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We'll be Worse Off Whoever's President: Jim Rogers

By: CNBC.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:25 AM ET

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Neither of the two contenders for president understands the economy and they are likely to cause more problems than they would solve, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Jim Rogers holdings, told "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday.

"Neither one of these guys understands what's going on, they don't understand currency markets, economies, they don't understand the world," Rogers said. "Both of them are going to cause us more problems than they're going to solve."

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Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama pledged to reverse the economic failures and blamed the Republicans for the poor shape of the U.S. economy in his speech on Thursday formally accepting to run for president for his party

But Rogers said this was unlikely.

"He's talking about spending a lot of money … I don't consider that very good, going deeper into debt. The United States is already the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. I'm not sure that that's going to solve anything," he said.

(Click Here for a Video of Jim Rogers' interview)

Republican presumptive candidate Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

'Bailing Out their Friends on Wall Street'

Deep changes are needed in the U.S. system and big Wall Street banks should not be rescued by the authorities when they run into trouble, to avoid moral hazard, Rogers told CNBC Europe.

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"They're bailing out Wall Street, because all their friends are on Wall Street," he said. "When Ben Bernanke gets a phone call from the head Lehman, he takes the call, but if some poor school teacher in Oklahoma calls him, he doesn't take the call."

"He's dealing with his friends on Wall Street trying to save them when in fact he should let them fail. That would be the better solution, at least for 300 million Americans," Rogers added.

The economic stimulus package launched this year to try and fend off recession in the U.S. is unlikely to have positive consequences in the long term, despite a higher-than-forecast advance of gross domestic product in the second quarter, Rogers said.

Supporting troubled investment banks instead of letting them go bust prevents a cleansing of the economy while putting additional burdens on taxpayers, but neither of the two candidates is likely to stop this, he added.

"If you happen to be friends with whoever wins, sure, you're going to have a better time in the next four years. But the rest of us, the 300 million Americans, are going to be worse off in four years. In fact the world will be worse off," Rogers said.

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