The U.S. dollar is going higher “against major currencies,” well-known investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Thursday.
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Jim Rogers
The dollar "is going up against everything right now” for a number of reasons, said Rogers. One may be that everybody is panicking "and for some reason they’re rushing into the U.S. dollar.”
“The U.S. dollar is not a safe haven, if you ask me, but I do own it,” he added.
Also, Rogers noted he would own the U.S. dollar, or the Swiss Franc, or agriculture. “Agriculture prices [are] getting banged right now. I am kind of planning on buying Swiss francs, more dollars and agriculture.”
In addition, he weighed in on China’s economy, saying, “They’re doing their best to cool things off … I expect them to continue to do it, and that is causing more slowdown around the world.”
But “the major problems are coming from the west," Roger stressed. “They are coming from Europe and the [United States]. We are much worse off than we were in 2008 because the debt has gone through the roof.”
“At least in 2008 there was the possibility that the governments could bail us out. Now, of course, the governments have gotten deep, deep, deep into debt themselves,” he added. “Everybody is in much worse shape.”
Plus, there are all sorts of trade tensions and currency tension developing, Rogers went on to say. “Brazilis sort of ignited a trade war [by putting a 30 percent import tariff on China and Korea ]. And right now China is trying to get the Europeans to let them open up the trade with China more. The Europeans are saying no, so China is saying, 'No, we won’t bail you out.'"
“I hope the trade war doesn’t break out" because throughout history when it does it has "caused depressions,” Rogers added. “You saw what happened in the 1930s. It led to depression and it also led to war. So I hope it can be contained.”
Stocks plunged Thursday, fueled by ongoing global economic jitters in addition to a gloomy outlook from the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve announced it would launch a new $400 billion program in a move to rebalance its $2.87 trillion portfolio— a version of the widely expected Operation Twist—by selling shorter-term notes and using those funds to purchase longer-dated Treasurys.
Ben Bernanke's idea that low-interest rates are good, "is killing the people who save and invest, and that's really hurting a very, very large part of the population," concluded Rogers.
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