"We rose to power and glory in the 19th century despite a horrible Civil War, 15 depressions, very few human rights, little rule of law and yet we became a pretty successful country in 20th century," Rogers says. "That's my view of China."
Rogers' long-term optimism about China was further burnished by the November 2013 Third Plenum, when the country's Communist Party leaders declared the market would play a “decisive role” in the economy going forward.
"To my astonishment and delight, they came out and said 'during periods of uncertainty, were going to let the market decide,'" he recalls. "They said the market is smarter than they are. If only people in America and Europe would figure that out; that the market is smarter than our bureaucrats."
Rogers notes "they have intimated they're going to let people go bankrupt. There's some people in the real estate business in China who should go bankrupt. I hope they let them."
Whether or not Chinese officials will really 'let the market decide' in times of market turmoil remains to be seen. In recent months, however, China has followed a familiar script of stimulus packages designed to soften the economic slowdown. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has cut its benchmark interest rates twice this year and cut reserve requirements for lenders in February. The government has also discussed liberalizing deposit rates and announced plans to restructure its more-than 100,000 state-owned enterprises.
Partially as a result of these steps, the China stock market has surged: The Shanghai Composite was up 27% year-to-date as of Tuesday's close while the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was up a whopping 55%.
"The Chinese stock market is beginning to form a bubble" that could spread to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other regional markets, Rogers says. Nevertheless, he's not too concerned, saying: "If you sold your American stocks in 1915, you might have looked smart for a
- Source, Yahoo Finance
