Ron Paul at the launch of Rand Paul’s presidential campaign in Louisville last month. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

While Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul continues his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, his father is starring in an ad that warns darkly that the United States is teetering on the brink of a devastating financial crisis whose effects can only be avoided by following his investment advice.

“Hi, Ron Paul here,” the former GOP congressman and two-time Republican presidential candidate says in the radio ad published by BuzzFeed. “Today I have an urgent message for every American who’s retired or thinking about retiring soon. You see, our own government’s disastrous policies have now put you, me and everyone over the age of 50 at great risk. Sometime in the near future, we’re going to have yet another financial crisis. This one won’t be solved with bailouts, and it will hit seniors the hardest.”

The 79-year-old warns of a coming economic armageddon — one not backed up by mainstream economic projections. According to a recent report from Moody’s Analytics, the U.S. economy is expected to grow 3 percent for the year despite a slowdown due, in part, to an unseasonably bad winter. And the value of the U.S. dollar has increased almost 15 percent from last year.

“I fear there will be civil unrest, a drop in stock prices, pension fund collapses, big changes to Social Security and Medicare, the erosion of personal liberties, bank and brokerage closings and ultimately a major crisis as the U.S. dollar is rejected for almost any nonpaper alternative,” Paul continues.

Ron Paul’s doomsday view could complicate his son’s bid for the GOP nomination as Rand Paul looks to run a more mainstream campaign than did his father, who lost three separate bids for the presidency before leaving Congress and becoming a source of investment advice for apocalyptic thinkers.

“This is the second most interesting father-son psychodrama in the presidential race,” Washington Post political reporter Karen Tumulty told Yahoo News last month. “On one hand, [Rand Paul] wants to draw distinctions [with Ron Paul], but on the other hand, tap into that energy his father was able to build.”

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The minute-long spots direct listeners to a website that includes a 54-minute infomercial-style video produced by Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, a conservative investment advice newsletter.

“Dr. Ron Paul strongly believes when the next crisis hits, there will be no warning, and the government won’t save you,” a voice-over says. “Go online to www.ronpaulwarning6.com, where you’ll learn simple steps you can take to protect your retirement.”

In the video, billed as an exclusive interview with the 12-term former congressman, Paul says the pending crisis will be “worse than our Great Depression.”

“In short, I believe that we as a nation are on the brink of a massive financial crisis infinitely worse than the crisis of 2008,” he says. “And that’s because it won’t be a banking and mortgage problem but a full-blown currency crisis the likes of which we’ve never experienced in this country. The savings of millions of people could be wiped out overnight. The stock market could crash by 50 percent or more. The way of life we’ve enjoyed as Americans for over 50 years could come to an end. It’s not a question of if this will happen, but when.”

The former Libertarian presidential candidate says that as a result of the inevitable currency crisis, “the middle class gets wiped out, the way you work, live, retire in America — everything is going to change.”

But “the real killer,” Paul says, “will be the effect of all this on our society and on our liberties.”

Ron Paul also appears in a similar, Stansberry-produced video carrying the same message.

“People won’t have any clue what to do when there’s a line around the block just to access the ATM,” he says. “I think we’ll see problems in the big cities especially — in fact, we’re already seeing the beginnings of that: Ferguson, the riots in New York and Detroit.”

The informercial eventually offers viewers a $49.50 Stansberry hard-copy “Survival Blueprint” that includes, among other tips, “the strategy that can save you and your neighborhood,” “how to quickly open a foreign bank account” and “the secret ‘paper currency’ used by the world’s wealthiest people.”



Those who try to leave the website are even prompted with a pop-up warning: “Please: Don’t wait until it’s too late.”