Saturday, 30 August 2008

Fire Bernanke, Hire Trichet: Jim Rogers

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

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Guanyu said...

Fire Bernanke, Hire Trichet: Jim Rogers

CNBC
29 Aug 2008

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 and Freddie Mac 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.