The Blame Game

I was listening to a phone-in on the radio the other day. It was discussing whether the 'UK was finished?' This was in response to Jim Rogers suggesting last week that the UK financial industry as a powerhouse was finished.

Shock! Horror! One after another the callers were angry. Jim Rogers was to blame for the fall in sterling. What a nasty man - after all he ran the highly successful Quantum fund with that evil George Soros fella who forced us out of the ERM in 1992. It must be his fault...

I'd beg to differ. Having tracked Rogers' commentary of the problems that have been developing over the past few years (and read a couple of his books), he saw this coming years ago and has not jumped on the bankwagon recently like many lemming economists.

He's a free-thinking individual who is not afraid of airing unpopular views on economic policy. His advise on what the Federal Reserve chief (US central bank - the Fed) Ben Bernanke should do? "Abolish and Fed and then tender his resignation". You wouldn't get the Times' idiotic duo of Anatole Kaletsky and David Smith suggesting that...

When he says the UK is going to struggle due to running out of oil and the financial collapse, I struggle to see a flaw in his logic. But that would be too close to the truth for many of the current crop of politicians. So we might as well blame him for all our ills. It's easier than taking heed and doing something positive about it!

Rogers' expertise is in commodities and is a strong advocate of agriculture in the mid to long term. His suggestion for how to utilise the finance geeks who caused a lot of the problems we now face:

"Bankers should learn to drive tractors"

At least we could blame them if the harvest were to fail...