Legendary American investor Jim Rogers told MarketWatch in a Zoom interview this week that the US economy is getting closer to experiencing an "extremely severe" recession, which will lead investors to flock to precious metals.

But this senior investor, known as the "commodity king," said he is more likely to buy silver instead of gold to "avoid" economic turmoil.

Rogers said in an interview that history shows that we are getting closer to an economic recession, "but I don't know when

He said, "I know the economy will decline again, and this will be an extremely severe recession

Rogers is the chairman of Beeland Interests Inc. He co founded the legendary Quantum Fund with billionaire George Soros in the 1970s.

He believes that "the United States has never experienced such a long period of economic recession in its history," and that more economic problems "should have appeared a long time ago.

According to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States, the longest period without a recession was around 128 months from 2009 to 2020.

The United States experienced a brief economic recession during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Before that, the United States experienced a "Great Recession" from 2007 to 2009. This is one of the longest and most severe economic downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Rogers believes that if there are indeed serious economic problems, gold and silver will perform well, and commodities will generally perform well as well.

He said that when economic problems arise, it can lead to money printing and inflation, and people will hope for a "safe haven for assets that can preserve their value". In situations of severe inflation and money printing, commodities usually retain their value

Rogers said that gold and silver, in particular, have always been hiding places for people during times of economic turbulence. So I think gold and silver will perform well

He said, "Gold has performed well. Silver has also performed well

The most active gold futures contract for December on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Comex) closed at a record high of $2759.80 per ounce on Tuesday and hit a historic intraday high of $2772.60 per ounce on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the December silver futures contract closed at $35.04 per ounce on Tuesday, a 12 year high. The highest settlement price for silver was $48.70 per ounce on January 17, 1980.

Rogers said, 'If we are going to face serious economic problems, more money printing, and more inflation, then... silver and gold will once again become hiding places.'.

If Rogers were to choose between gold and silver, he might choose silver because it is still far from historical highs, while gold is close to historical highs.

However, Rogers emphasized that he does indeed hold a "large" amount of these two precious metals.

However, he said that the performance of gold seems to indicate that there may be more money printing and various potential problems. "Look out the window - you may see war, you may see money printing. Gold is afraid of both of these things, it has always been

Although he has not currently purchased physical gold and silver, Rogers said, 'If he has time, he may buy some silver this week, but not gold, not now,' unless there is a decline in gold prices.