International investor Jim Rogers said he doesn’t have U.S. stocks or the British pound in his portfolio, which includes euros, dollars, renminbi and precious metals such as gold and silver.
“Everybody’s having a wonderful time running the printing presses,” Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in a television interview with CNBC in Singapore. “The way to protect yourself at a time like that, historically anyway, has been to own real assets. Those are my longs, and currencies.”
The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index has gained 8 percent this year, while the S&P GSCI index of 24 commodities has climbed 6.4 percent and gold 11 percent. Rogers said he expects more currency turmoil as global central banks inject stimulus into the economy through quantitative easing and investors should buy commodities “when that happens.”
“Probably none of us are going to own any paper money at all ultimately, but that’s later in this decade, because paper money is becoming very suspect everywhere in the world,” he said. “I don’t own any U.S. equities,” he said, adding “I don’t own the pound sterling, although I do love the U.K. a great deal.”
While the pound is up about 2 percent against the dollar this year, it’s fallen 4.4 percent in the past six months.
“But I own the euro, I own the U.S. dollar. I own various currencies hoping to get through all this, but someday, none of us are going to own paper money at all,” Rogers said. He also said he’s “not thinking about selling” his gold, silver and precious metals investments.
“I own the renminbi. Every time I can, I buy more renminbi,” he said. “I expect the renminbi to double or triple in the next decade or two.”
© Copyright 2012 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.