Legendary investor prepares for the longest bear market yet

American veteran investor Jim Rogers says the next bear market will be the biggest in his 80-year life.

In a new interview with Real Vision Finance, Rogers says current economic conditions are similar to those just before the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, but much worse.

Rogers, a close associate of investor George Soros and co-founder of Soros Fund Management, says the amount of debt piled up in the system will inevitably lead to a tough bear market in risky assets.

“I know we are going to have the biggest bear market, the biggest bear market of my life. We had a big bear market in 2008 due to too much debt…look out the window, since 2008 debt has skyrocketed everywhere. Giant rise in debt.

So, I think it's a simple statement that the next bear market will be the worst of my life. Because the debt has grown by such staggering amounts over the last 14 years.”

Rogers cites the great inflationary crisis of 1980 and the huge interest rates and Treasury bond yields needed to keep inflation under control. According to him, a similar situation is now manifesting itself in the financial markets.

There will be problems in all markets. Real estate markets, stock markets, bond markets, currency markets, everything. You're not old enough to remember, but in 1980 and 1979, when we had our last huge inflationary spiral, interest rates on short-term government treasury bills, interest rates on treasury bills were over 21%.

This is not a typo. More than 21%, because the situation got out of control and something had to be done. We did it, it killed inflation, but it wasn't much fun for a lot of people. So that's what's going to happen."

Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to temporarily put interest rates on hold, but sees two more hikes before the end of the year.