Ron Paul: 50% stock market plunge ‘conceivable,’ but it’s not President Trump’s fault – CNBC

Posted: August 20, 2017 at 5:47 pm

Ron Paul's sell-off prediction just got more severe.

The former Republican Congressman from Texas believes escalating dysfunction in Washington will create even more pain for Wall Street.

"A 50 percent pullback is conceivable," Paul said on "Futures Now" recently. "I don't believe it's ten years off. I don't even believe it's a year off. "

According to his calculations, it would cut the S&P 500 Index in half, to 1212, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average would collapse to 10,837.

Paul noted that there's a lot of chaos in Washington right now, with an "unpredictable president" and those who are inclined to "tear him apart" but if the market takes that big of a tumble, he doesn't see it as Trump's fault.

"It's all man-made. It's not the fault of Donald Trump in the last week. If the market crashes tomorrow and we have a great depression, he didn't do it in six months. It took more like six or ten years to cause all these problems that we're facing," he said.

What's more, it would come at the expense of businesses who are counting on reforms such as tax cuts and fewer regulations, according to Paul.

Paul, who is also known for his presidential runs, originally made his case for a somewhat more benign 25 percent downturn on June 29 on "Futures Now." He argued Wall Street is overestimating the strength of the economy, and the Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low for too long. He said the situation for stocks could turn ugly as soon as October.

Stocks will try to bounce back on Monday from multiple losing weeks in a row. The Nasdaq just saw its fourth consecutive week of losses. Meanwhile, the Dow & S&P 500's losing streak now sits at two weeks.

If Paul's vision is right, the damage is bound to worsen.

"I see the foundation of our system built on sand, and a big wind comes along to blow it down," Paul said.

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Ron Paul: 50% stock market plunge 'conceivable,' but it's not President Trump's fault - CNBC

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