Jim Rogers: Dollar Is Doomed, Own Real Assets (Video)

Yahoo Finance ^ | June 13, 2011 | Jeff Macke

[Hojczyk]

When it comes to the U.S. Dollar Jim Rogers is "incredibly pessimistic about the long term, or even the intermediate term future." He's also long the dollar and feels there are "plenty of reasons that the U.S. dollar could rally." How can he reconcile the two? Easy: he's a trader.

The legendary investor and author of multiple books on trading, global economics and even advice for his children isn't one to mince words nor hedge an opinion. He's both blunt and clear about his feeling that printing endless money will end in tears for the greenback. He just doesn't seem to see how such a view should screw up a long dollar trade.

"98% of the world is pessimistic on the U.S. dollar" says Rogers with a shrug when asked to flesh out the conundrum of being long an asset he thinks will end up being worthless. It's a trade, not a bullish theme. Of course, Rogers never made a trade he wouldn't exit and his long-position on the dollar is no exception. "If it goes down I'll have to sell it" he says, adding "if it goes up I'll probably sell it."

Rogers won't be hiding in the Euro any time soon either. He calls the prospect of Germany and other relatively disciplined EU nations being asked to bail out "ouzo-drinking Greeks" absurd on an economic and moral level. It's becoming increasingly expedient for non-PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) to pull the plug on bailouts. .

Where can a non-trader turn? Gold and hard commodities. Rogers regards both as a way to play Asian growth and avoid being stuck in dollars when the inevitable day of reckoning for the dollar arrives.

[RobRoy]

I'm not pessimistic on the dollar. I'm pessimistic on fiat currency in general. The dollar may rally against other currencies but it will tank along with other currencies against commodities.

Nations are all inflating their currencies.

[Peter from Rutland]

Yeah he’s hedging against it to drive it down while buying ‘em up.

V8 moment anyone?

[DManA]

Here’s what puzzles me about these guys. Currency is bad so he’s BUYING this, BUYING that. What’s he using to buy these things. Why does he still have cash to fund all these purchases?

[ClearCase_guy]

I enjoy listening to him talk. Smart man, very measured and careful. He know what he believes, he knows what he wants to say. I especially like how he can get halfway into a sentence, stop, and then provide a perfectly good clarification of what he meant to say 5 words ago.

Obama? Uhhhh ... he's ... uhhh ... let me be clear ... uh ... what I mean is ... uhhhhh ... he's not ... not so articulate.

[Ohioan]

Jimmie Rogers has forgotten more about markets, trends, cycles, etc., than most financial pundits have ever garnered.

He, also, unlike many of his contemporaries, understands human folly, the chief component in almost every human crisis.

William Flax

[stockpirate]

Is this for you to ping?

[choctaw man]

“Dollar Is Doomed”

The Annointed One will see to that.

[Nachum]

Definately pingworthy. Thanks for the heads up stockpirate

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[Ohioan]

Nations are all inflating their currencies.

But almost no one on a comparable scale to what is happening here, to fund unConstitutional programs, and in efforts to redistribute the wealth of productive Americans.

For a view on what this madness is doing to the prosepcts of the American middle-class:

Gold & Money In America, II.

What has been happening in this Century, in America, is tantamount to a total repudiation of the economic insights & intentions of the Founding Fathers, in framing our written Constitution. We have the tools to respond to all who will listen. We need to give this response the highest priority.

William Flax

[jjsheridan5]

I'm not pessimistic on the dollar. I'm pessimistic on fiat currency in general. The dollar may rally against other currencies but it will tank along with other currencies against commodities.

This is one of the things that make this such a difficult time to choose wisely. It is possible to make strong, convincing cases that a) we are headed for a deflationary collapse, and those who stay in cash (specifically the dollar) will be the only ones to stay above water; and b) the dollar will undergo significant weakening, possibly culminating in real abandonment of the dollar as a viable currency (real hyperinflation); meaning, of course, that those who stay in cash will be ruined.

And the exact path we take is disproportionally dependent on the individual actions of a small group of people, combined with the panicky actions of the political class. Meaning that predicting the proper action to take now seems almost impossible (except for the obvious stocking up and buying real assets that have low maintenance costs).

Personally, I believe that the dollar will strengthen, at least for the short term. It is only after all the bubbles collapse that we will see the dollar collapse.

[Chickensoup]

bump

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

In general, I respect Jim Rogers. But I will make one caution, and it relates both to him and to Buffet: They have much longer time frames than most investors can handle. Buffet has a 20-year horizon, a generational horizon. That is admirable in one respect. In between daytrading or swingtrading and a multi-decade approach, there are many durations of investment hold period. Any one of them is valid, any which way you can make money in the stock (or other) market is just fine by me. All I am saying is that while many try to mimic Buffet, they often fail to realize their own staying power.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[Fractal Trader]

I’ve read “Money of the Mind,” which was a very provocative book. As a prognosticator, however, he always seems to me to be another version of Dr. Doom or Mr. Gloom. You can always get a good track record of predicting reversals by only forecasting catastrophes. However, the overall record would be terrible.

I guess I would feel really pessimistic if someone who was a real optimist starts getting scared about the economy: “Larry Kudlow, can you hear me”?

[maine-iac7]

Food and land will be the ‘money’ -

And the meek shall inherit...