Jim Rogers On The Coming Fiscal ‘Catastrophe’

Renowned investor Jim Rogers is still worried. As the U.S. heads for the fiscal cliff at the end of the year, the chairman of Rogers Holdings has been outspoken about the consequences of the country’s growing national debt. From his perch in Singapore, he still doesn’t see much reason for real optimism. Rogers rose to investing prominence after starting the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, generating an eye-popping and oft-cited return of 4,200 percent over a 10-year span that saw the S&P 500 climb less than 50 percent. Rogers “retired” as a multi-millionaire at age 37.

But he’s remained an active investor, world traveler, author and ubiquitous media presence. The self-styled “adventure capitalist,” who rode a motorcycle across China in the early 1990s – and biked more than 100,000 miles across six continents – moved from New York to Singapore in 2007. He created the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI) in the late 1990s. His name has become synonymous with investing in commodities andChina.

While some big-time money managers prefer to keep mum about their market views, Rogers has unabashedly offered his perspective – including to The Fiscal Times, which spoke with him  this week about the fiscal problems in the U.S. and Europe, the fears about a slowdown in China, why the long bull market in commodities isn’t over yet and why the world needs more farmers.

The Fiscal Times (TFT): You’ve said we’re heading for financial “Armageddon.” Why that dire?
Jim Rogers (JR): The United States is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. Our debts are skyrocketing every year and nobody’s doing anything about it. Every country in history that’s gotten into this situation has had a crisis or a semi-crisis, or both. In 2002 we had an economic slowdown, which was fairly serious, and then in 2007 and 2008 we had another one, which was worse because the debt was so, so, so much higher. The next time around the debt is going to be that much more catastrophic.

TFT: We are still hearing calls for another round of quantitative easing by the Fed. Bad idea?
JR: It’s an absurd idea. Printing money has never solved anyone’s problems. Maybe sometimes in the short term printing money has alleviated the situation, but anybody who has studied history or economics knows that printing money in the longer term doesn’t work. Maybe this time it’s different, but I doubt it.

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