Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    HONG KONG, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The projected plan to bail out the U.S. economy by printing more money and boosting consumption could lead to even bigger problems, Jim Rogers, one of the most prominent international investors, said Monday.

    "The idea that you can solve a period of excessive borrowing and consumption with more borrowing and more consumption and destroying more balance sheets, to me, is ludicrous on its face," Rogers told the Asian Financial Forum, an event that brought together some 1,000 participants from around the world to Hong Kong.

    Rogers said Japan tried the approach in the 1990s and the United States tried it in the 1970s.

    "It has never worked," he said.

    Rogers said he made spectacular percentage returns on the short positions in his portfolios over the past months and lost less on long positions.

    The 68-year-old co-founder of the Quantum Fund said he was holding assets such as Chinese stocks, the Japanese yen and commodities.

    Rogers said he was pessimistic about the future of the U.S. dollar, as the United States would do whatever was needed to revive its economy, "including destroying the U.S. dollar if they have to."

    The prospect for the U.S. dollar will get even worse if there is a rally resulting from the widely projected economic bailout plan for the Obama administration.

    Rogers said protectionism, one of the key pillars of U.S. President-elect Barrack Obama's presidential campaign platform, could push the U.S. economy into big trouble, citing the historical anecdote that the U.S. congress passed a protectionist bill after the 1929 stock market crash to send the U.S. economy into a long depression.

    He said he would sell his U.S. dollars if there were any rally in the near future resulting from the projected U.S. economic bailout plan by printing more money.

    Rogers said he was buying Chinese stocks, the Japanese yen and commodities.

    The Chinese economy will come out of the current crisis less damaged, while the fundamentals for commodities have significantly improved, mainly due to the heavy pressure on the supply side expected over the coming decade or so, he said.