Friday, March 4, 2011

Jim Rogers Remains Bullish on All Commodities

In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Sonia Shenoy and Ekta Batra, commodity expert and billionaire Jim Rogers gave his take on the unrest in the Middle East and how that's affecting his investment decisions.

Here's a look at what Rogers said:


Q: What is your estimate, what have you made of the fresh wave of geopolitical risk? Do you think the situation in Libya could get worst?

A: Ofcourse it can get worse. It can turn into a civil war which can rage for a long time. I doubt it will, given the state of the world. But now we are having more and more social unrest, certainly we are going to have a lot of social unrest. The price of food is going up. When food prices go up, people get out agitated and they look for someone to blame.

Q: I recollect you stating in the month of January that crude may just surge all the way up to USD 150 per barrel, it is sort of getting there, Brent is now USD 106 per barrel, what is your estimate of how high crude could escalate, if the situation gets worse?

A: Certainly, it can go to USD 150 per barrel over the next decade. I have no idea what will happen this year. If Libya calms down and everybody else does, it will go down for a while. If the UK goes bankrupt or some sudden surprise happens, everything will go down. But crude oils is going to go over USD 150 per barrel, it is going to go to a couple of 100s in the next decade.

Q: What, according to you, is a good investment right now; do you think that investors should turn bullish towards precious metals to hedge their bets at this point in time?

A: Firstly, I have started looking at shorting US government bonds. I think they are turning into a real bubble because of this situation in the Middle East. People are flooding into US government bonds, which is a mistake. I have bought a small tractor company in Japan today because they are starting to infuse huge amounts of money in Japan trying to solve their agricultural problems. I am bullish on agriculture, I am bullish on all commodities.