Britain faces credit rating cut warns US investor
Britain and several euro zone countries are likely to have their credit ratings cut in coming months as debt problems worsen, and Western policymakers are bound to embark on more quantitative easing to get their economies moving, American investor Jim Rogers said on Monday.
He also said Standard & Poor’s acted too slowly in stripping the United States of its AAA rating on Friday, and that he remained bullish on commodities as investors turn to real assets amid fears of further quantitative easing by the U.S. and European central banks.
“The idea that the US is downgraded and the UK is not is lunacy. There are many countries, Belgium, Spain, lots of countries in Europe, that should be downgraded just as the US has been downgraded,” Rogers said in an interview with Reuters Insider.
Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, is a well-known investor and public speaker known for his bullish views on commodities and China. He now lives in Singapore.
Rogers said he has long positions on agriculture, gold and other commodities and is short on emerging market equities, government bonds and large US financial institutions.
Despite the recent falls in commodity prices and US Treasury yields, he said his positions remained healthy as the losses were offset by gains on his short positions.
Rogers predicted Western governments will embark on a new round of quantitative easing to help spur their moribund economies, as politicians and other policymakers were not prepared to go through the pains of bankruptcy.
“They’ll try to disguise it. They’ll call it cupcakes or who knows what. It’ll cause a big rally in raw materials and commodities because more and more people will realise they are printing money, they are debasing the currency.”