What Recovery? America's Problems "Getting Worse, Not Better," Says Jim Rogers

(Yahoo Finance)

"It's getting worse, not better."

That's how Jim Rogers responds to the recent talk of improvement from President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke, among others.

"Papering over the problem is not going to solve America's problem," Rogers says. "The idea you can solve a problem of too much debt and too much consumption with more consumption and more debt defies belief. I cannot believe that grownups would stand there and say that."

History shows the only way to solve a financial crisis is "when people go bankrupt, you let them go bankrupt," Rogers say. "Then, competent people come in, take over the assets, reorganize and you start over."

But rather than "take the pain and reorganize and start over," as Sweden, South Korea and others have done, Rogers says America is "doing the Japanese model."

Keeping zombie banks alive and bailing out their creditors will only prolong the pain, the famed financier predicts. "What has been happening is the government has been printing and spending a lot of money," he says. "The problem is not solved - they're making the problem worse."

Adding insult to injury, Rogers fears the "unintended consequences" of new regulations that inevitably come from politicians seeking someone to blame for the crisis.

"The problems in last two years came from industries that are heavily regulated: banking, insurance, mortgage," he notes. "Now what? You're going to make the regulations tougher? It's not the regulations, it's the regulators."