Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is ``a nut'' and interest-rate cuts by the central bank are harming the U.S. economy by fueling inflation, investor Jim Rogers said.

``Bernanke loves printing money,'' Rogers said in an interview in New York. ``This man is a nut. The dollar is collapsing, commodities are going through the roof, which means inflation's going through the roof. These people are leading us to terrible problems down the line.''

Rogers, the 65-year-old chairman of Beeland Interests Inc., also said he's selling short shares of Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, and Fannie Mae, the largest provider of money for U.S. home loans. Investors should buy commodities and the Chinese currency, Rogers said.

The Fed this week cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 4.5 percent. Policy makers have now lowered their target rate for overnight loans between banks by 0.75 percentage point in six weeks, the most aggressive easing since the economy was emerging from its last recession in 2001.

Financial shares in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index have tumbled 14 percent as a group this year after a collapse in the subprime mortgage market prompted a surge in borrowing costs and forced banks to write down the value of some debt securities.

Rogers said financial companies may be forced to write off ``tens of billions of dollars more.''

Citigroup, Fannie Mae

Citigroup, which last month said third-quarter earnings fell 57 percent, tumbled to the lowest since April 2003 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today. The New York-based company's shares lost 78 cents, or 2 percent, to $37.73.

Fannie Mae declined $1.89, or 3.5 percent, to $52.61. Shares of the Washington-based company have dropped 11 percent this year to the lowest since September 2006.

Short sellers profit from stock declines by borrowing shares and selling them, then buying them back at a lower price to pocket the difference.

Citigroup spokesman Michael Hanretta declined to comment. Fannie Mae spokesman Jason Lobo wasn't available for comment.

Rogers, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1999, is betting that prices for oil and agricultural commodities will continue to rise.

``Oil prices are going to go higher because nobody has discovered any gigantic oil fields for over 40 years,'' said Rogers, who sees prices climbing as high as $150 a barrel. ``There's just no oil out there.''

`Best Investments'

Crude oil rose more than $2 a barrel today to a record close of $95.93 in New York on speculation that fuel demand will increase after a government report showed U.S. employers added almost twice as many jobs as forecast in October.

Rogers also said he's buying currencies including the Chinese renminbi, the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen.

China's currency is ``bound to double, or triple or quadruple over the next 10 or 20 years,'' he said. ``It's got to be one of the best investments around right now.''

Rogers co-founded the Quantum Hedge Fund with George Soros in the 1970s. He traveled the world by motorcycle and car in the 1990s researching investment ideas for his books, which include ``Adventure Capitalist'' and ``Hot Commodities.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Betty Liu in New York at bliu17@bloomberg.net; Michael Patterson in New York at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 2, 2007 18:15 EDT