By: Dan WeilRogers: The Euro Is Headed for Extinction
Monday, 22 March 2010
Monday, 22 Mar 2010 08:50 AM
The European debt crisis sounds the beginning of the death knell for the euro, says investment icon Jim Rogers.
"The euro will probably break up in the next 15 to 20 years," he says. "We've had currency unions in history. They didn't survive, and this one won't survive either," he recently told told CNBC.
Greece suffers from a budget deficit that totals 12.7 percent of GDP, and public debt that is forecast to exceed 120 percent of GDP this year. So the European Union has pledged assistance.
"If (the euro zone helps) the Greeks, that weakens the fundamentals of the euro," Rogers said.
"As the next government comes to demand concessions, they weaken the currency from within. I would let Greece go bankrupt, because then everybody will say the euro is a serious currency."
The British pound is in trouble too, though it’s not in danger of disappearing like the euro, Rogers says. The United Kingdom’s main problems are “gigantic debt and a huge trade deficit," he explained.
Indeed, the entire developed world has currencies that are in danger of falling, Rogers says.
"Most Western currencies, most currencies everywhere are very suspect."
Rogers also sees Chinese real estate and U.S. Treasuries as the two bubbles brewing for global investors now.
Others are concerned about the euro too.
Harvard economist Martin Feldstein says Greece is in a real pickle. “The alternatives are to default in some way or to leave (the euro), or both,” he told Bloomberg.
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