Jim Rogers: “We Are Going to Default One Way or the Other”

In an interview to appear tonight on FOX Business Network’s [FBN] America’s Nightly Scoreboard (9 PM/ET) Chairman and CEO of Rogers Holdings Jim Rogers tells FBN’s Lori Rothman that the United States will “default one way or the other” but the politicians “may not call it default.” He went on to say that the deficit reduction talks going on in Washington are “a sham” and that politicians will likely “announce some kind of wonderful deal” in which “things will look better, but then in six months or a year, things will be worse again.” He also said that the U.S. dollar is a “terribly flawed currency” and while “it might be good for the world if the United States closed down for a while” he doesn’t see that happening. Excerpts from the interview can be found below, courtesy of Fox Business Network.

On whether the United States will default:
“We are going to default one way or the other but they may not call it default. These debt reduction talks are a sham.”

On the deficit negotiations:
“They will probably raising the debt ceiling and announce some kind of wonderful deal, which they will promptly ignore. The United States is not going close down. It might be good for the world if the United States closed down for a while, but I can’t see that happening. Something will happen, things will look better, but then in six months or a year, things will be worse again.”

On where he is investing:
“I happen to be long commodities and short emerging markets and technology in the U.S. I am also long currencies, I am short a major American bank and short bonds. It looks as though we are going to have a period of turmoil for a while. A market I am looking at is Japan; I own the Yen. I bought Japanese shares when the tsunami came, I think I am probably going to buy some more. I own the U.S. Dollar. It has been terribly beaten down. Everybody is bearish on the U.S Dollar including me. It’s fundamentally a terribly flawed currency. But when everybody is bearish on something it is usually a time to own it.”

On Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner:
“He never should have taken the job. We are all find out Mr. Geithner doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on. Just about everything he has done has been wrong. We are in worse shape now than we were a couple of years ago except now we have staggering debt to show for the efforts.”

On the bond market:
“If there is some news on the budget, the bond market might rally, but it’s a false rally. We have serious problems in the United States.”

On his “Government at home” program:
“If congressmen had to go to the same grocery stores you do and send their kids to the same schools, and ride public transportation, the world would be a lot different. They go down to Washington and laws get passed that we have nothing to do with. But if everybody stayed home and voted from the high school gym, we would have a much different government and the world would probably be better.”

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