"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." – Theodore Roosevelt
Jim, With [hurricanes] Gustav and Ike paying us a visit, I thought I would send you a note regarding the importance of self reliance versus shelter life. Living in the Gulf South, hurricanes are something you have to prepare for. Government support and shelter will not be there for you in the way you might think. Your lack of supplies or resources when you most need them, depending on the emergency, could mean a thoroughly miserable experience for you and your family at best; or [something far] worse if the emergency is wider and deeper in scope. Start making your …
Jim: To follow-up on the last two e-mails that you posted from me, here are some random thoughts that I’d like to share on preparedness for when the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF): Use an eyeglasses “leash” (lanyard) to prevent the loss of glasses and reduce the risk of damage. Buy janitorial-size rolls os toilet paper, without perforations. Each roll is 1,000 feet long, and a box of 12 rolls measures about two feet square. These take up just a fraction of the room required to store the same length of toilet paper in standard household rolls. Use a kiddie-type …
I hope that readers took my advice and bought precious metals during the recent dip. The bank credit crisis seems to have woken the gold bull from his short nap. (Gold had one of its best one day gains ever, on Wednesday.) I believe that the bull’s charge will resume, shortly. Because the consumer economy now looks weak, I predict that gold will probably outperform silver in the next run-up. (Since silver is more of an industrial metal, whereas gold as seen as a safe haven when currencies are in turmoil.) o o o Tim T. mentioned that any …
“A billion here, and billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” – Senator Everett Dirksen
It seems that we are now all in the insurance business. For a mere $85+ billion “loan”, the Federal Reserve–backed by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury–just became a 80% stakeholder in AIG, the nation’s largest insurance company. Hmmmm… Just as I warned, the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) has grown again. Methinks this is going to get a lot worse, before it gets better. Who will we bail out next? Chase Manhattan Bank? General Motors? United Airlines? Chuck E. Cheese? Hey, no prob, we’ve got a big checkbook. The sky’s the limit. We’ll just create the …
Jim, I’m getting ready to add to my collection of gold and silver coins and wanted to bring up a perhaps significant point: American Silver Eagles have a face value of $1, whereas the equivalent Canadian coin (the 1 ounce Maple Leaf) has a face value of $5 Canadian – about $4.65 USD at the current exchange rate. The face value represents a built-in stop-loss should silver prices fall through the floor for any reason. At current prices, the face value of the Canadian caps your potential loss at slightly higher than 50% whereas with the U.S. coin you could …
Sir: I’ve been a reader of your site for only about a year and consider myself a beginner-level survivalist. I’ve got the mindset and start of some basic short-term survival gear and knowledge, but haven’t been able to convince the wife to go all out yet. A few months ago, you had posted an article about keeping your level of preparedness secret from neighbors and I wasn’t sure why until recently. I live in Middle Tennessee, and although we are hundreds of miles away from Hurricane Ike, we experienced a short run on gas and spike in prices. Probably close …
Hi Jim, We live in Columbus, Ohio and had 76 m.p.h. winds on Sunday. We have been without power until late today. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone. Many trees on homes and in yards. There is some good news in that we shared our generator with neighbors. Others in the neighborhood were doing the same. Some of the kids set up a barbeque stand and were selling hot dogs and hamburgers for cost. This helped many to have meals. Everyone helped to clear trees and limbs from the roads and yards. Schools are still closed for Wednesday and …
Krys in Idaho flagged this one: Ike Holdouts To Be Forced From Home. Some comments from Krys: “This story shows the importance of two things: 1) Proper retreat location and2) Having multiple plans in place for multiple scenarios WTSHTF. Just because you plan to stay in place, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to.How many of these folks were perfectly able to weather the storm in place, but are being forced to move anyway, possibly at gun point? Food for thought.” o o o Reader “M” sent us this: Money Market Fund Says Customers Could Lose Money. Money market accounts …
“It’s easy to find a trend and ride the train. The problem is, managers don’t know when to get off it.” – Peter Rup, discussing the collapse of Ospraie Management LLC’s commodities hedge fund.
Prompted by the clamorous economic headlines in the mainstream media, I’ve had numerous e-mails and phone calls from relatives and consulting clients, asking me “Is this it, Jim?” Please keep in mind that I’m not a prophet. I’m just a former spook that makes some empirical observations and draws some logical conclusions. But I can safely say that “it” appears to be a lot closer than it ever has been in my adult life. Be ready. Thanks to the generous folks at KI4U.com, the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction package in the auction that just started this week has been expanded, to …
James: I have a question about cars: In making your G.O.O.D. vehicle, which would be considered safer, a modern car with front and side airbags, a modern car with airbags and a roll cage, a modern car with airbags disabled/removed and a roll cage, or an old muscle car without airbags but with roll cage? – SF in Hawaii JWR Replies: To begin, from what I’ve read, most of the professional drivers in the executive protection business drive with only the driver’s side airbags disabled. Based on what I’ve heard regarding what models are driven by the winners at demolition …
Jim: To follow-up on my last e-mail, here are some random thoughts that I’d like to share on fuel conservation, for when the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF): Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) – Often used in the Third World to save fuel and time when treating drinking water. Water that is heated to 149 degrees for a short time is free from living microbes. Water does not have to be boiled for 10 minutes. A WAPI is a simple, small and low cost tube with a special soy wax that can show that water has reached a safe Pasteurization temperature. …
Good Morning, Jim, And yes it is a good morning at that. I’m here in the suburbs of Ohio between Dayton and Cincinnati. Our power has returned. I read Larry in Cincinnati’s post this morning, and I know his thoughts and feelings all too well. Like him, we had the preparedness mind set already in place, and fared a bit better than some of our neighbors. I only caught the tail end of your interview on AM 700 WLW in Cincinnati in my truck as I was heading to work ( the company I work for is on a different …