Jim Rogers: Don’t Pay Governments Much Attention

Investors shouldn’t pay “much attention” to what governments are doing, well-known investor Jim Rogers, CEO and Chairman of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Friday.

Getty Images Jim Rogers

“If you listen to governments, then you are not going to make a lot of money. Governments lie, distort and make mistakes,” he said.

His comments came after months when the markets have followed European politicians’ efforts to solve the euro zone debt crisis.

Improving US economic data has led some to argue that the US will not be too badly affected by the situation in Europe, although Rogers disagrees.

“Europe as a whole is the largest economy in the world. If Europe has problems, we in the US are going to feel those problems,” he said.

The situation in Greece has continued to affect markets across the world, with the possibility of an agreement on the government’s bond swap with its private sector creditors sending European markets higher on Friday.

Let Greece go bankrupt and other people who are bankrupt go bankrupt, and then they can reorganize their assets and start over,” Rogers said.

“It may work now but it’s going to come back. I hope we can paper it over this time.”

Investors should focus on “real assets” like commodities to deal with continuing worries of another downturn, he added.

“My way of playing this is to own real assets like commodities,” he said “You now have the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve printing money. The way to protect yourself at a time like this is to own assets.”

Rogers added that he thinks silver looks more attractive than gold at the moment because of the sustained rise in the gold price.

He owns currencies including the euro

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[EUR=X  Loading...      ()   ] and the dollar – although not sterling.

“Recent rallies in the Dow,

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[.DJIA  Loading...      ()   ] supported by better US economic data, have brought the index to near 13,000. If it crosses 13,000 on Friday, this will be the first time since May 2008.

Rogers, who doesn’t own US stocks, warned that next year is likely to be more painful than 2012.

“In 2012, we have elections and many governments pumping money into the economy, spending and printing money. It’s 2013-14 we have to worry about,” he said.