Saturday, November 29, 2014

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Why Jim Rogers owns dollars printed by "crazy" fed bankers


A shaky couple of weeks in the global markets has rattled nerves, but while Jim Rogers continues to hold U.S. dollars, he warns investors not to confuse the greenback for a long-term safe haven.

Friday, November 7, 2014

A Fertile Investment

Conditions are perfect for a green farmland investment.

The average price per acre of farmland in Iowa jumped by 60% between 2007 and 2012.

Last year alone, farmland returned nearly 21% in total appreciation and income, according to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries.

Famed commodities investor Jim Rogers doesn’t think the run-up is over yet, either. As he told CNBC in March, “I’m still wildly optimistic about the future of agriculture worldwide.”

But one doesn’t need to be a sophisticated or well-heeled investor to break into farmland. There are some investments that can be bought as easily as any stock…


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Don’t Bottom Fish With The Ukraine

While some use political and financial crises as an opportunity to buy stocks at deep discounts, something veterans of Wall Street call “bottom fishing,” winning investor Jim Rogers wouldn’t recommend it in the case of the Ukraine. The Singapore based manager of Rogers Holdings and Berland Interests thinks its a bad idea to buy Ukranian stocks on a decline, because the stocks could go lower and lower, especially given the vast uncertainty in the region. Even at the best of times, Rogers had this to say about investments in the Ukraine, “I’ve been to the Ukraine twice in my life and I’ve never been impressed by the government or the management of the Ukraine. You don’t buy something because it is low, because it can go lower and lower and lower.”

“If you’ve looked at the Ukranian government over the past 10-15 years, you know what I’m talking about.” Rogers identifies an important principle in bottom fishing. The stocks have to be damaged, the negative catalyst has to be external, but the underlying health of the government or business has to be sound and have some hope of upside. Suffice it to say, Rogers is not optimistic.

Just to give the other side of the equation, Mark Mobius remains bullish on Ukranian stocks, writing in March that despite the political problems, Ukrainian stocks have returned a surprising 20% gain for the year. Mobius, Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said, “My team and I continue to be interested in Ukranianequities where we see opportunities on the individual and company level.”

So investors, take your pick. Is Mobius right or Rogers?


Sunday, November 2, 2014

A lot of Americans are Being Ruined

Legendary investor and market contrarian Jim Rogers told Futures magazine Editor-in-Chief Dan Collins that the current zero-interest rate environment is destroying economic opportunity for many across America, and he denounced the economic policies which prevent wage earners from gaining interest on their savings.

“A lot of people are being ruined,” Rogers stated in an interview in the October issue of Futures magazine.

“Any pension plans, endowments, etc., are suffering because they invest for the futures and are finding that their situation has gotten worse," he says. "We are doing this at the expense of people who save and invest. We are doing it to bail out the people who borrowed huge amounts of money. The consequences are already being felt.”

An outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve Board’s policies and of government deficit spending, Rogers was unapologetic in his oppostion to bailouts.

“We have gone in and taken the assets away from the competent people, given them to the incompetent people and said to the incompetent people, 'Now you compete with the competent people with their money,'” he says. “It’s absurd.”

In the interview, Rogers also boldly predicts that North Korea and South Korea will merge within the next five years. According to Rogers, a unified Korea will create “the most exciting country in the world for a decade or two.”

Rogers explains that the current North Korean leader has a different view of the world than his father and grandfather due to his upbringing in Switzerland. He also said the combination of cheap, educated labor in North Korea would be a boon for Eastern markets.

“If I could put all of my money in North Korea, I would,” he revealed, conceding that current laws prevent American citizens from investing in the nation today.

- Source, Futures Mag