Jim Rogers, CEO, Rogers Holdings was in India to inaugurate a commodity-linked equity fund launched by Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co. Ltd. Speaking on the occasion he touched on investing and feels this is a good time to start investing in commodities as they would rebound faster than other asset classes.

He prefers agriculture commodities to non-agriculture products.  He spoke on the bull market in dollar, commodities, inflation, crude oil and the subprime crisis. Here is a summary of Jim Rogers views on various investment options.

Stocks and bonds

Stock markets around the world are very expensive and can be for some more time. Bonds are terrible places to invest (because of high inflation). 

We are going to have more inflation. I tell people all the time to sell any bonds if they hold any. I tell people’s bond portfolio managers to get another job because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Commodities

Most people need a sector in order to make money. We have a sizeable market where things are going up all the time. We have such a market—raw materials, natural resources, commodities—call it what you will.

We have long periods of rise in commodity prices, followed by long periods of decline followed by long rise again. It’s been going on for a long, long, long time.

Commodities are the second largest asset class in the world, second only to foreign currency.

We have a bull market in commodities as we’ve had many times in the past. If you’ve got to own something, you got to be owning commodities because supply-demand imbalances are in commodities and not in stocks.

September and October in investment markets are weak months so you are at the right time to start investing in commodities if you have it.