Day: July 7, 2008

Notes from JWR:

I’m scheduled to be interviewed this evening on the Fox News network, at around 5:40 p.m., eastern time. The subject will be the 2012 preparedness movement. Kathy McMahon (aka “PeakShrink”) penned an excellent piece over at The Energy Bulletin web site that summarizes the varieties of Doomer psychological types: Three types of doomers and fantasy collapse. In the article, she gently pokes fun at my novel “Patriots” and at those of us that fall into what she calls the “Do-More” preparedness mindset.


Letter Re: Thoughts on Static Retreat Defense

Mr Rawles, Before I start, I must congratulate you on your remarkable and down to earth approach to informing your audience of both the practical ins-and-outs and theory of preparedness. I’m a mid-20s town planner with a minor in building design, living in Western Australia. I share many of the same concerns regarding the status and direction of society as your audience. I came across your site in the last four months, and have then spent a great deal of time searching your archives. I recently ordered your “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” book, and await it eagerly. My town …


Letter Re: Biofuel Problems and Sustainability

Hi Jim, A recent article in Der Spiegel gives us some real insight into food prices. My guess is that if we continue down this path we will see some important events start taking place in Third World nations that cannot afford high food prices. Here is how this can effect us here. It takes 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol. This might be a weeks worth of fuel for a person commuting to work. It could be many months worth of food for that same person. You may say that you don’t eat that much …


Letter Re: The Handwriting is on the Wall for the Big Three Auto Makers

Mr. Rawles, Anyone who is paying attention would have seen the mess that America’s “Big Three” auto makers are in. A smart Peak Oil [market] player would have shorted them a while ago. But consider this little fun fact – As of this last Friday, the market capitalization of General Motors (GM) was just over $5 billion. That’s all. Toyota has about 25 times that. So are several other healthy auto makers and they all know that times are tough yet GM expects sales to pick up later this year? But consider that $5 billion. It’s cheap yet no one …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I recently had a consulting client ask me if I thought the credit crisis was over. Over? No way. Even after a year of credit contraction, we’ve only seen the first wave of the credit crisis. The entire global credit market is still spiraling into the abyss. The recent steep downgrades of MBIA and AMBAC (the folks that insure municipal bonds) are the latest red flags, showing another aspect of the problem. MBIA has been downgraded five grades to A2, and they are on “negative watch”. That is the term used when a forced liquidation is expected! The bottom line …