My love/hate relationship with Ron Paul

I have been following the republican primaries and initially I was going to vote for Obama in the next presidential election until I saw some of Ron Paul's stances on certain political topics. However he seems very polarizing to me and I'm still on the fence whether I can support him or not. On one hand, his stance on civil liberties, SOPA, NDAA, and social issues in general are exactly what we need right now but I have a few issues with his economic policies.

I love his passion to preserve civil liberties and his understanding of how the world actually works (which the rest of the republican nominees seem oblivious to). I am also support his stance of pulling foreign aid and stoping the wars. But I'm not here to discuss that, I am more interested about his other policies which are not mentioned as much so feel free to correct any of the following. From what I understand, he believes in getting rid of the federal reserve, getting rid of certain federal departments, and total economic deregulation so that the free market can 'correct itself'. I am all for returning the power to create currency back to congress, but I'm having issues stomaching total deregulation. One of the reasons we got into this financial mess was because the regulations that were put in place after the great depression were slowly taken away by congress. As a result, wall street was able to start reaping rewards until we fast forward to present day and they got bailed out for their failed gambles. I don't see more deregulation as the antidote to our financial crisis. I am of the firm belief that companies look for profits while the government should be there to protect its citizens not from only invasion, but from corrupt and twisted companies as well.

So here are a few questions and would really appreciate a good discussion on this. Is this what Ron Paul actually wants to do economically? If true, is this not a more extreme form of what the other republican candidates' stance on deregulation of the markets? Is anyone else on the same fence I am on?