Jim Rogers, creator of the Jim Rogers Index, called into Bloomberg from Singapore to conduct a phone interview. In the US economy, the numbers have been looking better. Sales and unemployment claims are down.

But we probably haven’t even gotten out of the recession. Unemployment is higher than a few years ago, the government debt is much higher. The people who got all of the money that the government spent are all better off, but the overall situation is worse. We have printed a staggering amount of money.

25 years ago, politicians have been talking about solving deficit spending and the debt. But nothing ever happens, they just go through the same charade and move on.

Jim Rogers owns real things like the commodities in the Jim Rogers Index and silver and gold. If the world prospers, he will make money because those commodities will be scarce and in demand. If the economy is weak, he will make money because the central banks will keep printing money.

The time to buy emerging market stocks will be when the people investing in those stocks are out of work. There are too many people with MBAs looking for opportunities in emerging markets.

It is the stuff like the Jim Rogers Index that is going to do well. In the 1970s, stocks and economies did nothing around the world. But commodities did fantastic. We are right back where we were 40 years ago.

Besides gold and silver coins, Jim invests largely in the Jim Rogers Index. Index investing outperforms active management 70% of the time year in and year out.

Besides the Jim Rogers Index, there are places to buy coins where there isn’t too much of a mark-up. But you must be very careful if you are going to buy coins, because some people do charge unbelievable markups.

Jim is much more bullish on agricultural commodities. There are problems with shortages of both food and farmers. No one has become a farmer for 30 years. Someone has to be in the field to do the work required. Even with machines and genetically-engineered crops and other technologies.

There have been bull markets in commodities and bear markets in commodities. Perhaps this time will be different and the bull market will last forever. However, it has never happened before.

Rick Perry has said that it would be treason for the Federal Reserve to print money. But they have always been doing that. Bernanke will only continue to print money. That is all he knows. He spent his academic career studying the printing of money. He has already started QE3.

An early Act in the United States history made it a crime to debase the national currency. Maybe we need to bring that Act back. It might actually force Bernanke to resign.