There has been much discussion recently about the growing cost of running to be President of the United States, according to Will Bancroft, who is Co-Founder of The Real Asset Company, a market place for individuals to invest in gold, silver and precious metals.
The Presidency has been described as the ultimate recession proof commodity. Others might tell you it’s just the price to climb aboard and loot the good ship America.
Whatever is true, the dollar cost of getting into the Oval Office has been rising at a stunning pace, and this is no new phenomenon. Interestingly though, the cost in gold ounces of running for office has not been rising nearly so fast.
Today it requires a block of dollar bills 40 feet by 50 feet by 31.25 feet to run for office, or a bit more than a cubic metre of gold bullion (118.37 cm by 118.37 cm).
The dollar cost of running for President in 2012 was forecast to be $1.8bn by the Centre for Responsive Politics (a pretty good estimate given the eventual costs of $1.9bn). This is 77,186% higher than it was in 1908, which marks a cost increase of 10.53% every year for 104 years.
Compare this to the cost in gold ounces, which has risen by 861% over this time, a yearly rise of 5.44%.
Planning on running for office? Look to gold bullion
For much of the 20th and early 21st centuries the cost of running for President has been rising nearly twice as fast in greenbacks compared to gold ounces.
Don’t take our word for it, look at the chart below:
The yellow bars on the chart above, representing gold, consistently stand favourably shorter compared to the green bars, representing dollars.
You might argue the Republican Party is currently most favourable to gold, with Gold Commissions being touted and Congressman Ron Paul holding sway amongst their ranks, but the GOP doesn’t bank roll Presidential elections from a gold vault yet.
Perhaps American parties should buy gold for their future campaigning? Or even better, perhaps party fund raisers should get pally with the world’s largest gold miners and their owners?
If we were managing the long term running costs of a political party we’d be looking at some of the great names in gold mining for help. Think of the likes of Pierre Lassonde, Rob McEwen and Mark Bristow.
US elections certainly prove another example of just how much purchasing power the dollar has been losing since Nixon.