Jim Rogers Plans to Short U.S. Treasuries

According to Bloomberg's Bob Chen:

The dollar and U.S. Treasuries are both likely to slide as soaring government debt in the world’s biggest economy undermines confidence in its assets, according to Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.

“The government is printing lots of money and borrowing even more; that’s not the basis for a sound currency,” he said in a telephone interview today from Singapore. “The idea that anybody would lend money to the U.S. government for 30 years at 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 percent interest is mind-boggling to me.”

Rogers, the author of books including “Investment Biker” and “Adventure Capitalist”, said he holds fewer dollars than a year ago and plans to “short U.S. government bonds someday.” A short bet involves selling a security you don’t own with a view to buying it back after the price has fallen.

Read the whole story here.

Chinese Economic News

1) In an interesting article in Forbes today. Gordon Chang is skeptical about an economic recovery in China. If Gordon Chang is right this is not good news for the global economy.

According to Chang,

"So, as big as all of Beijing's spending programs are--they could end up being about 18% of GDP and the largest in the world on a percentage basis--they are not enough to stop the country's accelerating decline for more than a few quarters. China was once in a supercycle upward. Now it has turned a corner and is in a supercycle in the other direction. At some point, this will become evident, even to the World Bank. "

Yikes but I'm sure Jim Rogers would disagree with this analysis. It will be interesting to see who ends up being right.

2) China is buying record amounts of iron ore. Read about it here.

3) The US dollar falls as China calls for a global currency. Read about it here.

4) China is trying to hedge against its dollar holdings. Very smart move I say because there are budgets deficits in the United States as far as the eye can see. One way they are hedging is by buying gold.