“Get prepared,” warns billionaire commodity guru Jim Rogers, “because we’re going to have the worst economic problems in your lifetime and a lot of people are going to disappear.” In this wide-ranging interview with MacroVoices’ Erik Townsend, the investing legend discusses everything from whether Russia is being scapegoated (“yes, ask Victoria Nuland”), the war against cash (“governments love it… they want to control everything”), to his views on gold and the demise of freedom.
Full podcast below:
Key Excerpts…
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Are Russians the bad guys?
Well I do know that during the last administration, Mr. Obama’s administration as you probably remember we started, we tried to pull of an illegal coup in Ukraine, we got caught at it, what’s her name, Victoria Nuland, whatever the woman’ name the State Department they have there several pieces of evidence where we know she tried to instigate an illegal coup then of course the Russians outsmarted us and so the State Department started blaming it on the Russians and the hype against the Russians has gotten bigger and bigger ever since after we started– or tried to start, tried to instigate the illegal coup Crimea and Ukraine.
So yes we are certainly at fault to some extent and obviously you then, when you’re caught you’ve got to keep the rhetoric up and keep throwing more and more accusations and so the State Department has done that.
I know that before the illegal coup Obama, Bush everybody was trying to be friends with the Russians rightly so, cold war had ended long ago, the Russians wanted to be friends with America. We didn’t need NATO anymore. Who needed the Cold War etc. all the money we were spending on some of these arms manufactures and soldiers so until the illegal coup took place we were all trying to be great friends you remember George Bush said I looked him in the eye and he’s a man I can admire and work with etc.
So now of course the Democrats especially since they lost the election are trying to blame it on the Russians. It’s unfathomable to me how the Russians could have determined the outcome of the elections. Maybe they planted a story a two but so what? It’s inconceivable to me that the Russians could influence much less determine the election.
I think if we start having investigations of the illegal voting I’m afraid we’re going to find more for the Democrats than for the Republicans places big cities in America won’t name names but so far the few investigations that have taken place we find that the voting irregularities are in big cities which are Democratic strongholds.
On the Greater Depression…
…get prepared because we’re going to have the worst economic problems we’ve had in your lifetime or my lifetime and when that happens a lot of people are going to disappear.
In 2008 Bear Stearns disappeared, Bear Stearns had been around over 90 years. Lehman Brothers disappeared. Lehman Brothers had been around over 150 years. A long, long time, a long glorious history they’ve been through wars, depression, civil war they’ve been through everything and yet they disappear.
So the next time around it’s going to be worse than anything we’ve seen and a lot of institutions, people, companies even countries, certainly governments and maybe even countries are going to disappear. I hope you get very worried.
when you start having bear markets as you I’m sure well know one bad thing happens and another bad thing happens and these things snowball just like in bull markets good news comes out then more good news comes out the next thing you know you’re five or six or seven years into a bull market.
Well bear markets do the same thing and so we have a lot of bad news on the horizon. I haven’t even gotten to war. I haven’t even gotten to trade war or anything like that but you know things do go wrong.
On Trump and the possibility of trade wars…and real wars
Mr. Trump has also said he’s going to have trade war with China, Mexico, Japan, Korea a few other people that he has named. He swore that on his first day in office he would impose 45% tariffs against China. He’s been there three weeks, two or three weeks and he hasn’t done it yet but he still got it in his head I’m sure or maybe he’s just another politician like all the rest of them. He says one thing and he doesn’t mean it at all but he does have at least three people in high levels in his group who are very, very keen to have trade wars with China and other people.
If he does that Eric, it’s all over. I mean history is very clear that trade wars always lead to problems, often to disaster, sometimes even to real war, a shooting war. So I don’t know, I’m not sure Mr. Trump knows. He said so many things and many of the things are contradictory. Now if he’s not going to have trade wars with various people then chances are for a while happy days are here…
[The dollar is] going to go too high, may turn into a bubble, at which point I hope I’m smart enough to sell it because at some point the market forces are going to cause the dollar to come back down because people are going to realize, oh my gosh, this is causing a lot of turmoil, economic problems in the world and it’s damaging the American economy. At that point the smart guys will get out. I hope I’m one of them.
On governments continued war against cash…
Governments are always looking out for themselves first and it’s the same old thing you know Eric this has been going on for hundreds of years. The Indians recently did the same thing they withdrew 86% percent of the currency in circulation and they have now made it illegal to spend more than, I think it’s about $4000 in any cash transaction. In France you cannot use more than, I think it’s a €1000.
Many countries are already doing this. Some states in the U.S. you cannot make cash transactions above a certain amount. Governments love it. Then they can control you. If you want to go and buy a cup of coffee they know how many you drink, where you buy them etc. if they can all put it into electronic formats and they will the world is all going electronic. My children will probably never go to a bank when they’re adults, maybe never go to a post office maybe even never to a doctor or rarely to a doctor when they’re adults.
So the Internet and the computers changing everything that we know, money can certainly be easily converted to computers not today because there are still, some people who don’t have computers and the system is not ready it but it can be done and when it’s done the governments are going to be very, very happy they going to say they’re doing it for our own good Eric, this is not them, this is for our good. That they’re doing this, but it’s coming and it’s going to be a whole different world in which we live. Probably we are not going to have as many freedoms as we have now even though we are already losing our freedoms at a significant pace.
On the demise of freedom…
…history shows that people always would like a little more safety and a willing to “give up some things for more safety and security.” Benjamin Franklin said well anybody who would give up some freedoms for security is going to wind up with neither security nor freedom and they deserve to lose both and of course that’s the way it is.
I’m not the first to realize that people who are rising to become dictators start taking away freedoms first in Germany they took away the guns, they wouldn’t let people have guns in Germany and lots of places have done that or things like that.
In America now you and I probably remember when we were kids, you had to have a search warrant, now they can just break your door down if they have what they consider enough good reasons, they don’t even have to go to the court and get a search warrant anymore.
So it’s already happening and if you said to somebody that you know they could break your door down they say they’re not going to break my door down I’m not a terrorist or a drug dealer, well that’s how it all starts people say it’s OK but then the next thing you know they’re breaking your door down too.
So it’s already happening do I like it? No I don’t like it but I’m not the first– what was his name Goebbels the German who said if you say something to people enough times they believe it no matter how absurd it is and you and I have certainly seen it in the news in America you say something enough times people believe it and it becomes politically correct and then you can’t even say something that’s not politically correct in America any more.
If you listen to NPR enough times people will believe the lies no matter how absurd they are.
Been alive long enough to watch all these things mentioned as they unfolded.
Now I’m going back to listen to the whole podcast.
There seems to be a war going on right now in the government that we may only know about when it’s over. Or, when it spills out into the streets. Prepare and be ready.
When I first started researching The Doom, Jim Rogers was a name I encountered frequently. Because he was somebody who was being interviewed and quoted frequently, I assumed he knew what he was talking about.
Now, almost 10 years later, I can scan the article, and his points are basically the same. Seems to me I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life worrying about something that may or may not ever happen.
Maybe we are a turning point. I don’t know. I am still trying to improve my homesteading skills, and learning to make stuff for myself. Right now, trying to learn to make soap with bacon fat, making homemade wine, I have a project to make my own laundry soap, fermentation of vegetable, and just planted a cool weather garden. I’ve still got some gold and silver tucked back, and I have a little cash envelope, just in case. I do not own enough firearms.
But, I’m doing this because I want to live a simpler life and not be dedicated to a job/career. Not because I want to be afraid of the future.
And yet, I can’t seem to stop reading about The Doom.
A lot of things have happened that didn’t exist 10 years ago, Tim. See below. I don’t think you have wasted a second worrying about things. I think you are prescient.
Cyprus. SAR’ s. Limits on ATM withdrawal. Not being able to buy certain things with cash. Drunk driving lane checks. Speed traps. DNA swabs. Watertown, Mass. (where the gov’t locked down an entire city, knocked down doors, pulled innocent civilians out by their shirt collars and illegally searched their homes to find a teenager). Throwing people in jail and taking their kids from them for home schooling. Arresting people for collecting rain water. Shutting down childrens’ Lemonade stands. Cameras on every street corner. Currency wars. Trade wars. TSA airport groping. Undeclared Drone wars. 2nd Amendment restrictions. 1st Amendment restrictions. Forcing people (with a threat of a fine) to buy health insurance. Just some of the realities now taking place that Jim Rogers talks about.
Some may describe Jim Rogers as a doom and gloom sort of fellow who has a negative outlook about the future. Others call him a forecaster or predictor of coming events based on current economic situations. Still others just refer to him as a wacko nut job who shouldn’t be taken seriously. I’d say from the things now taking place, that he is a smart investor who knows about the past, talks about the present and is preparing for the future.
You’re better off addressing the problems facing you today than wasting your time worrying about the ones you may be facing years from now, ones that may not even happen before your die.
Big problems are the cumulative result of little problems that were never addressed and solved at a time when they were still little and would have been easiest to solve.
Our American reality is something most people can not accept the facts we have at hand that will make our life style vaporize in a few days , weeks or even months . When and how fast are the questions ? Just remember you do not buy a fire extinguisher because you are going to have a fire !
Remember when the money stops circulating the fuel stops flowing the trucks stop delivering the police and fire start scavenging for themselves and in 72 hours most grocery stores are empty and then you have hungry desperate people that can and will do anything and I mean ANYTHING ! COEXIST sure ok , there will not be any COM-BY-YA circles when the shit hits the fan !
Rogers is always insightful. I look forward to him sharing his perspective. He seems like an honest guy to me to boot. Thanks for posting.
On another note:
The ads on this site are beyond intrusive and disgusting. How can anyone even read the excellent articles posted here with all this bull going on. I struggle with it. I’m guessing lots of others do too. I understand the need to generate revenue, but for god’s sake, this is beyond obnoxious and detracts from the site’s high intellectual standards and casts doubt on the value of it’s contents!
If you’re using a Mac, get WYPR.. Slick extension for Safari..
You can also disable it and download pages without the ad blocker if you’re the kind to poke yourself in the eye.
PS:Websites hate ad blockers of any sort and eventually may figure out a way to keep you from viewing any of the site if you have one enabled. TBP is no different, so be kind and use the link” https://www.amazon.com/s/?rh=n%3A283155%2Cn%3A!1000%2Cn%3A48&bbn=1000&ie=UTF8&qid=1360178070&rnid=1000&tag=thebur01-20&camp=15329&creative=406801&linkCode=ur1&adid=1FFW5HKYG9TGRTCZ1JZ5&” when going to Amazon so TBP will suck up their 6%..
Be kind to Admin – he will love you for it..
Thanks for the advice. Will definitely do that re: Amazon.
disable javascript and the ads won’t come in.
for firefox, type “about:config” in the address bar and hit return.
accept the “risk” of voiding your warranty… ya ya ya
you will see all the firefox settings listed. above the list, there is a search box. type in java. hit enter. the second setting in the search list will be enable javascript. double click anywhere on that line. it will toggle to “disabled”. no ads will come in from that point on in any of your tabs. you’ll have to enable it if you want to do youtube stuff or possibly other shopping sights. but you can at least temporarily disable it for sites like this.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Paul. Much appreciated.
Raven,
Install ad block…my husband did that for me on every computer,
or look it up and do it. Depends on your browser. I happened to
look at the Mr.’s ipad, and naked people were having sex/sort of…
I don’t know what was for sale? But the ads were garish and unpleasant.
You may need to abandon Apple and go with the vaccine man instead,
Firefox.
Thanks Suzanna. I installed the ad block extension for Firefox and MS Edge. Problem solved.
Question for Stuck .
Victoria Nuland , Michael Kagan and extended family … ” regulah Joos”or no ?
A Family Business of Perpetual War
Neoconservative pundit Robert Kagan and his wife, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, run a remarkable family business: she has sparked a hot war in Ukraine and helped launch Cold War II with Russia and he steps in to demand that Congress jack up military spending so America can meet these new security threats.
This extraordinary husband-and-wife duo makes quite a one-two punch for the Military-Industrial Complex, an inside-outside team that creates the need for more military spending, applies political pressure to ensure higher appropriations, and watches as thankful weapons manufacturers lavish grants on like-minded hawkish Washington think tanks.
Clinton’s Hawk-in-Waiting
If Hillary wins the White House, expect Victoria Nuland to be at her side.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/clintons-hawk-in-waiting/
Nuland comes from what might be called the First Family of Military Interventionists. Her husband, Robert Kagan, is a leading neoconservative who co-founded the Project for the New American Century in 1998 around a demand for “regime change” in Iraq. He is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an author, and a regular contributor to the op-ed pages of a number of national newspapers. He has already declared that he will be voting for Hillary Clinton in November, a shift away from the GOP that many have seen as a clever career-enhancing move for both him and his wife.
Robert’s brother, Fred, is with the hawkish American Enterprise Institute, and his sister-in-law, Kimberly, is the head of the Institute for the Study of War, which is largely funded by defense contractors. The Kagans work to encourage military action, both through their positions in government and by influencing the public debate through think-tank reports and op-eds. It is a family enterprise that mirrors the military-industrial complex as a whole, with think tanks coming up with reasons to increase military spending and providing “expert” support for the government officials who actually promote and implement the policies. Defense contractors, meanwhile, benefit from the largesse and kick back some money to the think tanks, which then develop new reasons to spend still more on military procurement.
The Kagans’ underlying belief is that the United States has both the power and the obligation to replace governments that are considered either uncooperative with Washington (the “Leader of the Free World”) or hostile to American interests. American interests are, of course, mutable, and they include values like democracy and the rule of law as well as practical considerations such as economic and political competition. Given the elasticity of the interests, many countries can be and are considered potential targets for Washington’s tender ministrations.
“I’m not the first to realize that people who are rising to become dictators start taking away freedoms first in Germany they took away the guns, they wouldn’t let people have guns in Germany and lots of places have done that or things like that.”
whcih
Total bullshit and Rogers ought to know better which raises the question of what else is Rogers misinformed about?
Hitler did not take away Germans citizen guns.The Allies did that at Versailles.So if anyone can be blamed for disarming the German people it is David Lloyd George, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.
Regulation after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_legislation_in_Germany
From 1918 to 1920, with the defeat of Germany in World War I, the nation was forced to accept a series of devastating reparations after signing the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty had stipulations to disarm the government. The German government adopted a series of laws against private arms ownership to avoid disarming the German military. Article 169 of the Treaty of Versailles explicitly targeted the state: “Within two months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, German arms, munitions, and war material, including anti-aircraft material, existing in Germany in excess of the quantities allowed, must be surrendered to the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers to be destroyed or rendered useless.”[4]
In 1919 the German government passed the Regulations on Weapons Ownership, which declared that “all firearms, as well as all kinds of firearms ammunition, are to be surrendered immediately.”[5] Under the regulations, anyone found in possession of a firearm or ammunition was subject to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 marks.
On August 7, 1920, rising fears whether or not Germany could have rebellions prompted the government to enact a second gun-regulation law called the Law on the Disarmament of the People. It put into effect the provisions of the Versailles Treaty in regard to the limit on military-type weapons.
In 1928, after a near decade of hyperinflation destroyed the structural fabric of society, a rapidly expanding three-way political divide between the conservatives, National Socialists, and Communists prompted the rapidly declining conservative majority to enact the Law on Firearms and Ammunition. This law relaxed gun restrictions and put into effect a strict firearm licensing scheme. Under this scheme, Germans could possess firearms, but they were required to have separate permits to do the following: own or sell firearms, carry firearms (including handguns), manufacture firearms, and professionally deal in firearms and ammunition. Furthermore, the law restricted ownership of firearms to “… persons whose trustworthiness is not in question and who can show a need for a (gun) permit.” This law revoked the 1919 Regulations on Weapons Ownership, which had banned all firearms possession.
Especially car associations lobbied for an easy gun permit for car owners[6] which was granted by the government for drivers traveling often in the countryside.[7]
Gun regulation of the Third Reich
See also: Disarmament of the German Jews
Nazi law to disarm Jews
The 1938 German Weapons Act, the precursor of the current weapons law, superseded the 1928 law. As under the 1928 law, citizens were required to have a permit to carry a firearm and a separate permit to acquire a firearm. But under the new law:
Gun restriction laws applied only to handguns, not to long guns or ammunition. The 1938 revisions completely deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns, and the possession of ammunition.[8]
The legal age at which guns could be purchased was lowered from 20 to 18.[9]
Permits were valid for three years, rather than one year.[9]
More classes of user were exempt from the requirement to hold an acquisition permit; holders of annual hunting permits, government workers, and NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka the Nazi party) members were no longer subject to gun ownership restrictions. Prior to the 1938 law, only officials of the central government, the states, and employees of the German Reichsbahn Railways were exempted.[8]
Manufacture of arms and ammunition continued to require a permit, with the proviso that such permits would no longer be issued to any company even partly owned by Jews; Jews could not manufacture or deal in firearms or ammunition.[8]
Fine, you are a genius with detailed knowledge.
In defense of Rogers, he was speaking extemporaneously,
in general, figuratively, vs literally. “Germany” did not
allow citizens to have guns (post-war mandates) and
imposed fines and imprisonment on violators.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/12/11-year-old-girl-shot-head-chicago-critical-condition/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/12/boston/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Democrat-Run Boston: Over 96 Percent Of Gunmen In Non-Fatal Shootings Never Arrested
50% of serious street crime is committed by 6% of the
population/blk males. I read that somewhere and it sounded
ominous.
Edit add: top of page one search…
A lot of the Doom,Gloom and Boom folks have taken a hit because what they predicted after the crash hasn’t come to pass.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt in that between the Fed,The Gooberment Machine and Wallstreet they’ve been able to do things that NO ONE would have predicted . ZIRP for years,keeping folks on the gooberment tit ( even though we’ve been told that unemployment numbers etc are great ) and giving the poorest folks free healthcare at the expense of the working, have kept the masses happy to some degree.
Once someone hits the economic tripwire the detonation is going to be huuuuge…and I like pyrotechnics !