — “Big Papa” to Ramsey — “taught me about cash- flow statements and P/E ratios” as a young teenager, Ramsey said. He manages his own portfolio, which includes interests in energy, real estate and timber.
“I’m involved in a lot of investments that are not linked to the dollar,” he said. “That’s my favorite way of diversifying, whether it be through alternative currency, gold, through companies that do mining in precious metals. That’s my number one goal now, to diversify from the dollar more and more.”
Ramsey said his sister, Vanessa, a lifelong Democrat, expressed some skepticism about his political spending, though he said family and friends have supported his desire to promote his causes.
He uses the word “grandfather” to describe his relationship with Paul, a 76-year-old House member. He met Paul in 2010, and they’re pictured together on Ramsey’s Facebook page.
“Ron Paul has been an absolutely phenomenal role model for me personally,” Ramsey said. “It’s so honorable to have him as sort of the grandfather of this movement he’s created in this country.”
Full article: http://www.bloomberg … olitical-player.html
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