Jim Rogers: big recession coming

As regular readers of this site know, I’ve long pointed out that recessions hit every 4-6 years. The last one began in Dec. 2007. That’s almost 6 years ago, so we’re due.

Here’s a YouTube of famed investor Jim Rogers. He points out that the 2007-09 recession was so bad because of the massive debt run up from 2001-2007 under the Republican Bush administration and the mostly Republican Congress. By contrast, the 1999-00 recession wasn’t so bad because, it’s hard to remember, we actually had surpluses for two years, thanks to Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congresses of those days.

As Rogers points out, the next recession will be a doozy because the debt now is much higher even than it was in 2007.

Fed Chairman Bernanke, as Rogers says, has brought us “prosperity” only by printing money and keeping interest rates at 0 percent. Lucky him, he’s leaving office soon and won’t get blamed for the crash (except by guys like Rogers and me).

This deep recession, perhaps a Depression, will hit California’s state and local finances harder than the 2007-09 recession did. We’re going to see more bankruptcies. Instead of increasing spending and insisting California is “back,” Gov. Jerry Brown will be forced to cut spending again.

With Halloween approaching, to quote my Michigan landsman Alice Cooper, “Welcome to my nightmare.”