Legendary Investor: Approaching Crisis 'Worse' Than '08, Yuan Will be Safer Than Dollar

Legendary investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, offered a very glum outlook on the U.S. economy yesterday. According to him, we're headed for a crisis worse than 2008, the Chinese Yuan will soon be safer than the dollar, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will probably institute another round of money-printing, or QE3.

"The debts that are in this country are skyrocketing," he told CNBC. "In the last three years the government has spent staggering amounts of money and the Federal Reserve is taking on staggering amounts of debt.

"When the problems arise  next time…what are they going to do? They can’t quadruple the debt again. They cannot print that much more money. It’s gonna be worse the next time around."

He later added, "The U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. The debts are going through the roof. Would you keep lending money to somebody who's spending money and not doing anything about it? No you wouldn't."

Because of that, he said the Chinese Yuan will be a safer currency bet than the dollar. And what may even better is gold and silver: he's hoping the price goes down on both so he can "pick up the phone and buy more."

He's also convinced Ben Bernanke, who he calls a "disaster," will institute another round of quantitative easing, essentially printing money, later this year.

"They're gonna bring it back because [Bernanke will] be terrified and Washington will be terrified," he said. "There's an election coming in November 2012. Washington's gonna print more money."

According to him "draconian" cuts will be needed to control U.S. debt:

Rogers comments come as a new poll reveals nearly half of Americans expect another Great Depression in the next 12 months.