Interview: Jim Rogers

Link to the article: Channel 4

Last Modified: 03 Mar 2009
By: Faisal Islam

Jim Rogers, the co-founder of the hedge fund, the Quantum Fund, talks to Faisal Islam about the world economic downturn.

Rescue plan 'ludicrous and insane'

Speaking exclusively to Channel 4 News, Jim Rogers says politicians could be leading us into another Great Depression.

One of the world's leading financiers has called the economic rescue plans being put forward by Gordon Brown and President Obama ludicrous and insane.

He has been called a Wall Street legend for his investment nous. Now he sees a fundamental shift of power from the west to east. Our economics correspondent Faisal Islam reports.

Who is Jim Rogers?

Jim Rogers is an American investor and financial commentator.

After studying at Yale and Oxford, Rogers joined Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder in 1970. There he met George Soros with whom he co-founded the hugely successful Quantum hedge fund.

Ten years later Rogers decided to retire at the age of 37. Soros was estimated to have made £1bn betting against the British pound on Black Wednesday when the pound crashed out of the ERM in 1992.

Rogers has also featured in the Guinness Book of World Records twice - motorcycling 100,000 across six continents from 1990-1992 and later visiting 116 countries on a round-the-world trip with his wife.

Rogers continues to invest, but is now also an author, lecturer and regular international financial commentator. In 2006 he sold his $16m home in New York and moved to Singapore as a result of his conviction about the economic rise of Asia and his desire for his two young daughters to learn Mandarin.

Watch the full interview

Watch the complete interview with Jim Rogers on his analysis of the current world economic climate and the longer-term effects of the downturn on the US and the UK.