Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said he’s been buying shares of Chinese companies even as growth in the world’s fourth-largest economy slows.

Rogers, 66, started buying Chinese shares in 1988 and is now favoring equities traded in Hong Kong and Singapore that are cheaper than yuan-denominated stocks in Shanghai. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks the city’s so- called H shares, climbed 1.4 percent today. The CSI 300 Index, which tracks shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen, lost 0.9 percent.

China is slowing but “some parts of the Chinese economy will be totally unaffected by what happens in the West,” Rogers said in an interview in Hong Kong today. “I started buying in October again. I never sold any Chinese shares.”

The global credit crisis has dragged the world’s largest economies into recession this year, hurting demand for Chinese products. China’s exports fell for the first time in seven years in November, imports plunged and output contracted by a record.

The People’s Bank of China has cut interest rates five times in three months to lend support to a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) spending package intended to revive in an economy that grew in the third quarter at the slowest pace in five years.

Hong Kong’s H-share Index plunged 51 percent this year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1994. The CSI 300, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares listed on China’s two exchanges, fell 66 percent in 2008, the second-worst performance in Asia this year after Vietnam’s benchmark index.

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Companies on the Hong Kong measure are valued at an average 10 times estimated profit, cheaper than the CSI 300’s 13 times.

Rogers, who correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999, has written books including “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market.”

The investor said he has been buying Chinese agricultural stocks amid government measures to bolster economic growth. Other industries he favors are infrastructure in China, water and tourism in Asia. He didn’t name any specific stocks.

Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled the 4 trillion yuan stimulus package last month, which included spending on roads and bridges. Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, pledged to promote economic growth, according to a speech posted on the central bank’s Web site today.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's best known investors, has said the world's publicly listed airlines may have reached a bottom after a prolonged struggle against high oil prices and the economic downturn.

Launching a new airline stock index with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Rogers said the volume of airline bankruptcies, lower capacity and falling oil prices could see more prominent carriers prosper.

"The airline industry has been a nightmare for several years now, with dozens of airlines going bankrupt ... That is often the sign of a bottom," he said in a statement.

"Capacity is shrinking at some airlines, while there will always be demand for seats. Many managements have now learned the lessons of the past decades," he added.

The Rogers Airlines Index will be composed of 20 global airline stocks.

(Source)⇒Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, the famous investor and author on commodities, said on Thursday the credit crisis has not killed the bull market in commodities as many imagined, but just dealt it a "horrible setback".

"In 1987, we had a horrible decline in the stock market. Do you think that was the end of that bull market?" Rogers asked a panel of journalists at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit in New York.

"Remember: Commodities are essentially based on supply and demand. Now, you have demand declining but at the same time you have supply going down even more. So, we are going to have higher prices, eventually," said Rogers, who is also founder of the Rogers International Commodity Index .

The World Bank predicted in a report this week that the commodities boom of the last few years had "come to an end", and that prices of oil to agriculture will not see the record peaks of this July for at least another three years.

Some market participants say the credit crisis has also exposed the flaw in long-only commodities investing advocated by indexes like Rogers' -- where investors are advised to maintain bullish positions in energy, metals and agriculture futures, regardless of market turns, in order to profit.

The Rogers' index is down almost 40 percent on the year, after posting a 30 percent gain till July. Many of its rivals have suffered similarly, leading to suggestions that investors may be better off with strategies that allow them to also "short" - or go bearish on -- commodities when needed.

Rogers said his success as an investor came almost entirely from finding "cheap" investments and holding them for years, if not decades.

"What you do in times like these is you find and buy the things where fundamentals are unimpaired. The only thing good I know where the fundamentals are unimpaired or where they have actually improved are commodities."

"Farmers are not getting loans to buy fertilizer now. Nobody can get a loan for a zinc mine now. All the mines are either closing and the ones still in production are using their reserves. Nobody can make new oil discoveries because prices are so low."

Rogers likened the correction in commodities to the sell-offs that stocks had seen since the 1987 crash. "There were some horrible setbacks along the way. I see this as just one of those horrible setbacks."

U.S. crude oil jumped more than 10 percent to settle at $47.98 a barrel Thursday after the head of producer group OPEC called for "severe" output cuts and non-OPEC member Russia said it may help contribute to the reduction.

Rogers said it could take longer than OPEC expected for crude to return above the $70 level desired by producers.

"It can sell below the cost of production for two or three years. This is not the first time in history that it has sold below the cost of production.

But Rogers, who bought oil for the first time in 10 years last week as prices were more than $100 a barrel below July's record, admitted he was a "horrible market timer".

"The fact that this has only happened in eight or nine times in the last 150 years and the fact that it's historic does not make it any more fun," he said.

(Source)⇒Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded.

Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital.

Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the Sept 15 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK). Some of the funds are being used for acquisitions.

"Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt," said Rogers, who is now a private investor.

"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics."

Rogers said he shorted shares of Fannie Mae (FNM.P) and Freddie Mac (FRE.P) before the government nationalized the mortgage financiers in September, a week before Lehman failed.

Now a specialist in commodities, Rogers said he has used the recent rally in the U.S. dollar as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets.

While not saying how long the U.S. economic recession will last, he said conditions could ultimately mirror those of Japan in the 1990s. "The way things are going, we're going to have a lost decade too, just like the 1970s," he said.

Goldman Sachs & Co analysts this week estimated that banks worldwide have suffered $850 billion of credit-related losses and writedowns since the global credit crisis began last year.

But Rogers said sound U.S. lenders remain. He said these could include banks that don't make or hold subprime mortgages, or which have high ratios of deposits to equity, "all the classic old ratios that most banks in America forgot or started ignoring because they were too old-fashioned."

Many analysts cite Lehman's Sept 15 bankruptcy as a trigger for the recent cratering in the economy and stock markets.

Rogers called that idea "laughable," noting that banks have been failing for hundreds of years. And yet, he said policymakers aren't doing enough to prevent another Lehman.

"Governments are making mistakes," he said. "They're saying to all the banks, you don't have to tell us your situation. You can continue to use your balance sheet that is phony.... All these guys are bankrupt, they're still worrying about their bonuses, they're still trying to pay their dividends, and the whole system is weakened."

Rogers said is investing in growth areas in China and Taiwan, in such areas as water treatment and agriculture, and recently bought positions in energy and agriculture indexes.

(Source)⇒Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned commodities investor Jim Rogers said on Thursday that he bought oil last week as crude prices collapsed to near four-year lows and that the world is running out of known oil reserves.

Rogers told the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York that he also closed his bets against the U.S. stock market in October, and plans to use the dollar's rally as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets.

Rogers, who spoke via a conference call from Miami, said he is the world's worst market timer and a horrible short-term trader, but a sharp sell-off in oil prices suggested a bottom.

"Oil collapsed last week. Whenever you've had that sort of selling climax throughout any period in history, you are usually well-rewarded to buy it. It may not be the final bottom, but a bottom, so I'm buying oil again," he said.

Rogers, who remains bullish on commodities, estimated known world oil reserves at today's consumption rate are about 16 years, which indicates crude prices will again trend higher.

"We're going to see $200 oil at some point, it may be by 2013. It's a sad fact but the world is running out of known oil," he said.

Many of Rogers's investments reflect a bearish view of the U.S. economy, which he said is poised to enter a period of stagnation, just as Japan suffered during its "lost decade" in the 1990s.

Rogers rose to fame in the investment world as co-founder with George Soros the Quantum Fund in 1970. The fund returned 4,200 percent over the next decade, compared with a 50 percent gain in the S&P 500 index.

"We have unbelievable mistakes every week coming out of Washington, just as Japan did in the 1990s, just as America did in the 1930s," he said. "This could turn into a gigantic mess."

Rogers attributed his grim outlook to worries about the size of the U.S. government's growing deficit and the unwillingness on the part of authorities to let banks fail. He said he expected the U.S. economy to be in bad shape for a considerable time.

"I am most worried about the United States and what's going on," said Rogers, who said he is proud to be American but he has serious doubts about the country's future.

Rogers also said he covered most of his bets that the U.S. stock market would decline in October, when "that too felt like a selling climax," he said.

He also said he plans to get out of U.S. securities he's owned for more than two decades if there is a rally soon.

"The market will probably rally for a while into January or March, and then we'll have more problems next year and perhaps into 2010," he said.

"I plan to get out of all of my U.S. dollars at some time throughout this rally. The dollar is a terribly flawed currency, and perhaps a doomed currency," he said.

Rogers said that he is investing on growth areas in China and Taiwan, such as shares in water treatment, tourism and agriculture.

He is bullish on Asia because the region has savers and thus creditor nations.

"This is where the money is, and throughout history the world has moved to where the money is," he said.

"To me it's incomprehensible that people would lend to the United States government for 30 years at 3 or 4 percent," he added.

Rogers sold his New York mansion in December and has been living in Singapore. He is long-term bull on China, where he first traveled on motorcycle in the early 1980s. He again traveled on motorcycle through China and six continents a decade later, a trip that formed his book "Investment Biker."

(Source)⇒Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investor Jim Rogers said on Thursday he has been using the sharp rally in the U.S. dollar as an opportunity to exit assets denominated in the U.S. currency.

Rogers told the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit 2009 in New York that the rally -- which has pushed the greenback up about 20 percent since July -- is a reversal of a "gigantic short position" accumulated over several years and not a result of a fundamental bet. He added the U.S. currency is likely to weaken sharply again.

"I plan to get out of all of my U.S. dollars at some time throughout this rally," he said. "The dollar is a terribly flawed currency, and perhaps a doomed currency."

"I've driven around the world looking for a sound currency. There aren't any.... but the yen is the only thing that's going to go up for a while," he added.

Rogers, who spoke via a conference call from Miami, also noted that economies and currencies in regions such as Central Europe and Russia are particularly vulnerable.

On Thursday, the Russian central bank allowed the fifth one percent devaluation in the rouble against the dollar/euro basket in a month as data showed a $17.9 billion drop in gold and foreign exchange reserves last week.

"Russia is a disaster that is spiraling down to a catastrophe. I wouldn't put a penny of my money into Russia right now," he said.

Rogers said he expects the economic situation to deteriorate not only in Russia but in Central Europe, which in turn may weigh further on the euro zone.

"Central Europe is a giant fiasco -- hundreds of billions of dollars were floated using the Swiss franc and Japanese yen because rates were so low -- You've got some huge huge problems coming out," he said. "Banks there aren't writing them down yet."

(Source)⇒Reuters

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The fundamentals of commodities are “unimpaired” and prices will rebound when a lack of new supply leads to shortages, said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.

“Commodities will be the place to be if and when we come out of” the downturn, Rogers said yesterday in an interview from Miami. “The only thing where fundamentals are unimpaired are commodities. Farmers cannot get loans for fertilizer now. Nobody can get a loan to open a zinc mine. So we are going to have some serious, serious supply problems before too much longer.”

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities has plunged 53 percent from a record in July on concern that a global recession will sap demand for raw materials. The index almost doubled between its low in 2001 and the end of last year.

Rogers said crude oil and agricultural commodities were the most likely to have shortages and the outlook for zinc and cotton had “improved.” “I haven’t sold any commodities since the bull market began,” he said.

“I own some gold and if gold goes down I’ll buy some more and if gold goes up I’ll buy some more,” Rogers said. “Gold during the course of the bull market, which has several more years to go, will go much higher.”

Gold for immediate delivery has tripled since its low in 2001. It’s still 25 percent below the record $1,032.70 an ounce reached in March.

‘Unfathomable’

Rogers also said that while he owned platinum through index investments, “I’m not buying platinum at the moment.”

Platinum, used mostly in jewelry and catalytic converters for cars, has plunged 64 percent since reaching an all-time high of $2,301.50 an ounce in March.

Central banks and President-elect Barack Obama should be careful in responding to the global economic slump, Rogers said.

“It is astonishing how bad they’re reacting this time. It is unfathomable to me what they’re doing and you think some of them would have read some history,” he said.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Commodities are one of the only viable investment opportunities left and are set to rebound as demand problems take hold, while the outlook for the dollar is bleak, famed investor Jim Rogers said Friday.

The dollar's days as the world's reserve currency are numbered, Rogers said at the World Money Show conference in London.

The greenback faces serious devaluation as spiraling national debt and a worsening economic crisis undermine it, he said.

America's growing debt problem is "out of control" and Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke's strategy of printing money is a "terrible policy," he said.

Bernanke "does not understand economics, he does not understand markets … he is going to run those printing presses until we run out of trees," he added.

Commodities 'Through the Roof'

Despite the recent massive declines in oil and other commodities, the asset class is in a bull market caused by ever tightening supply, according to Rogers.

“When supply goes down and demand goes up, that’s a bull market," Rogers said.

"By the time we get to the end of this bull market, commodities will be going through the roof," he said.

"The only place I know where the fundamentals are unimpaired is commodities," he added.

Nearly every oil-producing country has declining reserves, Rogers said. Rogers highlighted Africa as being a key continent for oil exploration going forward. He also speculated that a commodities bull run could last until 2020.

Rogers warned investors against putting money into bonds, saying that would be a "terrible place to invest for a long time to come."

"Stocks at best are going to continue in a big trading range," he added.

The dollar is going to have "serious problems down the road," Rogers said, adding that he is using dollar rallies as opportunities to get out of the currency.

(Source)⇒CNBC

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The tumble in global equities may worsen because valuations are still too high, and bonds will be a ``terrible'' investment as economic problems persist until 2010, investor Jim Rogers said.

Stocks in the U.S. and Europe ``are still expensive on any historic valuation method,'' the chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings told a Seoul conference today. ``We may be hitting `a' bottom. I don't know if it's `the' bottom.''

More than $28 trillion has been erased from global equity markets as credit losses and writedowns climbed to $690 billion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The U.S. has announced a $700 billion bank bailout, while China on Nov. 9 pledged 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) to bolster its economy.

Rogers's purchases since mid-October include commodities and equities in China and Taiwan, as well as ``a Korea stock,'' he said, without giving details. He still favors commodities as an investment as fundamentals are ``unimpaired'' amid a global liquidation of assets, he said.

China's stimulus package is ``certainly going to have an effect on some industries,'' including the electricity and water industries, though others remain vulnerable to developments in the U.S., Rogers said.

Worst Performer

``Some parts of the Chinese economy are going to be badly affected by the Western recession and some parts are going to do well,'' he said. ``The problem of course is that part of the Chinese economy is tied to the West.''

China's benchmark stock index, the CSI 300, has slumped 67 percent this year, making it Asia's worst performer. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index of 30 leading U.S. companies has lost 35 percent.

An MSCI index of developed- and emerging-market stocks has lost 44 percent so far this year, compared with a 30 percent decline in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities.

``You will see that stocks have gone down more so far than commodities. That will continue as far as I'm concerned,'' he said. ``I have started going back into the markets; that does not means it's the bottom.''

Rogers, 66, correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999. His books include ``Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Investment Profitably in the World's Best Market'' and ``A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market.''

``Bonds are going to be a terrible place to be for the next 10, 20 years,'' Rogers said, because governments around the world will be issuing great amounts of debt to back up their expanded spending. Inflation will accelerate because of increased money supply, he said.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

The fundamentals for commodities were not affected by government policies that are propagating inflation, Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Wednesday.

"I bought more agriculture this week," Rogers told "Squawk Box Europe." "What's happening is that there will be less supply of everything if we ever come out of (the credit crunch). Nobody can get a loan for a zinc mine or, long term, increase crop production."

If history is any guide, things to buy are things that are doing fine right now like water treatment companies in Asia or agriculture, Rogers added.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should resign for keeping alive "zombie banks" that should be allowed to fail, he said.

The Japanese government refused to let financial institutions fail in the 1990s, Rogers said.

"It's 18 years later and their stock market is 75 or 80 percent below what it was 18 years ago," he added.

Rogers also said that interest-rate cuts are coming.

"I know we are going to get aggressive rate cuts everywhere, that's why I'm long short-term government bonds in the U.S., but shorting long-term government bonds because it's not going to help, it's going to add to inflation," he said.

(Source)⇒CNBC

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Investor Jim Rogers bought gold coins in Frankfurt last week, added more agriculture commodities today and is considering industrial metals and crude oil.

``Agriculture is cheap,'' Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, told reporters at an ETF Securities Ltd. meeting in London today. ``The fundamentals for most commodities are not impaired.''

The 19 commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index have dropped 21 percent this year as falling equities, reduced lending and slumps in manufacturing and construction trimmed demand. Copper is down 47 percent from a record in July.

``We're in this period of forced liquidation,'' Rogers said. ``This bull market in commodities is here because of supply and demand.''

``Excessive'' amounts of cash added to the banking system have ``always led to rising prices,'' Rogers said. The Federal Reserve rescued American International Group Inc. with an $85 billion loan last month, the U.K. last week announced plans to spend 37 billion pounds ($63.4 billion) on Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HBOS Plc and Lloyds TSB Group Plc and ING Groep today got a 10 billion-euro ($13.3 billion) lifeline from the Netherlands.

Commodities had gained for six years before 2008 as underinvestment in refineries, mines and land sent prices for oil, gold and wheat to records earlier this year. Oil has dropped 50 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel in July as tightening credit choked demand.

``Farmers cannot get sufficient loans to plant their crops at the moment even though they've been farmers for decades,'' Rogers said. ``Nobody can get a loan to open a zinc mine. People cannot get loans for their inventory which is part of the forced liquidation. So all of this also means even less supply.''

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investor and author Jim Rogers, one of the earliest to predict the boom in commodities of the last few years, said Friday that he recently bought agricultural commodities despite the sharp fall in prices.

"I've been buying agricultural commodities. I bought some a couple of days ago. It's down today. It did not matter, I bought them. I covered shorts yesterday," Rogers said on CNBC.

Rogers told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that the financial markets are in a liquidation phase. "Commodities are only thing that I can see that will not be impaired."

(Source)⇒Reuters

Markets do not trust the governments' plans to keep struggling banks alive and investors will only calm down when the companies with bad assets are allowed to go bankrupt, legendary investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC on Friday.

"The way to solve this problem is to let people go bankrupt," Rogers said.

"Then you will hit bottom and then you start over. The people who are sound will take over the assets from the people who aren't sound and we will start over. This is the way the world has worked for a few thousand years."

The current rescue plans, which will force governments to issue more debt, print money and flood the markets with liquidity, will flare up inflation after the crisis is over and will create worse problems, Rogers warned.

"We're setting the stage for when we come out of this of a massive inflation holocaust," he said.

And the plans are unlikely to fend off a severe economic downturn, as the crisis starts affecting all walks of life.

"We had the worst excesses we had in credit markets in world history. We're going to have to take some pain," Rogers said.

"Many people bought 4-5 houses with no money down and no job… you think we'll just say well, that's too bad, we'll start over and nobody loses their job? Be realistic."

People should not look to the upcoming G7 meeting with the hope that the leaders of the strongest economies will find a solution.

"What they (G7 leaders) need to do is go down the bar and leave the rest of us alone," Rogers said.

Economies who did not take part in the subprime bonanza are likely to suffer along with Wall Street and the developed economies as the crisis unfolds, he warned.

"What about all the people in countries that minded their manners, saved their money, didn't get overextended and now all of a sudden they're being asked to bail out a bunch of guys on Wall Street who were incompetent at best and some of them crooks?"

"I thought it outrageous that anybody has to step in a bail out a bunch of 29 year olds driving Maseratis," he said.

There are not many safe havens in the volatile markets, he said.

"I have an enormous amount of cash and I've been using it to buy more Japanese yen, more Swiss Francs, more agricultural products… there's a liquidation phase going on, where everything is being liquidated. They're selling everything in sight."

"In a period like this the way you make money coming out of it is to own the things were the fundamentals have not been impaired," Rogers added.

(Source)⇒CNBC

The $700 billion bailout package that Congress is scrambling to pass will only prolong economic woes, legendary investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC on Wednesday.

"History shows these plans don't work. What does work is to let the market clean itself out," Rogers told "Worldwide Exchange".

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, like his predecessor Alan Greenspan and together with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have been intervening in the markets and preventing them from acting naturally, he added.

"Capitalism is where the market does its work. These guys, for the last 8 to10 years, have refused to let the market do its work to clean itself out," Rogers said.

Bernanke and Paulson, have been "dead wrong" for the past two years for telling the public that overall the US economy was fine, "why would anybody listen to them?," he added.

Rogers cited the examples of Russia and South Korea, both marred by crises toward the end of the 1990s, and which afterwards enjoyed years of rapid growth.

"You let things collapse…and you have a clean growth afterwards," he said.

Rogers said he was back into buying Chinese shares over the past weeks as the country's monetary policy had started to loosen up, and that commodities offered better returns than stocks.

(Source)⇒CNBC

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg's Catherine Yang about the outlook for commodity prices and his investment strategy for the currencies market.(Source: Bloomberg)

(This is not a legal transcript of the interview. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.)

CATHERINE YANG, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Jim, OPEC's President now calling on the members to match output to set quotas, so it looks like there's a compliance problem here.

JIM ROGERS, CHAIRMAN, ROGERS HOLDINGS: I wouldn't pay too much attention to OPEC, they don't control the market. They - I mean I know journalists have to report them, but they don't listen to each other, the rest of the market doesn't listen to them, I wouldn't pay much attention to them if I were you.

YANG: So what should we listen to because commodity prices have been falling in the second half of this year and it's not really comforting.

ROGERS: Well commodity prices are going down. They're going down quite a lot as a matter of fact. That's what happens in markets though, Cathy, you know that better than most people.

You know oil - the bull market started in 1999 three times in the last nine years oil has gone down 40 percent or 50 percent and all the skeptics said, "See, we told you it wasn't a bull market," and every time it came back up and kept going higher.

Oil can go down 50 percent again, that's not a projection, I'm just explaining that's how markets work. There's nothing to stop oil from going to $75, but it's not the end of the bull market because nobody's discovering any oil.

YANG: Yea, but it makes us think the commodities boom that we've seen is over because of global recession settling in.

ROGERS: Well, global recession could certainly have an effect on demand, but if you are suggesting the global recession is going to last forever, I'd rather own commodities than I'd rather own stocks because stocks are going to go down a whole lot, Cathy, in that kind of environment. You should be long commodities and short stocks if we're going to have a never ending world-wide recession.

YANG: So what are you saying, that the bull market is still intact ten to fifteen years from now?

ROGERS: Bull market for commodities, absolutely. Nobody's discovering any oil. I mean short of world-wide collapse, a perpetual world-wide collapse. But even then, as I said, I'd rather own commodities. Hell, I'd much rather own commodities than just about anything.

YANG: What would you own?

ROGERS: And I do own commodities as you know. Well, every time I buy one these days it goes down, everything's collapsing all over the world. You know that very well.

About the only thing that's not going down these days, and where you're not making money is the shorts. I'm making money on my shorts, but I'm not making money on my - on the airlines I'm actually making money believe it or not. But most things are collapsing, as you know.

YANG: They are. So give us an idea. What are you investing in at this point in time?

ROGERS: Well, I told you last time I was here about airlines. I've been buying airlines for - for the summer, for a while now. Airlines. renminbi, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, some of them are working, some aren't. It's better to be on the short side right now, Kathy, than on the long side.

YANG: Does that mean that you still don't believe in the dollar recovery? You just mentioned a couple of Asian currencies there.

ROGERS: I'm still short all the investments - I'm short all the investment banks -

ROGERS: I'm sorry, you spoke over me, I didn't hear you.

YANG: The - the dollar recovery, you still believe that it isn't intact, because you mentioned a couple of Asian currencies there that you are pretty bullish about?

ROGERS: Right. No, the dollar recovery is certainly taking place and it has a ways to go, maybe a few weeks, a few months. I don't know, maybe another year or so that the dollar could recover because it was beaten down so much.

I'm buying the currencies which have been the victims of the carry trade on the assumption that the carry trade will end some day and when it does the yen and the Swiss franc or the main victims will go up for awhile.

But the dollar recovery, I still plan to get out of my dollars sometime during this recovery, but I have no idea how long the recovery will last.

YANG: But what about the commodity-linked currencies, like the Aussie and the Kiwi, the Aussie dropping below eighty today, the first time that this has happened since August of last year?

ROGERS: Well, that's partly because the carry trade is unwinding. Remember, most of those Japanese who bought - who sold the yen and drove it down and then turned around and bought high yielding currencies in the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar were two of the main beneficiaries of the carry trade.

Now as the carry trade unwinds, those currencies will be hit for a while and hopefully the yen and the Swiss franc will go up for a while. But I still own the Australian dollar, I - I saw - I mean I've planned for all this to happen.

I'm not thinking about selling it because if I'm right this reverse of the carry trade will not last forever, it'll just last for a while. Australian, New Zealand currencies are still two of the better currencies in the world longer term.

YANG: But how much better when it comes to the Chinese yuan and the Singapore dollar when you compare them?

ROGERS: Well, I'd rather own the renminbi than just about anything. The Chinese government is trying to make it go down for a while and they will probably be successful, but the renminbi is one of the better investments one can make and the Singapore dollar as well.

The Singapore dollar is something else I own. I'm not buying it at the moment because, as I said, I'm focusing on these other currencies that are - have been victims of the carry trade.

But basically I'm waiting for the dollar to continue to rally, so I can sell dollars.

YANG: Well, it's good to talk to you, Jim. Thank you so much for those. Do appreciate it. Jim Rogers of Rogers Holdings in Singapore.

***END OF TRANSCRIPT***

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, the head of Rogers Holdings who correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999, talks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu from Singapore about Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s third- quarter loss, the outlook for investment banks and the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Source: Bloomberg)

(This is not a legal transcript of the interview. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.)

BETTY LIU, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Joining us by phone from Singapore to talk more about Lehman, and, of course, Fannie and Freddie and the economy, is Jim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings. Jim, great to have you back on the program, as always.

JIM ROGERS, CHAIRMAN, ROGERS HOLDINGS: I am delighted to be here, Betty.

LIU: You know, Jim, got to get your reaction to the Lehman news. Of course, you've been short financials. You've called all the guys on Wall Street crooks. What do you think about the Lehman news today?

ROGERS: I'm not sure I called them all crooks, did I? Did I go that far? I called a lot of them incompetents. And it's certainly unfortunate that they took a lot of money out of these companies. And now these companies are suffering very badly, and they expect other people, taxpayers, to bail them out.

I find that outrageous, as a matter of fact. They're not turning in their - they all have Maseratis. They're not turning in their Maseratis to - when they're asking us to bail them out. I find that outrageous, yes.

But what do I think about it? I am still short all the investment banks, Betty. I covered many investment banks. I'm short them through the ETFs. And this chaos has further to go.

LIU: Now should the - do you think Dick Fuld should resign? Should the brokerage be taken over? Should it be sold?

ROGERS: Well something's got to happen because essentially that balance sheet is in terrible, terrible trouble. They sold all this garbage. They kept a lot of this garbage. And somebody has failed in Lehman Brothers.

Usually the buck stops at the top. But I am not a shareholder of Lehman Brothers, so I cannot tell them what to do. But normally in most companies, and in most societies, when people do things wrong and fail, they resign and turn it over to somebody else.

LIU: Jim, we were talking before, and I've read some reports that of all the financials, you'd be short Citigroup. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, but why Citigroup?

ROGERS: Well I've covered Citigroup, so I'm no longer short it. But why Citigroup? Because it's the same thing. The place was a mess. They've got gigantic problems on their balance sheets, huge problems on their balance sheet, many more to come.

If the stock should rally, I'll short some more. But I'm not sure that now - and I covered a week, two weeks ago now. This is September, and I covered it a few weeks ago.

LIU: Oh really? Why did you do that?

ROGERS: Because it was down a lot. I've learned many times that when something goes down a lot, you probably ought to short it. That something often comes along and causes a rally, and then you wish you had shorted it. So rather than wish I had covered, I covered it.

LIU: Jim, does any of what's happened so far with Lehman, and with Fannie and with Freddie, does any of that give you confidence that we are somewhat near the end of this crisis, we're midway through? Does it give you any confidence that we're getting a grapple on the situation?

ROGERS: Betty, we're further along than we were. We're 15 months along. But Hank Paulson told us 18 months ago that everything was all right. He told us 12 months ago, nine months ago, six months ago, three months ago. And I'm sure three months from now he will tell us everything is all right.

But everything is not all right, Betty. Bernanke swore, under oath, under oath in 2006, that there was no housing problem, everything was fine in housing. And in every instance since then, he's told us everything is fine. But it's not okay.

The balance sheets of many of these financial institutions are still terribly impaired, and there are more problems to come.

Betty, we had the worst credit bubble we've had in world history. You don't clean that out in a year or two or three. I wish you could, but it's not going to happen.

LIU: Now you called the Fannie and Freddie bailout a disaster. What would you have liked to have seen happen with those two companies?

ROGERS: I would like to have seen them go bankrupt and be turned over to the bankruptcy courts and work out their bankruptcy, and work out their bonds, work out their debits and their credits. That's normally what happens.

But you know, these two companies have run up, apparently, $6 trillion in debt. And the people who ran up the debt, Betty, were not elected by anybody. They were incompetents and crooks. And yes, they were crooks. There's no question about that, some of them.

I don't know why Franklin Raines is not in jail. You see a lot of people in jail these days. What Franklin Raines and his cohorts did were worse than what anybody else has done. And they now have saddled the American taxpayers with $6 trillion, with a T, of debt.

LIU: Yes, but Jim, what about those who say that this is actually - this is going to help lower mortgage rates and help the housing market recover?

ROGERS: Well that's fine, Betty. Why do I have to pay for it? Why do you have to pay for it? Why do my children have to pay for it? You could do that too by letting the thing go bankrupt and starting over.

I don't - I'm happy that some people are going to get lower mortgages. But I don't think I should pay for it.

LIU: Jim, before we start talking about commodities, which, of course, is the favorite subjects to talk to you about, where do you think, Jim, the next big financial shock is going to come from?

ROGERS: Oh, probably more from some of the American banks, the American financial system. But, Betty, for all I know, it could come out of a European bank or an Asian bank. I don't know who has all this garbage. I know a lot of people do.

Some of the Europeans haven't written it off yet, and the Japanese, I would suspect it's going to come from a bank we haven't thought about yet. But there are more problems to come.

LIU: All right. Are you seeing - being in Singapore, are you seeing any of that start to creep up at all?

ROGERS: Well not in Singapore so much, just because the government here has been very disciplined and very harsh on these guys.

LIU: But I mean in Asia. In Asia, Jim.

ROGERS: Oh, well, you're certainly starting to see it in the Chinese banks. Some of the Chinese banks bought a lot of this stuff. The Taiwan banks bought a lot of this stuff. And you're going to see some of those problems come out.

One of the reasons that the Chinese government has been trying to tighten up is because they do know that there are some problems in their banking system.

So you may see more slowdown in China. The government's trying to slow things down. Hope they do, they need to. That, of course, is having an effect on the commodities market now, as you will point out, I'm sure.

But that's just a correction. There are corrections in any market. We always have corrections.

LIU: Well, that leads me, of course, to talk about commodities with you, and particularly oil, Jim. You've been a bull on commodities. We've seen oil come down about 30 percent from the peak. You're still a bull on oil. Why? Where do you see it going?

ROGERS: Betty, the oil bull market started in 1999. Three times since then oil prices have gone down 40 percent or 50 percent. And every time it happened, the skeptics always said, well see, we told you so. There's no bull market.

Well oil could go down 50 percent again. This is not a prediction, I'm just saying it could go down 50 percent. But it's not the end of the bull market. Betty, the bull market will not end until somebody finds a lot of oil, or unless we have worldwide economic collapse, perpetual economic collapse.

The bull market is not over. If oil goes to $75, which is down 50 percent, it's not the end of the bull market. That's the way markets work. They always have and they always will.

LIU: Well, Charlie -

ROGERS: I'm not predicting it's going to $75. I don't want you to start writing that. I'm just suggesting that it could. And it's not the end of the bull market.

LIU: Right. Well on the other side, though, we had a guest on, Charlie Maxwell, saying it could go to 300 in seven years. What do you think?

ROGERS: Well it certainly can. Now wait a minute. I'm suggesting to you the bull market is not over, even if it corrects and goes to 75.

The bull market is not over, Betty, until somebody discovers a lot of oil. Whether it's 150 or 250 or 300, I don't know. I'm not as smart as Charlie Maxwell. But I do know it's going to go a lot higher during the course of this bull market over the next decade.

LIU: Now, of course our viewers, Jim, know - they want to know where oil is going, let's say, by the end of this year. Where do you think? Do you think it's going to stay around this level for a while though?

ROGERS: Betty, you know I'm not smart enough to answer that question. I'm the world's worst market timer, the world's worst short-term trader. I wish I knew. I don't know if it's going to 75 or 175.

I will tell you I've not sold any oil. Even if it goes to 75, I don't plan to sell any oil. I plan to continue to invest in things that I think are cheap, including commodities and hopefully selling short things that I think are too expensive.

LIU: Now Jim, very quickly, we've only got about 10 seconds. Speaking of oil, you've bought into airlines. Are you still heavily in them? Have you bought more?

ROGERS: I have not sold a single airline. I would hope to be able to buy more airlines if I can find some more that are cheap enough, or if they go down for some reason.

LIU: And you're still short Treasuries, right?

ROGERS: I'm still short Treasuries. You asked right. Long term US Treasuries, you're right.

LIU: Okay, Jim.

ROGERS: You know more about - Betty, you know more about me than I do.

LIU: Well you know what? We keep tabs on you, Jim. All right, thanks so much for joining us, as always. Jim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings in Singapore.

***END OF TRANSCRIPT***

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. financials face more ``chaos'' as the credit market worsens, investor Jim Rogers predicted.

``Balance sheets of many of these financial institutions are still terribly impaired and there are more problems to come,'' he said during a Bloomberg Television interview. ``We had the worst credit bubble in the history of the world. You don't clean that out in a year or two or three.''

The chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings said he's still betting against U.S. investment banks, even after ending his short sale of Citigroup Inc. a few weeks ago because the bank's stock fell too low. Citigroup shares closed at $14.56 on July 15, the lowest since 1997. The largest U.S. bank by assets has rallied 25 percent since then.

Rogers also called the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ``outrageous'' and said the largest U.S. mortgage finance companies should have declared bankruptcy.

``I'm happy some people will be able to get lower mortgages, but I shouldn't have to pay for it,'' he said. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives aren't ``turning in their Maseratis when they're asking us to bail them out.''

Both companies dropped to less than $1 this week in New York Stock Exchange trading after regulators put them into a government-operated conservatorship, ousted their chief executive officers and scrapped dividends. U.S. financial stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 6.6 percent, the most since July, yesterday after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s talks to sell a stake to Korea Development Bank broke down. The group lost another 1.8 percent today for a year-to-date slump of 29 percent.

Rogers, who correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999, said he's still bullish on oil. The fuel has fallen 31 percent since its July 11 intraday record.

Short selling is the sale of stock borrowed from shareholders in the hope of profiting by buying the securities later at a lower price and returning them to the holder.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Australia and New Zealand dollars, the worst performers this quarter among the world's major currencies, will likely recover after the unwinding of the carry trade ends, said investor Jim Rogers.

``I still own the Australian dollar,'' Rogers told Bloomberg Television. ``I'm not thinking of selling it because if I'm right, the reversal of the carry trade is not going to last forever, it will last for a while. The Australia, New Zealand currencies are still two of the better currencies in the world longer term.''

The two currencies, favorites of so-called carry trades where investors get funds in a country with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher interest rates, have dropped as slumping commodity and equity prices slashed demand for the countries' high-yielding assets.

Australia has a benchmark interest rate of 7 percent, while New Zealand's official cash rate is at 8 percent. In comparison, the Japan's key borrowing cost is 0.5 percent.

The Australian dollar has fallen 18 percent in eight weeks since reaching a 25-year high on July 16 and fell below 80 U.S. cents today for the first time since August 2007. New Zealand's dollar is trading near a two-year low.

Rogers, who correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999, said he is buying ``main victims of the carry trade,'' such as the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. He also favors the Chinese yuan and the Singapore dollar, and expects the U.S. dollar to continue to strengthen.

Dollar's Rally

``I'm waiting for the dollar to continue to rally so I can sell dollars,'' Rogers said. ``The dollar recovery is certainly taking place and has ways to go -- a few weeks, a few months, maybe another year or so that the dollar could recover because it was beaten down so much.''

Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, said he is still optimistic that commodities such as oil will rise over the longer term. Crude prices have dropped 29 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

``It's not the end of the bull market because nobody's discovered any oil,'' he said. ``The global recession could have an effect on demand.''

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that the U.S. is "more communist than China right now" but its brand of socialism is meant only for the rich, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Europe on Monday.

"America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it's just bailing out financial institutions," Rogers said.

Stock markets jumped after the U.S. government's decision to launch what could be its biggest federal bailout ever, in a bid to support the housing market and ward off more global financial market turbulence.

But Rogers said in the long term the move spelled trouble.

"This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I'm not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this," Rogers told "Squawk Box Europe."

European stocks soared on Monday, led by banks. UBS was up 11 percent, BNP Paribas up 8 percent, Credit Agricole up 11.1 percent and HBOS up 13.8 percent.

"You certainly gonna see a huge jump in any financial institutions which owned a lot of Fannie [FNM 0.59 --- UNCH (0) ] or Freddie [FRE 0.58 -0.01 (-1.69%) ] … because they don't have to worry about going bankrupt all of a sudden," Rogers said.

"Bank stocks around the world are going through the roof, that's 'cause they've all been bailed out. You don't see the homeowners in Kansas going through the roof 'cause they're not being bailed out," he added.

"A Huge Mess"

However, despite the rally in Asian and European markets, the decision to take over Fannie and Freddie is likely to cause more volatility and needs careful consideration by investors, according to Rogers.

It's rarely good to jump in a moving bus and right now you got a lot of buses moving. I might short some more investment banks in the US, depending on how they rally over the next week, but other than that, I'll just sit and watch," he said.

Rogers, who is short on U.S. bonds, said these are likely to fall while commodities may rally. The two government-sponsored enterprises don't have good loans on their books, because "everybody else took the good stuff and dumped the bad stuff onto Fannie and Freddie," he said.

From 2010, Fannie and Freddie will have to shrink their portfolios by 10 percent a year until they reach $250 billion, to reduce the risk to the taxpayer, according to the Treasury plan. But this may put additional pressure on the housing market, Rogers said.

"That's going to also ensure that house prices continue to go down. It's going to be harder and harder to get a mortgage."

Investors should not pin their hopes on this year's presidential election for a solution to the problems, as none of the candidates is likely to find one, Rogers said.

"This is a big huge mess and neither one of them has a clue what to do next year. It's going to be a mess."

(Source)⇒CNBC

Neither of the two contenders for president understands the economy and they are likely to cause more problems than they would solve, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Jim Rogers holdings, told "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday.

"Neither one of these guys understands what's going on, they don't understand currency markets, economies, they don't understand the world," Rogers said. "Both of them are going to cause us more problems than they're going to solve."

Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama pledged to reverse the economic failures and blamed the Republicans for the poor shape of the U.S. economy in his speech on Thursday formally accepting to run for president for his party

But Rogers said this was unlikely.

"He's talking about spending a lot of money … I don't consider that very good, going deeper into debt. The United States is already the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. I'm not sure that that's going to solve anything," he said.

Republican presumptive candidate Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

'Bailing Out their Friends on Wall Street'

Deep changes are needed in the U.S. system and big Wall Street banks should not be rescued by the authorities when they run into trouble, to avoid moral hazard, Rogers told CNBC Europe.

"They're bailing out Wall Street, because all their friends are on Wall Street," he said. "When Ben Bernanke gets a phone call from the head Lehman, he takes the call, but if some poor school teacher in Oklahoma calls him, he doesn't take the call."

"He's dealing with his friends on Wall Street trying to save them when in fact he should let them fail. That would be the better solution, at least for 300 million Americans," Rogers added.

The economic stimulus package launched this year to try and fend off recession in the U.S. is unlikely to have positive consequences in the long term, despite a higher-than-forecast advance of gross domestic product in the second quarter, Rogers said.

Supporting troubled investment banks instead of letting them go bust prevents a cleansing of the economy while putting additional burdens on taxpayers, but neither of the two candidates is likely to stop this, he added.

"If you happen to be friends with whoever wins, sure, you're going to have a better time in the next four years. But the rest of us, the 300 million Americans, are going to be worse off in four years. In fact the world will be worse off," Rogers said.

(Source)⇒CNBC

The head of the European Central Bank should be running the Federal Reserve because he is doing a better job at protecting his economy, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet can be depended on to fight inflation, which is a worse evil than recession, Rogers told "Squawk Box Europe."

The economic stimulus packages announced in the U.S. and Japan this year will plunge the countries in a prolonged period of economic decline, because they will create inflation and will prevent the cleansing of the economies he said, adding "recessions are like forest fires."

"I'm afraid we're just extending things out and we, too, are going to have a lost decade," Rogers said. "We've been having investment bankers going bankrupt for a few hundred years. There are a lot of 29 years-old out there are driving Maseratis, let them turn in their Maseratis."

He reiterated that Fannie Mae [FNM 0.59 --- UNCH (0) ] and Freddie Mac [FRE 0.58 -0.01 (-1.69%) ] should not be bailed out by the government if they run into trouble, as a rescue would cost the taxpayers too much and would not solve the economy's problems.

Rogers doesn't hold positions in either Fannie or Freddie.

"Why should the 300 million Americans take on the $6 trillion of debt that Fannie and Freddie incurred?" he said. "Let them go bankrupt, we have bankruptcy courts, that's what they're for, they will reorganize and start over."

"I, as a taxpayer, and 300 million other taxpayers, should not be on the hook for these guys' mistakes," he added.

Despite his admiration for the ECB, Rogers said the euro zone was suffocating under the taxation burden and needed to boost fertility to avoid a demographic time bomb.

Rogers said he steers clear of the once-hot emerging markets -- with the exception of China and Taiwan -- has not sold commodities and has recently bought some agriculture stocks.

"Maybe in 20 years we will have 29-year old farmers driving Maseratis instead of 29–year-old investment bankers driving Maseratis," he said.

(Source)⇒CNBC

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly forecast the oil price would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said he expects oil to continue to increase over the next decade.

``Over the course of time, it's a bull market,'' the chairman of Rogers Holdings said today after an investor conference in Kuala Lumpur. While the oil price could fall to $75 or rise to $175, the market will continue to increase over the next 10 years, he said.

Crude oil futures have dropped 22 percent since touching $147.27 a barrel on July 11, the highest since trading began in 1983. Oil slid more than $6 a barrel yesterday, falling the most in percentage terms since December 2004, as the rising dollar curbed demand for commodities as an inflation hedge and BP Plc restored shipments on a Caspian Sea pipeline through the former Soviet republic of Georgia to Turkey.

Rogers said Aug. 21 in Bangkok that declines in commodity prices from record highs represented a temporary reversal in a bull market that will last for several years.

David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore, said the rise in the crude oil price ``was a recognition'' of the growing demand of emerging economies like China and India.

``Those countries will continue with their development process and continue to outpace global growth,'' he said.

Dollar Gains

Soybeans, copper, platinum and crude oil have dropped from all-time highs after a rally in the dollar curbed demand for raw materials as a hedge against inflation and concerns increased that economic growth will slow. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index plunged 10 percent in July, the biggest drop in 28 years.

Crude-oil futures for October delivery fell $6.59, or 5.4 percent, to $114.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Crude oil may rise next week because of a weakening dollar, rising tension between the U.S. and Russia, the world's second-biggest crude exporter after Saudi Arabia, and falling gasoline stockpiles.

Sixteen of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, or 55 percent, said prices will increase through Aug. 29. Seven of the respondents, or 24 percent, said oil will be little changed and six said there would be a drop in prices. Last week, 63 percent expected prices to increase.

`` I can certainly see crude continuing above $100 a barrel for the longer term,'' Cohen said. ``The fundamentals of supply and demand should be supportive'' of prices.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, comments on investment in commodities, stocks and currencies.

Rogers spoke in an interview in Bangkok before addressing an investor conference today.

On commodities:

``Until either a lot of supply comes on stream or the economy collapses, the bull market will continue.

``The bull market in oil, for instance, started in 1999. In those nine and a half years, oil has gone down 40 percent or 50 percent three times. Wasn't the end of the bull market. Just to make a correction. Scared a lot of people. Made skeptics believe that they were correct. But after consolidation, the bull market continued, and I suspect that would be the case for the next several years as well.''

On base metals:

``I haven't bought any for a while. They went up a lot a few years ago. But I have started to notice that they are down.

``I'm contemplating whether it's time to get involved with base metals again or not.''

On China's shares:

``If we get to a selling climax, I would be more optimistic that it's time to buy a lot of China again. And when you buy China, you may also be buying Taiwan and Hong Kong.

``Tourism, agriculture, education, infrastructure, power generation. These are some of the places that I think money would be made going forward.''

On currencies and the carry trade:

``I would like to buy a lot of renminbi. It's not that simple. You can't just go and buy renminbi the way you buy the euro, for instance. But I periodically buy more renminbi, yen, Swiss franc. Those are the currencies that I have been buying this year. They have been affected by the carry trade and I expect the carry trade will reverse some day.''

On the U.S. dollar:

``It's a terribly flawed currency. I don't know how long the dollar rally will last. But if it continues, somewhere along the line, I hope to use the rally to sell my dollars.''

On Australia and New Zealand dollars:

``I own the currencies. But I've said that I expect the carry trade to reverse. They have been major beneficiaries of the carry trade. They may get hurt if the carry trade reverses. If the carry trade reverses, they will suffer for a while. I am not selling mine. I don't even try to trade or to be a short-term investor as long as I'm optimistic about the future of raw materials and as long as those countries continue to be reasonably well managed, I will sit with my positions through any consolidation or correction.''

On Thailand:

``Thailand, for whatever reason, is going through this period of complications.

``I don't think I have missed anything, not investing in Thailand. But since I am here, I will pay a little more attention. International healthcare might be of interest.''

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said the fundamentals for commodities are ``astoundingly'' good.

The bull market for commodities ``has a long way to go,'' Rogers, 65, said today at an investor conference at the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The bull market may end by 2020 based on historical cycles, he said.

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index had its biggest monthly decline in 28 years in July reversing course after its best first half in 35 years. Agricultural commodities and crude oil may fuel the rally for five more years as global supplies won't increase fast enough to meet demand, Pinpoint Investment Advisor Ltd. said last month.

``We are going to have plenty of setbacks in commodities but when they happen please keep your heads about you, do some more homework, and if you decide that thing is still OK I would suggest you might think about buying more commodities,'' Rogers said today.

Prices for copper, gold, iron ore and coal all rose to records this year on increased demand for raw materials from China and India.

``By the time we come to the end of the bull market commodities are going to be skyrocketing, they are going to be going through the roof, everybody is going to be investing in commodities,'' Rogers said.

The CRB index slid 10 percent in July, the most in any month since March 1980, when the U.S. economy was in a recession. Following that month the index then rose 30 percent through to the end of November 1980, setting a high that wouldn't be matched for the next 25 years.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

Jim Rogers has a sector pick -- and a major pan: The CEO of Rogers Holdings told CNBC that the government should not bail out Fannie Mae [FNM 0.59 --- UNCH (0) ] or Freddie Mac [FRE 0.58 -0.01 (-1.69%) ], but should let them fail.

The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve said they would bolster Fannie and Freddie with vast infusions of aid. But Rogers believes that will only prolong economic weakness, increase the budget deficit -- and destroy the effectiveness of such rescue measures when they're really needed.

"In two years or three years, when six or eight other [institutions] are failing, America won't have any more bullets left," he said.

Rogers noted that he's "been short Fannie Mae since I came here three years ago or four years ago," adding that "I'm short lots of banks."

Recommendations:

So what does the investor like?

Rogers said he was investing in airlines, which have seen tough times due to soaring fuel costs -- and fears of further increases in oil prices.

"I am buying airlines. If you fly a lot, you'll see that you can't get a seat, the rates are going higher. The capacity is going down and the demand is still there," Rogers said.

Disclosures:

Disclosures information was not immediately available for Rogers or for his firm.

(Source)⇒CNBC

The Treasury and the Federal Reserve should not bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as this would increase the already gaping U.S. public debt, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told "Worldwide Exchange."

Asked if his remarks could be interpreted as trying to talk down the stock of the two companies, which have been plummeting recently, he said: "I've been short Fannie Mae since I came here three years ago or four years ago. This is bad for America, who cares if I make some money...I'm short lots of banks."

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on Sunday offered massive aid to bolster confidence in Fannie Mae [FNM 0.59 --- UNCH (0) ] and Freddie Mac [FRE 0.58 -0.01 (-1.69%) ] and head off a potential financial market meltdown, as the two finance around $5 trillion, or about half, of U.S. home loans. But investors' enthusiasm for the measures was short-lived.

"In two years or three years, when six or eight other people are failing, America won't have any more bullets left," Rogers said, adding that Sunday's move increased the burden of public debt and did not solve the root cause of the crisis. "The patient has cancer, Band Aids won't help."

Letting the two fail would throw the country in recession but would ensure that the system is cleansed, he added. "It would cause problems in the economy but we've got problems in the economy anyway."

Rogers said he was not investing in oil currently because the price was too high, but that new reserves have to be discovered quickly for the prices to come down.

He also said he was investing in airlines, whose stocks have recently been hammered by fears the fuel price would cut into their profits.

"I am buying airlines. If you fly a lot, you'll see that you can't get a seat, the rates are going higher. The capacity is going down and the demand is still there," Rogers said.

(Source)⇒CNBC

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department's plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an ``unmitigated disaster'' and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are ``basically insolvent,'' according to investor Jim Rogers.

Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Rogers is betting that Fannie Mae shares will keep tumbling.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Daniel Zimmerman said the mortgage finance companies' shares may fall another 35 percent and lowered his share-price estimate for Fannie Mae to $7 from $18 and for Freddie Mac to $5 from $17. Freddie Mac fell 64 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $7.11 in New York Stock Exchange trading, while Fannie Mae fell 52 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $9.73.

``I don't know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae,'' Rogers, 65, said in an interview from Singapore. ``So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more vulnerable and it increases inflation.''

The chairman of Rogers Holdings, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, also said the commodities bull market has a ``long way to go'' and advised buying agricultural commodities.

`Solvency Crisis'

Rogers, a former partner of hedge fund manager George Soros, predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999 and started buying Chinese stocks in the same year. He traveled the world by motorcycle and car in the 1990s researching investment ideas for his books, which include ``Adventure Capitalist'' and ``Hot Commodities.''

Billionaire investor Soros said today that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face a ``solvency crisis,'' not a liquidity one, and that their troubles won't be the last financial disruption, Reuters reported.

``This is a very serious financial crisis and it is the most serious financial crisis of our lifetime,'' Soros told Reuters in a telephone interview. ``It is an idle dream to think that you could have this kind of crisis without the real economy being affected.''

`Going Bankrupt'

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each surged more than 20 percent in pre-market trading today after Paulson moved to stem a collapse in confidence in the two companies that purchase or finance almost half of the $12 trillion in U.S. home loans.

Fannie Mae's market value is now about $10 billion, down from $38.9 billion at the end of 2007. Freddie Mac's market value has shrunk to about $5 billion from $22 billion at the end of last year.

``These companies were going to go bankrupt if they hadn't stepped in to do something, and they should've gone bankrupt with all of the mistakes they've made,'' Rogers said. ``What's going to happen when you Band-Aid and put some Band-Aids on it for another year or two or three? What's going to happen three years from now when the situation's much, much, much worse?''

Paulson's proposal, which the Treasury anticipates will be incorporated into an existing congressional bill and approved this week, signals a shift toward an explicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt.

The Federal Reserve separately authorized the firms to borrow directly from the central bank.

`The Right Thing'

Anyone who says the mortgage-finance companies should be left to fail is ``silly,'' hedge fund manager Barton Biggs said in an interview on Bloomberg Television from New York.

``Fannie and Freddie are way too big and way too big a part of the mortgage system and really the American way of life to say `Just let them go bankrupt,''' said Biggs, a former Morgan Stanley strategist who now runs the hedge fund Traxis Partners LLC. ``The Treasury, in my view, is doing the right thing.''

Washington-based Fannie Mae slid 45 percent last week, while McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac sank 47 percent on concern they may require a bailout that would wipe out shareholders.

Former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole last week said in an interview that Freddie Mac is technically insolvent under fair value accounting, which measure a company's net worth if it had to liquidate all its assets to repay liabilities. Poole said Fannie Mae may also become insolvent this quarter.

Rogers said he had not covered his so-called short positions in Fannie Mae and would increase his bet if it were to rally. Short sellers borrow stock and then sell it in an effort to profit by repurchasing the securities later at a lower price and returning them to the holder.

The U.S. economy is in a recession, possibly the worst since World War II, Rogers said.

``They're ruining what has been one of the greatest economies in the world,'' Rogers said. Bernanke and Paulson ``are bailing out their friends on Wall Street but there are 300 million Americans that are going to have to pay for this.''

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said investors should steer clear of the dollar as the U.S. economy slows and favor commodities this year.

The dollar has slipped 7.7 percent against the euro and 5.9 percent versus the yen in 2008 as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to stave off a U.S. recession. Oil prices have doubled in the past 12 months, while gold is up 44 percent.

Avoid the dollar ``at all costs,'' Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in a speech in Shanghai today. ``The best investments in 2008 are commodities and natural resources. Agricultural prices have much higher to go over the next decade. We have a shortage of everything, including seeds.''

Oil and metal prices in New York have surged as a slumping U.S. currency made them cheaper for non-dollar investors to buy as a hedge against inflation in a slowing global economy. The dollar has stabilized in recent weeks, with currency volatility falling by the most since 1999 this quarter.

The comments from Rogers, 65, come two days after he told investors at a conference in Nanjing not to ``give up'' on Chinese shares, which have made China the world's second worst performers this year. Rogers, who first started buying Chinese stocks in 1999, said he hadn't sold any of his holdings.

Commodity Bull

Investors failed to take heed today, as the benchmark CSI 300 Index extended an eight-month slump amid expectation government measures to slow inflation will hurt corporate profits. The gauge is down 53 percent from its Oct. 16 record and has dropped 23 percent in June. That would be the index's worst month since it was introduced in April 2005.

Rising food and fuel costs have helped to drive China's consumer prices to their highest in almost 12 years, prompting the central bank to lift interest rates six times last year and order banks to set aside a record amount in reserve to curb loan growth.

Speculation that the People's Bank of China would raise borrowing costs for the first time this year dragged the CSI 300 down by 5.5 percent on June 27.

Rogers, who now lives in Singapore, is best known for being a commodity bull since 1999, before the market started to rally in 2002. His Rogers International Commodity Index has more than quadrupled since it started in 1998.

The price of wheat, rice and soybeans reached records this year after adverse weather curbed global output and reduced stockpiles amid rising demand.

`Not High Enough'

Rogers is anticipating further gains in crude oil, which reached an all-time high of $142.99 a barrel on June 27. Futures were recently at $142.74.

``Crude oil prices are not high enough to stop people from consuming more energy,'' the investor said. ``The bull market will not go to an end until supply and demand come to a balance.''

His comments today echo the themes in his latest book ``A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market,'' in which he tells investors to get out of the dollar, teach their children Chinese and buy commodities.

Rogers said last October he planned to shift all his assets out of the dollar, which fell to a three-week low against the yen on June 27. He predicted last month that the U.S. currency's decline would pause in the second quarter because it was overdone.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, told investors not to ``give up'' on Chinese shares after the country's stock index fell almost 50 percent this year.

``Start buying when others say `never again','' Rogers, 65, said today at an investor conference in Nanjing. There is ``much money to be made'' from investments in Chinese stocks, he said.

China's CSI 300 Index has slumped 52 percent from its Oct. 16 peak on concern government measures to curb consumer prices will hurt earnings growth. Rogers, who first started buying Chinese stocks in 1999, said he hasn't sold any of his holdings.

``It's still a growth story in China,'' said Andrew Sullivan, a sales trader at Mainfirst Securities Hong Kong Ltd. ``It still has a good manufacturing industry.''

China's economy expanded 10.6 percent in the first quarter even as export growth cooled and industrial companies' profit growth slowed as oil and gas costs surged. Chinese stocks slumped yesterday on speculation the government will increase interest rates to help tame inflation.

Rogers told Chinese investors that the current correction is ``the way the market works,'' and they shouldn't be a ``market timer'' trying to figure out when is the bottom. ``You should get in at a time like now,'' Rogers said. ``I'm starting to think about buying again.'' He said he'd be ``investing in China for the rest of the century.''

About 200 people -- a full house -- paid as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,300) to hear Rogers speak at the two-hour event. The cheapest ticket was 3,800 yuan. Some approached him for his autograph and photos after the speech.

`Learn About Commodities'

Investors should also ``learn about commodities,'' Rogers said. Oil prices, which reached a record in New York trading yesterday, will go higher, he said.

Crude oil for August delivery rose 57 cents, or 0.4 percent, to a record close of $140.21 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, extending its gain this year to 46 percent.

The price of oil will keep rising, ``unless someone finds a major oil field very quickly, in accessible areas,'' Rogers told Chinese investors. ``The oil trend is still high even though the U.S. is trying to curb oil speculation,'' said Sullivan.

Rogers told investors to ``stay away from'' the dollar. The U.S. currency is within 2 percent of a record low against the euro reached in April as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to stave off an economic recession.

U.S. stocks ``are going to go down,'' Rogers said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 percent yesterday, extending the decline for the 30-stock measure to 10 percent this month, the worst June since 1930.

The U.S. may be in its ``worst recession since World War II,'' Rogers said, adding that the subprime mortgage crisis in the world's biggest economy ``has many years to go.''

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said the increase in the price of crude oil has ``years to go'' as known sources of petroleum are dwindling.

``I know that unless someone discovers a lot of oil, it can go to $150, $200'' a barrel, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. ``The facts are the world is running out of known oil reserves.''

Crude oil for July delivery rose $1.62, or 1.3 percent, to $123.92 a barrel at 9:51 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dropping to $121.61, the lowest since May 15. Futures, which reached a record $135.09 a barrel on May 22, are up 89 percent from a year ago.

Rogers said he bought airline stocks around the world today, saying bankruptcies show the sector may be nearing a bottom. ``Bankruptcies are signs of bottoms, not signs of tops,'' he said

He also said he was shorting Exchange Traded Funds for investment banks, and specifically Citigroup Inc. and the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae.

``I am short all the investment banks,'' Rogers said on the phone from his home in Singapore. ``I know they're all in trouble, most of them have phony accounting.''

Rogers said in addition to airline stocks, he also likes the Swiss franc, Japanese yen and Chinese renminbi.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- The rising dollar is a chance to buy the Japanese yen and Swiss francs that will benefit when investors sell currencies with higher yields, Jim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings, said today.

Both will benefit as investors reduce carry trades, he said, referring to the practice of borrowing in currencies with low interest rates to buy currencies with higher yields. Rogers, who wrote the best-selling book ``Hot Commodities,'' also recommended buying some Asian currencies.

``The dollar is going up, which is useful for people who want to sell the dollar down the road,'' Rogers said in an interview in Singapore today. ``With things going the way they are, I would rather buy the Swiss franc and Asian currencies. I want to buy more renminbi, Taiwan dollar, more Singapore dollar, some yen. Those are certainly the four I am looking at.''

The dollar gained 0.3 percent to $1.5426 per euro at 5:23 p.m. Singapore time and 0.5 percent to 105.32 yen. It also climbed 0.5 percent to 1.0587 Swiss francs. The dollar will strengthen by the end of the year to $1.50 a euro, according to the median estimate of 40 strategists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

In the past month, 12 out of the 16 most-active currencies fell against the dollar. The Swiss franc lost 5.7 percent, and the yen 4.1 percent, Bloomberg data shows. The Taiwan dollar lost 2.3 percent and the Singapore dollar, 1.9 percent. The yuan, a denomination of China's currency the renminbi, was little changed.

A stronger dollar ``is going to make things look better in America for a while because the price of corn goes up, cotton and all the stuff America has, and that will help America,'' he said.

The U.S. is the world's largest corn producer, with annual output double that of China, the next largest, and is the largest producer of soybeans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's also the third largest cotton producer.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said too many investors are bearish on the U.S. dollar and the currency will have a ``nice'' rally.
The dollar has declined 4.9 percent against the euro this year as widening credit-market losses and slowing economic growth prompted the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to head off a recession. Since Rogers said in an interview on April 27 that he expected a dollar rally ``about now,'' the currency has climbed 2 percent.
``I expect a nice rally in the American dollar because so many have been bearish on the American dollar including me,'' Rogers said at the launch of the Barclays Global Agriculture Delta Fund in Singapore today. ``America is also a huge producer of agriculture and if I'm right about agriculture prices, which I think will go up a lot, that's going to help America compared to those countries which don't have agriculture.''
The currency rose for a second day to trade at $1.5345 per euro as of 10:20 a.m. in London from $1.5392 in New York yesterday. The yen, which Rogers said he has been buying, climbed to 103.97 per dollar from 104.73.
Rogers said in last month's interview that he was hoping the dollar rally would last a year, which would allow him to sell all of his U.S. currency. Today, he said he holds the currencies of commodity producing nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which he expects ``to do well.''
Australian Dollar
The Australian dollar fell 0.5 percent from late Asian trading to 94.2 U.S. cents as investors cut purchases of higher yielding currencies funded in Japanese yen. In so-called carry trades, investors get funds in a country with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher interest rates, earning the spread between the two.
``People who produce commodities when commodities are going through the roof will do better all other things being equal,'' said Rogers, Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum fund with George Soros in the 1970s and correctly predicted the start of the commodities boom in 1999.
``The New Zealand and Australian dollar may get hurt if carry trades reverse,'' he said. I admit that I've also been buying the yen, but I'm not planning to sell my Australian dollars as they have a great future.''
He added that the dollar is losing its status as the world's reserve currency and is increasingly being replaced by the euro, the yen and sterling. On a 20-year outlook, the Chinese yuan is a likely replacement.
``But the only thing I can see on the horizon which can replace the dollar is the renminbi, which is an absurd statement as it is a blocked currency, but this is a longer term horizon, maybe in 20 years or so,'' he said. ``It cannot be the euro or the yen or the Swiss Franc.''
Rogers expects U.S. Treasuries to decline due to inflationary pressures.
``I have sold long-term U.S. government bonds,'' he said. ``If the same thing happens as it always happens in inflationary times, then rates are going much, much higher, especially long- term rates.''
Rogers said central banks may be effective in manipulating short-term interest rates ``but they can't do much with long term rates.''
(Source)⇒Bloomberg

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros, said the global credit squeeze triggered by U.S. housing-loan delinquencies may not be nearing an end.
``I doubt that we're half way through the financial crisis,'' Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said at a Barclays Plc press conference in Singapore. ``We certainly haven't hit the bottom as far as I'm concerned.''
Rogers' comments contradict those by heads of Wall Street investment banks and by Soros, who yesterday said the ``acute phase'' of the financial crisis is nearing an end even as the U.S. economy only now starts to feel the effect.
The world's largest banks and securities firms have posted $319 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses since the beginning of 2007, and slashed 65,000 jobs in the past 10 months as the crisis deepened.
``Most of the European banks and Asian banks haven't taken a huge write-off yet,'' Rogers said. ``I suspect there are more write-offs to come in Europe and Asia.''
Rogers said he isn't buying financial stocks and is betting on a further drop in the share prices of U.S. investment banks, Fannie Mae and home builders as the global credit crisis reduces investor appetite for all but the safest assets such as U.S. Treasury debt, depressing stock and bond prices.
Still, stocks have rallied since JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third-biggest U.S. bank, agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. with the Federal Reserve's backing almost two months ago. The MSCI World Index has gained 10 percent since touching a one-year low on March 17.
Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said April 22 that the credit-market contraction is abating, echoing remarks by Jamie Dimon, his counterpart at JPMorgan, who said April 16 that the credit-market freeze is more than half over. Richard Fuld, chief of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Morgan Stanley head John Mack have offered similar assessments.

(Source)⇒Bloomberg