Jim Rogers says invest in Russian market

Famed investor Jim Rogers suggests the Russian market may be undervalued and could present significant opportunity for investors. Rogers stated that after a recent visit to Russia he came away impressed with progress influenced by the actions of President Vladmir Putin. Although referring to Putin as a criminal, he felt Putin realizes he must do things differently. Rogers cited a pool of billions of dollars the government has set aside for investments to be made alongside private investors. He cited his own assessment of the low valuation of the Russian market along with an unfortunate concentration in oil and gas.

Rogers is not yet invested in the Russian market, but is considering it after observing the country's ebb and flow for the better part of twenty years. He believes the country has learned its lessons from the past and should be a better investment in the future. Rogers says he is interested in buying the ruble.

CNBC also quoted Todd Berman, Head of Investment Banking at Troika Dialog, as having said that Russia's recent entry into the World Trade Organization is a major accomplishment which will help advance reforms that should propel the Russian economy forward.

Rogers commented on the United States in the context of the upcoming election. Making the claim that the biggest difference between the two candidates is "one comes from Chicago and the other comes from Boston" he sees no fundamental difference in how things will be in the States post-election. His outlook is fundamentally negative and his interest in the Russian market is evidence of the ongoing need for investors to look to emerging markets for future investment returns.

Given Rogers negativity toward the U.S. and his recent and increasing interest in Russia, if he is proven correct, then both RSX and RSXJ may be good candidates for investment. If Russia, which has been less affected by European woes, can continue with a proactive agenda of reform and investment, there is no reason the "undervalued" Russian market cannot flourish.

Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff Rip Bernanke And The Fed

After the official announcement of QE3, a number of hot-shot analysts and experts have come out with their opinions on how the policy will impact our future. The majority have warned about the coming fiscal cliff and how this may only make that worse, while others have been a bit more brash about their distaste for actionsfrom Bernanke and the Fed. Two men in particular, Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers, have been very vocal about their hatred for this policy but they have also both touted commodities as the best way to play another massive injection of money into the economy [for more economic news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Let’s start with Schiff. Watching interviews and or reading some of his work, it is quite clear that this is a heated subject for him. In his eyes, the Fed should have let the economy fail back in 2008 and all of the QE programs have just been delaying the inevitable. He feels that Bernanke’s bold policy will actually inhibit growth and job creation. He has also stated that the Fed will never be able to produce a vibrant economy through money printing, as QE is simply a drop in a much larger bucket of issues. With his prediction of the dollar index dipping to 40 or even 20, Schiff feels that real assets like silver and gold are the best place for investors to be in the coming months.

Jim Rogers is another who has publicly ripped the Fed for their actions in recent years. He feels that Bernanke and company do not know what they are doing and that printing more money will never solve our problems. “Maybe sometimes in the short term printing money has alleviated the situation, but anybody who has studied history or economics knows that printing money in the longer term doesn’t work”says Rogers. Rogers has long been warning of a deep recession in the next few years, putting him right in line with Schiff, as both feel that we are heading for a financial crisis [see also Protect Yourself From Debased Currencies, Jim Rogers Style].

Mr. Rogers has also gone on to take a few jabs at the current presidential candidates, calling the outcome of the election irrelevant. According to the legendary commodity investor, neither candidate properly understands the deep-seeded issues of our economy and neither will be able to fix it. Working off of his predictions, Rogers has touted investments like agriculture and precious metals, although he has been very clear about stating that he feels silver is a much better investment than gold for the time being.