Krugman Attacks Jim Rogers

Whoa! Paul Krugman is feeling the Austrian heat.

He has just blogged an off the wall attack on Jim Rogers, who was just recently awarded by the Austrian oriented  Mises Institute  the prestigious Schlarbaum Prize for the lifetime defense of liberty.

Krugman spews out:

It has been really interesting to watch some of the commentary over quantitative easing by the Fed: while people like me see the Fed’s actions as way too timid, there’s a substantial faction out there that sees them as the end of Western civilization. Right now the most popular story on Bloomberg is Jim Rogers saying that Bernanke doesn’t understand economics, that he’s “debasing the currency.”...

....please note that inflationistas like Rogers have been wrong about absolutely everything this cycle (and the last cycle, and the cycle before that).

But they have their devotees. And this means that monetary policy, our only real hope at this point, must climb a wall of stupidity..

Krugman is simply making things up. Rogers has been the most dead on market commentator out there, warning about inflation. But, hey, maybe Rogers and me are getting bad quotes on our machines, and you right are Paul, there is no inflation. So Paul take advantage of me, why don't you teach me a lesson and sell me at last year's prices, gold, silver, oil, sugar, corn, wheat and cotton. Go ahead sell me as much as you want. I'm really stupid about these things. I have no idea that deflation is all around. I'll buy it all.

George Soros on Jim Rogers: He Is Not a Great Investor

Jim Rogers once worked for George Soros.

Since they departed ages ago, I have never seen them speak about one another, until today. This morning I posted a youtube video of George Soros being trapped in his own statements by a Chinese gentleman who appears to be using the arguments developed by Tom Woods in his book, Meltdown.

After the debate between the the Chinese gentleman and Soros, the video tape went into a Chinese voiceover, but the patient are indeed rewarded. I listened through the Chinese voiceover only to discover on the other end of the voiceover Soros discussing Rogers.

A second Chinese gentlemen who appears to be an anchor asked Soros about the investment style of Rogers and also Warren Buffett. It is unclear if the anchor was aware that Rogers once worked for Soros.

Soros answered the question by telling the audience that Rogers once worked for him, and then said that when Rogers worked for him he did the work of 8 people. He went on to say that he and Rogers parted ways because although Rogers was a great analyst that could do the work of 8, he did not want to work with 7 others. Soros then said that although Rogers is a great analyst, he does not think Rogers has been a great investor. How Soros could actually know such a thing, since Rogers is a private investor and does not have to disclose his positions or profit and loss statement, is unknown.

The video is in my earlier post, here. The relevant part of the clip starts at roughly the 7 minute mark.

Jim Rogers: Large Western Financial Institution Has Major Currency Problems

In an interview with the Economic Times, Rogers says:

I am shorting a stock market index in the US, I am shorting an emerging market index and I am shorting one of the large western international financial institutions. It is an emerging market index; it is not a specific country. It is an index of many emerging markets and that is mainly because the emerging markets have grown the most during the past few months of this big recovery. So that is where some of the excesses are developing. As for the large western bank, it is a bank which people think is extremely sound. If I am right, there are going to be more currency problems and more turmoil in the markets, it will have to come down.

Hmmm? I can't think of any banks that people think of as sound. I wonder what Rogers has in mind.

As for shorting the emerging markets, this makes sense. Rogers is watching money flows here. Where the money flows is very likely to be where the weakness will be most intense on  a resumption of the downturn.

And Rogers is right on as far as current bubbles:

I do not see a bubble in finance like we had two or three years ago. I only see two bubbles in the world, one is the Chinese urban to real estate and the other is the United States’ government bond market.