Thursday, December 17, 2009

Jim Rogers

Legendary billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Jim Rogers gives his summary on asset classes in a CNBC interview. It is instructive to watch the whole video to the end.



Rogers is especially critical of Fed Chairman Bernanke, US Treasury Secretary Geithner, and President Obama for printing too many USDollars, and castigates central banks worldwide for turning on the printing presses.

The only disagreement I have is on owning certain foreign currencies. He suggested the Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, and Canadian Dollar. The Swiss Franc has traditionally been a stable currency due to their conservative monetary policies, but even Swiss banks have veered away from financial discipline, making bad real estate loans to the Baltic States and eastern Europe. Japan is in worse fiscal shape than the US, as their national debt has grown to monstrous levels relative to gross domestic product. On the other hand, the Canadian Dollar is a safe bet, as they are a resource-rich country which will benefit from the appreciation of hard assets (precious metals, rare earth metals, energy). The Brazilian real, Australian Dollar, and Norwegian Krona are other foreign currencies which should do well going forward, since they are creditor nations with sound fiscal policies and exporters of natural resources.

Disclosure: no position in foreign currencies, long gold and silver mining shares, long natural gas pipeline master limited partnerships.

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