Category: Economics & Investing

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

After some huge price swings in the last week of the year, the Silver Bull has resumed his charge. As of Tuesday afternoon (January 6, 2026), spot silver was at $82.06 USD per Troy ounce.  I expect a few gasps of short-selling today, but $70 seems to be the new floor for silver. I’m holding to my prediction that silver and platinum will continue to outperform gold’s gains. The formerly languishing price of nickel has spiked.  Surprisingly, we still have the opportunity to stack Nickels (U.S. 5-cent pieces) at face value.  The U.S. Mint recently stopped producing pennies.  I believe …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.  This week, some market and economic predictions for 2026. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       (Graphic courtesy of Visual Capitalist.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest JWR’s 2026 economic predictions in a nutshell:  Repeated Fed interest rate cuts with little effect. Renewed inflation. A major stock market correction, but a continuing boom in defense stocks. A continuing precious metals bull market led by silver, and then a metals price crash.  Expect a weaker U.S. Dollar, …


How Long Will The Silver Bull’s Rampage Continue?

Spot silver jumped 10.35% to $79.59 per troy ounce in just one day, on Friday, December 26, 2025. On that day, there were new all-time highs set for silver, platinum, and gold. Spot silver has gained a phenomenal 166% in value in 2025. And now, amazingly, a $1,000 face value bag of pre-1965 non-numismatic “junk” 90% U.S. silver coins now sells for $56,840. Though prices vary, that effectively means that the melt value of one U.S. pre-1965 silver dime (10-cent piece) is now $5.68. And today? In Monday morning trading in China, (that was early Sunday evening, in the United …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. Economics & Investing Links of Interest Spot silver closed at $72.12 per Troy ounce on Wednesday. Gold, platinum, and palladium were also up, similarly. And also on Wednesday, we saw $77.12 in Shanghai trading! (A huge opportunity for the arb traders.)  Silver in Hong Kong briefly touched $75.62 this morning. For anyone who established their silver stack at below $35 per ounce, this is a logical time to liquidate 5% of your silver holdings, and put the proceeds …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. This week, a chart showing the growth of global silver demand, and its components.  It was published 11 months ago. Demand is now even higher. The annual production deficit also keeps growing. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.           (Graphic courtesy of Visual Capitalist and Vizsla Silver Corp.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest At The Burning Platform:  Samsung Just Dropped A “Silver Bomb” . . . Their New “Solid State” Battery Tech Breaks …


Will The US Hit A Deflationary Wall Or Will The Fed Inflate Again In 2026?, by Brandon Smith

Editor’s Note:   This article was originally published by Birch Gold Group.  It is re-posted with permission. In a system dominated by Keynesian economics the word “deflation” is considered taboo; like saying Donald Trump’s name out loud in a crowded Seattle yoga studio. The screeching reaction you will get is rarely worth the effort of arguing the point. Every element of modern financial policy is designed to prevent a deflationary event. Every central bank policy is designed to artificially drag the economy out of deflation using whatever fiat stimulus is necessary. Of course, deflation is not always a bad thing. It’s …


Opportunity Knocks: Building and Registering Tax-Free Suppressors – Part 2

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Kaw Mach 3 Linear Compensator Conversion The suppressor-making cognoscenti tell me that the Kaw Valley Precision Mach 3 Linear Compensator is a great starting point for a .22 to 9mm-size suppressor home build. These clever devices are NOT classified as suppressors by the ATF. They are sold nationwide, with no paperwork.  They are a modular design, meaning that sections can be assembled incrementally, to whatever length you’d like. (Kaw Valley Precision also makes 2″ and 3″ extensions, and sells them separately.) It was probably just a coincidence, but the inside diameter of …


Opportunity Knocks: Building and Registering Tax-Free Suppressors – Part 1

Introductory Legal Proviso:  What I’m presenting in this article is solely for informational purposes. Consult local, state, and Federal law before buying or constructing a suppressor.  Stay legal!  Take note that the following applies only to folks who live in free states. There are many states like California and Illinois that have bans on suppressors. – JWR — As of January 1, 2026, the National Firearms Act (NFA) Tax on suppressors (called “silencers” in the legal world), short-barreled rifles (SBRs), and short-barreled shotguns (SBSes) will drop from $200 per transfer to ZERO. So now, although the NFA transfer application no …


Update: Tracking The Silver Bull Market — Key Channels and Fractals, by Hubert Moolman

Editor’s Introductory Note:  Today’s short feature post is from our friend Hub Moolman, in South Africa. Hub’s analysis includes two very useful charts. While I don’t rely on technical analysis, I do find that it often provides useful confirmation for the study of market fundamentals. For the big market traders, the current silver market seems to be transitioning from the “disbelief” stage to the “mania” stage. It is always difficult to time a market top, and missing a top can be perilous. I did quite well in calling the silver market bottom, on February 8, 2001 in a Usenet post …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. H.L. suggested a graphic derived from data from the IMF World Economic Outlook produced by Visual Capitalist that depicts aggregate world debt, by country, in 2025. The darker the color, the higher the percentage of a nation’s GDP. We are not far behind Japan!  There are several sovereign debt defaults ahead. Japan will probably just be the first of many. – JWR The thumbnail below is click-expandable.           (The graphic by Dorothy Neufeld is …


Planning Your Silver Bull Market Exit Strategy

The recent physical silver shortage and the run-up in the spot and futures prices of silver (around $59 USD per Troy ounce the last time that I checked) has prompted me to issue some supplementary advice about how and when to SELL some of your silver.  We should all be ready to start slowly SELLING or trading a large part of our silver once the spot price passes $125 per ounce.  There will almost certainly be a peak and then a crash in silver. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that …


America’s Future Can Be Seen in Spain’s Past

My goal in the essay is to use a well-known historical precedent to illustrate the U.S. Federal government’s untenable indebtedness predicament. Spain, 1500-1590 In 1500, the New World had just recently been discovered, and Spain had just recently forced the Moorish invaders from the Iberian Peninsula. Expanding their army, expanding their navy, and the lengthy campaign to kick out the Moors had been expensive for the Spanish crown. They also needed to maintain a large army to keep the Islamic North Africans from returning. There were also the expenses of building and supplying a large fleet of ships, in the …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.  This week, a FRED graph showing the M2 Money Supply, provided by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. JWR’s Comment: With such a dramatic expansion in the number of U.S. Dollars in circulation, there is no doubt why inflation is so pernicious, and why commodities are enjoying secular bull markets. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.     Economics & Investing Links of Interest Silver was shining brightly again this week, as the Silver Shorts have nearly surrendered, following the …


Practical Preparedness Suggestions – Part 1, by R.J.

This article is a compilation of practical preparedness tips, insights, and lessons learned. It starts with what I call inner resources, or mindset and moves toward the hard, practical items. I offer a rather broad field of experience, including military/industrial electrical work, Christian hospitality in organized retreat settings, hospice/end of life care, and some alternative power experience. I’ll close the article with a Christian exhortation as we head into this Christmas season. Mindset You can break the preparedness mindset down into: homesteading, military, social, domestic categories, etc; or synthesize it into one grand holistic prepster/survivalist perspective. Just don’t flunk the …


Update: Coping With Inflation–Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival

JWR’s Introductory Note: This is an update to an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog back in December, 2007. It is part of a series of SurvivalBlog 20th Anniversary update re-posts, in recognition of the fact that the majority of readers did not join us until recent years. — As of September, 2025, statistics released by the Federal government claim that the current inflation rate is 3.0 percent. That is utter hogwash. Their statistics cunningly omit “volatile” food and energy prices. It is apparent that something is seriously out of whack. Meanwhile, the buying power of the US Dollar has …