Month: October 2007

Letter Re: Advice on Private Party Gun Purchases

Mr. Rawles: We have a few guns that were passed down from my father, father-in-law, and grandparents. But after reading SurvivalBlog, I’ve determined that its wise to buying a few more, ahem, “capable” defensive guns. (Like an M1A and a scoped Remington 700 Sendero or maybe a Remington 700 PSS .308.) I would rather not buy them from a [Federally licensed] dealer, so I can avoid that whole paperwork trail. My difficulty here is that I live out in cow country where guns shows are infrequent. And the few we do have, have a poor assortment of guns to choose …


Letter Re: Reverse Osmosis Water Purification for Urbanites

Dear Jim, Concerning Justin B.’s letter on reverse osmosis: Why go to all the trouble of using a reverse osmosis system and having to Jerry-rig a way to use it if the electrical system goes on the blink? Use a non-electric, non-water wasting, gravity-based water filtration system like the Big Berkey (30,000 gallons on one set of filters!) and get used to using it for your drinking water every day. It’s a great way to develop a habit and a mind set of preparedness. Every time I fill my Berkey (once or twice a day) I think about my preps …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Thanks to all of you for your patience as I dealt with some important family issues, several visiting SurvivalBlog real estate clients, and the opening of Idaho’s Deer and Elk season, all in the past two weeks. Sometimes there is no such thing as the slower-paced life at a higher altitude! Well the financial news these days just keeps getting darker and for those of you who are actively searching for your retreat, just press on, you’ll make it. As we get back into reviewing actual retreat locales (next week) it’s important to have a solid standard operating procedure (SOP). …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The US residential housing market implosion isn’t over yet. My recent web searches turned up some testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. In reading it, we learned that the majority of ARM rate “resets” in the US will occur in in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. And specifically, the peak for subprime resets will be in March of 2008, the peak in agency loan resets will be in September of 2008, and the peak in “jumbo” loan resets will not be until April of 2009. Buckle your …



Note from JWR:

For those of you that have been waiting, I just got another case of 10 copies of the latest edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. This massive three pound, 870 page compendium is a must for every prepared family’s bookshelf. If you look around, you can sometimes find used copies of the latest (Ninth) edition at local used book stores, or through Internet vendors. If you can’t find a copy locally, new copies are available through our Catalog page.


Letter Re: Advice on Retirement Plans and Precious Metals IRAs

Helo Jim, Just a note to let you know what a great job your doing with the blog. I have a question that as far as I know you have not addressed. Most of my individual retirement account (IRA) money is in a 403b at work. [A 403(b) is a tax deferred retirement plan for the employees of nonprofit organizations.] I had wanted to roll this over into a precious metals IRA. However I am not allowed to do this until I leave my current job. Is there anything you would advise that I can do to protect my 403b …


US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think, by Robert Felix

(The following is re-posted with permission, from IceAgeNow.com) Recently, I said “we’ll be fighting in the streets for food long before we’re buried in ice.” I say the same thing in my book Not by Fire but by Ice. I just received an email from a reader that sums it up better than I did: “I spent about thirty years working in commercial agribusiness. My main job was to purchase ingredients, mainly grain, for flour mills and animal feed mills. As a part of my job, I was forced to understand the US food supply system, its strengths and weaknesses. …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I found Cathy Buckle’s most recent letter from Zimbabwe well worth reading. The ravages of hyperinflation are hard to appreciate except when seen first hand, as related by someone like Cathy.    o o o California Fire Battalion Chief – Whoever Did This Knew What They Were Doing    o o o Alphie mentioned that the October Backwoods Home Magazine e-newsletter is now available.    o o o The Black Swan’s lessons–The value of considering improbable possibilities  



Notes from JWR:

Today we are pleased to welcome our newest advertiser, Turtle Tuff Shelter Systems, in Utah. Be sure to double click on the video link at the top of their Photo Gallery page. What an amazing shelter! If you have a favorite quote, feel free to suggest it, via e-mail. Chances are that I’ll post it as a Quote of the Day. Thanks! The high bid is now at $200 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit digitally-tuned AM/FM/Shortwave radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one …


Are Your Neighbors Contrapreneurs?

The American newspapers are presently full of stories about declining suburban home values and the galloping foreclosure rates, mainly in the coastal markets. (The erstwhile “hot” real estate markets have turned bitter cold.) As more and more foreclosures get dumped onto an already over-saturated “buyers market”, there is a strong likelihood that prices will spiral downward. Anyone that bought a “spec” house is now trying to get rid of it, even if means taking a loss. The downward pressure on house prices is likely to continue for several years in the coastal areas, and in few inland markets like Phoenix …


Three Letter Re: The Recent San Diego, California Wildfires

Jim: I have the rest of the day off due to the wildfires in the area so I am at home. The firefighting aircraft have been grounded due to wind until a couple of minutes ago. The evacuation zone is currently a 1/4 mile east of me. My northeastern and southeastern escape routes are currently out of the question. I figure that by the time I get told to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.), the Northern route will be closed off or too crowded to take. Going South into Mexico is currently not an option due to the makeup of …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Writing in The Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner offers this snippet of investing Gloom and Doom: “Foreclosures in the yankee state [Massachusetts] are running three times last year’s level. And losses are working their way up the socioeconomic ladder. Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) Trust 2006-S3 is a sophisticated investment instrument containing 8,274 mortgages. One out of every six of those mortgages is in default – only 18 months after the thing was put together. When that many people stop paying, it wipes out the entire capital value of the derivative. And since speculators usually take leveraged positions, the losses can go much …