The Swiss central bank's decision to set a limit on how much the Swiss franc can appreciate against the euro is "a huge mistake," investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC.com on Wednesday. Published: Wednesday, 7 Sep 2011 | 2:40 AM ET On Tuesday, the Swiss National Bank set a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 Swiss francs for the euro, pledging to buy other currencies in unlimited amounts to defend the target. The move "will work for a while, but the market will have more money in the end than the SNB," Rogers, who was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros, told CNBC.com. The Swiss central bank risks losing "a lot of money buying up lots of foreign currencies which they will eventually sell at a loss," he explained. Another risk is that the central bank will "totally debase the Swiss franc trying to keep Switzerland 'competitive' which will then destroy the traditional Swiss financial industry," Rogers said. "So this is a huge mistake for Switzerland since they are going to suffer more either way," he added. "RMB [Chinese yuan] is best," Rogers said, adding that the US dollar is "probably good in the short term, but the absolute worst over the long term." Investors have been looking for ways to get into the Chinese yuan, as some analysts predict that China will overtake the US to be the world's top economy in a few decades. "There are various ways to get RMB exposure outside China," Rogers said, adding that investors can now open bank accounts in renminbi in various cities like New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore and others and can buy renminbi-denominated bonds in the international markets. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44419647 Will they break the swiss central bank?
rogers owns swiss francs, probably a lot more than euros. he is pissed off. fully agree, snb will lose money in the end, the loss will be transfered to swiss citizens to be exact. how will snb defend euro vs usd? or usd vs chf? same thing, fx market is just too large and too leveraged for such a small country to win. politicians will always f##ck up things in the worst possible way.
I would not bet against him, especially since the crisis of 2008. He has been spot on, while the numerous other assclowns have become a laughing stock with their predictions of stability.
I'm not sure about investing in RMB under the current situation. The fact is that the Chinese central bank has perhaps been printing more money than the Fed does in the recent years and there's great inflation in China. I donât see things can be under control there in the foreseeable future.
Actually, none of the currencies look very good at the moment, and the ones that are "less suspect" are richly priced. Hence, metals becoming the safe-haven currently.