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Fed’s Bernanke ‘Doesn’t Understand’ Economics, Jim Rogers Says
November 04, 2010, 7:21 PM EDT
By Simon Clark and Stephen Morris
Nov.
5 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s decision to
pump a further $600 billion into the economy shows his grasp of
economics is weak, said investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers
Holdings.
“Dr. Bernanke unfortunately does not understand
economics, he does not understand currencies, he does not understand
finance,” Rogers, 68, said in a lecture at Oxford University’s Balliol
College yesterday. “All he understands is printing money.”
“His whole intellectual career has been based on the
study of printing money,” he said. “Give the guy a printing press, he’s
going to run it as fast as he can.”
The Fed said Nov. 3 it will buy an additional $600
billion of Treasuries through June, in a bid to reduce unemployment and
avert deflation. While Bernanke’s near-zero rates and $1.7 trillion in
asset purchases helped end the recession, the Fed said progress has
been “disappointingly slow” in bringing down joblessness that is close
to a 26-year high.
“Debasing your currency has never worked,” Rogers said.
David W. Skidmore, a spokesman for the central bank in Washington, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
Rogers, who predicted the start of the global
commodities rally in 1999, said investors should put money into “real”
assets such as metals and agricultural products. He told students to
scrap career plans for Wall Street or the City, London’s financial
district, and to study agriculture and mining instead.
Rogers, who described the U.S. as the most indebted
country in history, declined to comment on the performance of his own
investments in commodities.
“I’m here to sell books,” said Rogers, who lives in
Singapore. “My little girls need royalties,” he added, referring to his
two daughters, who are both younger than eight and were in the audience.
Rogers traveled the world by motorcycle and car in
the 1990s researching investment ideas for his books, which include
“Adventure Capitalist” (Random House/Wiley) and “Investment Biker.”
--Editors: David Scheer, Dan Reichl.NI ECO NI EM NI BNK NI CORPFIN NI UK NI EUROPE NI COS NI FRX NI ECO NI CEN NI CMD NI INS NI PSN NI GOV
#<297127.2497808.2.1.69.30975.25># -0- Nov/04/2010 23:05 GMT
To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Clark in London at sclark4@bloomberg.net; Stephen Morris in London at smorris39@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net.
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