Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 2:10 p.m. EST

Jim Rogers, co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, readily admits he’s a "dollar bear looking for a big rally” so he can sell.
"The U.S. dollar is not an asset I want to hold over the next 10, 15, 20 years. We have an idiot running the central bank right now who knows nothing about currency, history or the markets,” the commodities investment guru told Forbes Magazine, referring to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"I doubt you can find anybody except (U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank) Paulson who is bullish on the U.S. dollar,” he quipped.

Rogers continued to attack Bernanke, accusing him of playing down the effect of the declining dollar on most Americans.


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"He was under oath even, testifying to Congress, saying Americans who use U.S. dollars and buy U.S. products are not affected,” Rogers said.
"The man running one of the most important central banks in the world is either a liar or a fool. I think he’s a charlatan, but who knows?”

Rogers has traded his bullishness in America for faith in China’s economy — he even moved to Singapore and intends to raise his family there.

He encourages Americans to put their investment dollars there as well.

Why China? "All Americans are spending a lot of money in China now, so why don’t we get something back? They’re among the best capitalists in the world. Massachusetts is more communist than China is these days,” Rogers said.

"Investing in the U.S. in 1907 was a brilliant thing to do. Investing in China in 2007 is a brilliant thing to do,” he added.

Rogers advised that Americans interested in investing in China buy via ADRs. That’s because exchange controls in China that prohibits investors from taking their money out.

In addition, he said, investors can buy shares in other markets at discounts to what they trade for in China. Rogers himself buys in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York.

Rogers recommends two ways to invest in China besides buying shares. One is that the currency is opening up, and he expects the yuan to be one of the "great investments of the next decades.”

His other China play is to buy commodities – because China doesn’t have enough of what it needs to grow.

"They have to buy cotton, nickel and oil. You don’t have to worry about corporate governance, unions, government actions or anything else. If you have nickel, the Chinese government will take you to dinner and be nice to you. If you own shares, they don’t have to be nice,” Rogers said.

Rogers also recommends index investing, no matter what the asset class.

Index investors outperform the market 80 percent of the time year after year after year, he said.