- Jim Rogers warned about US government debt, de-dollarization, and multiple asset bubbles.
- A former business partner of George Soros said stocks, bonds and real estate are significantly overvalued.
- Mr. Rogers touted his products as offering good value and rejected the idea of a BRICS bloc.
Jim Rogers has warned that America’s debt has soared to dangerously high levels, that the dollar’s dominance is short-lived, and that many countries are experiencing bubbles in stocks, bonds, and real estate.
“The United States is the most indebted country in the history of the world,” Rogers said in an interview on Nomad Capitalist Live 2023, filmed in early September and released on YouTube this month.
“No country has ever been as indebted as the United States, and that’s not a good thing,” he added, adding that history “shows someone is going to suffer.”
Rogers is a former business partner of George Soros and is best known as the co-founder of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. He explained why de-dollarization seems inevitable, but the dollar will probably not be taken away for several more years.
“The era of the US dollar is coming to an end,” he said, arguing that no currency in history has remained the dominant currency for more than 100 or 150 years. But he argued that the only real competition for now is the Chinese yuan, which won’t overtake it until China fully deregulates it and makes it available to everyone.
In this regard, Mr. Rogers dismissed the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc as “nothing more than a figment of someone’s imagination.” He joked that someone on Wall Street looked at a world map and came up with this grouping after visiting only one of the four countries. Although Mr. Rogers recognized the potential of each country, he stressed that international alliances rarely last.
The veteran investor also warned 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 feel good,” he said. “Most bond markets are in a bubble. Interest rates are at historic lows in many parts of the world. Real estate is in a bubble in many places.”
“The cheapest asset classes I know of are commodities,” Rogers said, noting that sugar and silver are still significantly down from their all-time highs. “These are not bubble numbers,” he added, emphasizing the continued rich potential of assets such as agricultural products and metals.
Rodgers, 80, has made some damning declarations in recent years. In May, he predicted it would be the worst bear market of his lifetime, with “troubles” across stocks, bonds, real estate and currencies. Last summer, he sounded the alarm about the dominance of U.S. government debt and the dollar, warning that painful interest rate hikes would be needed to rein in inflation.
