US in Recession, Set to Worsen, Says Investor Rogers (Reuters)

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Investor Jim Rogers

The United States economy is already in recession and is set for a further slowdown with the dollar expected to remain under pressure, investment guru Jim Rogers said on Monday.

Last week the U.S. central bank sharply lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth in 2008 and said it was worried the economy could face further setbacks even after a series of aggressive interest rate cuts.

"The U.S. is in recession," Rogers told reporters on a visit to Dublin. "It is going to get worse."

Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire George Soros in the 1970s, said the housing and automobile sectors were in a situation "worse than recession" with soaring energy and food prices hitting consumer spending.

"They (the U.S. central bank) are printing money and are trying to prevent the recession -- they are putting on Band-Aids," he said ahead of an investor conference in Dublin.

Rogers said the central bank was making the "same mistakes" Japan did in the early 1990s before its credit-inflated bubble economy burst.