Jim Rogers: Social Unrest, Debt Default & Government Corruption!

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• In this KingWorldNews.com interview (13 March 2010) of legendary investor Jim Rogers:
    
  Legendary investor Jim Rogers was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts with King World News listeners. Jim was one of the original founders of the Quantum Fund which had a return of 4,200% over a 10 year period while the S&P only managed a 47% gain, and in my opinion he’s been ahead of the curve ever since.  He is one of the most highly respected figures in the financial world today.  Jim does not have to answer to any firm so he is able to speak his mind and is known for his frank discussions about the Federal Reserve and other topics many Wall Street veterans won’t freely address.  He is quoted globally in virtually all financial media.
   
  In this interview Jim discusses corruption in India, China and the problems they face on a short term basis as well as a possible bubble in certain pockets of Chinese real estates, problems in Greece, the fact that some countries use two sets of books, the anger that will occur when citizens realize they have been “Madoffed” and the resulting civil unrest, what he is doing with his own money, problems with food stores globally, problems facing the United States and when civil unrest could begin to occur in the US, the possibility of a US default on its debt, protectionism, the energy sector and much more.
   
• Excerpts on social unrest in America:
    
  Eric King: Is a day of more of a social breakdown rapidly approaching would you say?
   
  Jim Rogers: Well, I certainly don’t want it. Nobody does anywhere, but what I can see is they keep making mistakes, and as you keep making mistakes ultimately the situation is going to be worse.
   
  The economic and geopolitical situation will be worse, and so we as Americans are going to be more and more unhappy and that again is not a radical statement. It has always led to social unrest. We are seeing some now in the US. Other countries in the world have seen governments topple in the last two, three, four years by what’s going on. And I am afraid that the people in Washington are making it worse, and if it does get worse as I anticipate, that has always led to social unrest, throughout history, everywhere in the world.
   
  Eric King: If you had to guess on the social breakdowns in the United States, what kind of a time frame would you give me as a guess?
   
  Jim Rogers: Well, certainly within the next decade, I mean that would be easy to say, perhaps sooner. You know Eric I know people who insist that the US will have to default on it’s government debt in the next couple of years. That’s not my statement, I don’t know because I haven’t done the homework, but I do know people I admire who swear to me it’s going to happen. If that sort of thing starts happening, we have problems at the state level, the city level, and if the US government is in that kind of trouble, whenever it is, whether it’s the next two years or in the next ten years, it’s going to lead to problems.
   
  Again, I don’t like saying it first of all, second, it’s just the way the world has always worked, not a radical statement. But if suddenly people cannot get food or cannot get jobs, especially you know, the America of this decade is not the America of the 1930′s, in the America of the 1930′s people were still disciplined, hard working, much more so than they are now. Now in the US, there is more of a, “you owe it to us mentality” than there was in America a hundred years ago, or eighty years ago. Again that’s not a strange thing, it’s just a historic fact and people with that current attitude are more inclined to be unhappy and do something about it than others.

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