Things are probably going to get much worse before they get better, veteran investor Jim Rogers tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in a broadcast interview last December. Why? Because, as Rogers so succinctly states it, “the problem of too much debt is not solved with more debt.” So simple, so profound…

Rogers, co-founder of the global-investment partnership Quantum Fund, is a pretty smart cookie. In its first 10 years Quantum Fund’s portfolio gained 4200% compared to the S&P’s gain of some 50% in the same period. Rogers then retired at age 37.

Rogers in December expressed skepticism about recent market increases and thinks there may even be a depression on the horizon for 2013. “In  2002 we had a problem; 2008 was worse because the debt was higher. 2013, or whenever the next one is, is going to be worse still, because the debt is going through the roof…. We’re shooting all our bullets; we’re wasting money.”

The United States, Rogers points out, is in worse shape than Europe in terms of debts.”The U.S. as a whole is the largest debtor nation in the world, and we have bankrupt states—New York, Illinois, California. In Europe, the whole thing is not a debtor nation; they’re solvent. They’ve got individual countries, Ireland, Greece, etc., that are bankrupt, but no, they’re in much better shape than we are….”

European promises to do better serve to “make us feel better for a while,” Rogers allows. “But eventually a month, six weeks, two, three months from now, people are gonna say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’re back where we were. Things are worse than they were before.”

For the time being, Rogers is just sitting and watching, he says. He currently owns some currencies—dollars, euros, Swiss francs, Japanese yen—is short U.S. tech stocks, short emerging markets, short European stocks… and long commodities.

“And Maria,” Rogers goes on, “when things don’t get better, they’re gonna print a lot more money. And when they print money, you have to own silver, you have to own rice, you have to own real things in order to survive.”

Rogers, who called the rise in gold prices long ago, said he believes gold and silver prices may “rest and consolidate” for a time before climbing. “If I had to buy one, gold and silver, I’d buy silver because silver’s depressed, that’s all. But I hope gold and silver continue to rest and consolidate so that I can buy more, so I can buy a lot more.”

The entire 6-minute clip is worth watching for more Rogers’ gems, like his take on the MF Global scandal…. “outrageous.”