Jim Rogers On the Fannie/Freddie Bailouts

If you know anything about Jim Rogers, you know he wasn't in favor of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts.   Rogers states in the video: “This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this.”

Comments

[H-Bomb:]

I've read very little of his opinions, but it seems Mr. Rogers believes that every financial decision this country has ever made, since its inception, has been wrong.

His accumulation of great wealth might indicate he is right, but it is really hard to take his continuing running down of this country.

2008 Sep 10 07:54 AM

[H-Bomb:]

That being said I'd be extremely happy if he moved me to Singapore and enrolled me in Mandarin classes.

2008 Sep 10 07:55 AM

[steveballmer:]

Governent take over of anything always ends up badly!

2008 Sep 10 08:07 AM

[sumosama:]

Sounds like ol' Jimmy is short a FNM and FRE (stock, options, paper, whatever)

2008 Sep 10 01:49 PM

[kurt walter:]

Rogers has been shorting FNM and FRE for at least 3 years now. I remember a few years ago how he said they were a house of cards. Boy, was he right. Rogers is one of the few people I listen to. The rest are worthless.

2008 Sep 10 03:19 PM

[Urbane Gori...:]

Rogers is a great investor. And he is more than likely correct about energy, commodities and China in the longer run...

However, the bailout of FRE and FNM is absolutely necessary. Is this something that any of us should be happy about. Of course not! And were the bankers crooks.. Probably not (We're not talking Enron here.... Those guys were crooks..) . They were doing what all business people do... Taking advantage of a situation to improve (even if temporarily) their bottom line. Were they short-sighted .. Absolutely!

Once you get past the hysteria, the wailing, gnashing of teeth, sack-cloth and ashes and calls for Armageddon, it really boils down to a simple issue:

We need our financial marketplace for purposes of generating loans. FNM and FRE carried more than half that load. No loans, no business! No business, **real recession**.

Further, we need to show the rest of the world that we can handle this issue. China has already been reducing their exposure to our financials in a big way.... This is not good.

Letting FNM and FRE collapse would only make things worse. I'm not sure what Rogers would want to see happen if our system of loans collapsed, but I know I don't want to see it. Now, if you want to throw some CEOs into Pele's maw, or take away their pay and chuck them in jail.... Ask me if I care.... (Well... I really don't.. )

jegan ;-)

2008 Sep 10 04:18 PM