Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Hedge Fund with billionaire George Soros, boosted his bets against U.S. securities firms because of their salary ``excesses'' and money-losing investments. Rogers said he increased his year-old short positions in the past six weeks in U.S. investment banks, using exchange-traded funds and bets against individual companies he declined to name. Stocks in the industry, which pays too much in bonuses, may fall by as much as 70 percent in a bear market, he said. ``You see 29-year-olds on Wall Street making $10 million to $20 million a year, and they think it's normal,'' Rogers, 65, said in an interview in London today. ``There have been lots of excesses,'' said Rogers, chairman of Beeland Interests Inc. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wall Street's most-profitable securities firm, said Sept. 20 that it had set aside $16.9 billion to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses in the first nine months of the year, topping the record amount for all of last year. A month later Merrill Lynch & Co. reported its biggest quarterly loss amid $8.4 billion of writedowns for subprime mortgages, asset-backed bonds and bad loans. The 12-member AMEX Securities Broker/Dealer Index has fallen 13 percent since the start of June, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of stocks was little changed. ``Who knows how bad the balance sheets are,'' Rogers said. ``They took on gigantic amounts of bad paper.'' Money managers such as Rogers take short positions by selling borrowed shares. They aim to buy them back at a lower price and pocket the difference. Rogers said he made the investments using his own money. He declined to say how much he oversees. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFtZT.ckIIV8&refer=home ``You see 29-year-olds on Wall Street making $10 million to $20 million a year, and they think it's normal,'' =>what about hedgefund managers "earning" 1 Billion ?
Jim Rogers knows whats wrong, everyone seems to be ignoring him and his opinion, I agree with most of what he says. There was a great interview about what he said about bernanke and cutting the interest rates.....