Any new reasons why you are shorting India? Have you ever invested in India?
Jim Rogers : I used to own tourist companies in India at a time. India
should have had the greatest tourist companies in the world. If you can
only visit one country in your life, my goodness, it should be India—it
is an astonishingly spectacular place to visit. There is no place that
has the depth of culture that India has. Yes, I have new reasons to
short India—just read its newspapers everyday and you will see why.
The government goes from one mistake to another—no matter
what the controls are, no matter how much the debt keeps rising, Indian
politicians are only looking for scapegoats. Look at the latest thing
with gold—Indian politicians want to blame the problems of their economy
on someone else, and now it is gold. Gold is not causing India
problems, but it is quite the contrary. Exchange controls in India are
absurd, the regulations that India puts in place result in foreigners
going through 70 loops before they can invest in India. Foreigners
cannot invest in commodities in India.
India should have been among the world’s greatest
agriculture nations—you have the soil, the people, the weather, but it
is astonishing that you have not become one—it is because Indian
politicians, in their wisdom, have made it illegal for farmers to own
more than five hectares of land. What the hell—can a farmer with just
five hectares compete with someone in Australia or Canada? Even if you
put together the land in all your family, it is still not possible to
compete. Much as I love India, I am not a fan of its government. Every
one year, they (Indian government) come up with more reasons for me to
be less optimistic about that country. - in livemint
Jim Rogers started trading the stock market with $600 in 1968.In 1973 he formed the Quantum Fund with the legendary investor George Soros before retiring, a multi millionaire at the age of 37. Rogers and Soros helped steer the fund to a miraculous 4,200% return over the 10 year span of the fund while the S&P 500 returned just 47%.