Jim Rogers on CNBC 12/07/10
Dec. 7 2010 | Some countries in Western Europe are bankrupt or are having serious liquidity problems and they should be allowed to restructure their debt, famous investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Tuesday.
Jim Rogers president of Rogers Holdings is George Soros former partner and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, and a truly legendary international investor who helped generate a 4,200% total return over a 10-year period .Jim Rogers is always bullish on Asia Commodities Agricultural Products gold and silver
"You contrast that with the UK or the US for instance which has no reserves, has nothing but huge debts and they're borrowing, or printing, or taxing to spend their money… I'd rather be in the East than in the West."
And what investment advice would he impart to his daughters? Rogers sat down and shared with CNBC.com some of his thoughts on this, beginning with, buy renminbi if you get the chance.
"I own the Chinese renminbi. It's not that easy to buy and sell the renminbi because it’s a blocked currency. But I own it and every chance I get to get some more renminbi, I do so." Rogers says.
"The renminbi is eventually going to be the next reserve currency of the world. Twenty years from now, perhaps fifteen years from now, the Chinese are opening up there currency more and more every month, every year. And that’s going to continue ... who knows how high it will go," Rogers adds.
With China, currently the largest creditor nation in the world, and with a balance of trade surplus to boot, Rogers would rather own the renminbi (also called the yuan) than many other currencies.
But he adds that he doesn't understand why China has a blocked currency. Currently, there are restrictions on money leaving or entering the country and as such, the renminbi is not fully convertible.
"China has not made many serious mistakes in the past two to three decades but this is one of them. I don't know why they still have a blocked currency. This is not 1979, it’s not even 1999. It's 2009 and China doesn't need to do that any more," Rogers says.
More of Jim Rogers' Outlook on CNBC.com
“I mean … you give me 5 or 6 trillion dollars, I’ll show you a very good time, there’s no question about that,” Rogers said.
“I’m not buying shares if that’s what you mean. Not at all,” Rogers told Squawk Box Asia.”The bottom will probably come later this year, next year, who knows when,” he added.