Jim Rogers warned about US government debt, de-dollarization, and multiple asset bubbles.
George Soros’ former business partner said stocks, bonds, and real estate are widely overvalued.
Rogers touted commodities as offering good value, and dismissed the idea of the BRICS bloc.
America’s debts have ballooned to dangerous highs, the US dollar’s dominance won’t last, and there are bubbles in stocks, bonds, and real estate across many countries, Jim Rogers has warned.
“The United States is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world,” Rogers said during a Nomad Capitalist Live 2023 interview that was filmed in early September and released on YouTube this month.
“No nation has ever been as deeply in debt as the US is, and that cannot be good,” he continued, adding that history shows “somebody’s going to suffer.”
Rogers is best known as George Soros’ former business partner, and the cofounder of Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. He laid out why de-dollarization appears inevitable, but the greenback probably won’t be usurped for some years yet.
“The era of the US dollar is coming to an end,” he said, asserting that no currency in history has remained dominant for more than 100 or 150 years. However, he argued the only real contender to the buck right now is the Chinese yuan, and it won’t overtake the dollar until China fully deregulates it and makes it universally accessible.
On a related note, Rogers dismissed the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc as “nothing more than a figment of somebody’s imagination.” He joked that someone on Wall Street probably looked at a world map and invented the grouping after visiting only one of the four countries. Rogers recognized the individual nations’ potential, but underscored that international alliances rarely last long.
The veteran investor also flagged that many popular assets around the world are overvalued, with one notable exception.
“Most stock markets are at or near all-time highs, which doesn’t turn me on,” he said. “Most bond markets are in a bubble — interest rates have been the lowest in recorded history in much of the world. Property in many places is a bubble.”
“The cheapest asset class I know are commodities,” Rogers said, noting that sugar and silver are still down sharply from their all-time highs. “These are not bubble numbers,” he added, emphasizing that he sees rich potential in assets like agricultural products and metals going forward.
Rogers, 80, has made several dire pronouncements in recent years. In May, he predicted the worst bear market of his life with “trouble” across stocks, bonds, real estate, and currencies. Last summer, he rang the alarm on US government debt and the dollar’s primacy, and cautioned that painful interest-rate hikes would be needed to bring down inflation.
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