The co-founder of Soros Fund Management, a $5.61 billion private investment firm, is painting a grim picture for the United States as the country continues to accumulate massive amounts of debt.
In a recent interview with Sputnik International, legendary investor Jim Rogers says the US went from a creditor nation to the “largest debtor nation in the history of the world” in a span of half a century.
According to Rogers, the country’s skyrocketing debt problem – to the tune of $32.47 trillion – will eventually its ugly head in the form of persistently high inflation and higher interest rates.
“In the 1970s -1980s, the last time we had this kind (of problem), interest rates went to 21% on government bonds, government paper, because the inflation was so bad. The inflation now is worse.
In 1980, the United States was still a creditor nation. Now, the United States is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. So sure, things feel okay at the moment. Things have calmed down at the moment… but it’s not going to last forever.
Somebody’s got to pay this debt. Somebody has to print more money. Somebody has to borrow more money. And when you borrow huge amounts of money, interest rates will go higher and higher. Inflation will go higher because so much money has been printed.”
The legendary investor warns that the country’s historically high debt levels will make the next economic crisis the biggest one in our lifetime.
“We had a problem in 2008. I will tell you the next time we have an economic problem, it’s going to be the worst in my lifetime and that means the worst in your lifetime, too. In 2008, we had a big problem because of too much debt. Since 2009, the debt everywhere has skyrocketed. So the next financial problem has to be very, very serious because the debt is so much bigger.”
Rogers also says that the US government along with the Federal Reserve won’t have the necessary tools to sufficiently contain the next crisis.
“All they know to do is to print money. They will print money. They might put in more controls. They probably will put in more controls. That’s something they have always loved to do. That usually makes it worse in the end, but that’s all they know to do.”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently published a report projecting that the national debt will outrun the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 30 years. The CBO predicts that the national debt soar to $143.895 trillion by 2053, nearly three times the country’s GDP.
