Day: October 1, 2008

Notes from JWR:

We had an amazing 17,945 unique visits yesterday, gobbling up almost 17 gigabytes of traffic. Those are both new records for SurvivalBlog. Thanks for continuing to spread the word about SurvivalBlog and making it such a success. It is not too late for your “head in the sand” relatives, friends, and co-workers to get themselves prepared. Spread the word! Even just a one line mention in your-e-mail footer would be a huge help. Here is what reader Paul G. uses in his footer: survivalblog.com — Bookmark it. It may save your life! We’ve completed the judging for Round 18 of …


Letter Re: Some Practical Notes on Third World Living

Jim, As this is not a competition entry, it has not been reviewed by an outside set of eyes yet, and I’m sure its kind of disorganized, but this is some info about third world life, as I can see it here, after things stabilize. My wife is from Peru. She was born during the Peruvian hyperinflation and transition to its next fiat currency, the Nuevo Sol. (Yeah, we’re young whippersnappers) She recently started to help out in getting ready. What helped her was comparing the current economic climate here to Peru. This allowed her to correlate things that occur …


From FerFAL in Argentina: A US Crash that Will Parallel Argentina’s?

Hi James, These are hard times, indeed. The parallels between the days before our own economy [in Argentina] collapsed and what’s going on today in America today are very hard to ignore. Our local television seems to be getting some kind of sick kick out of all this. They showing the comparisons, even editing politicians and economists speeches showing how similar they were to the ones the American politicians and economists are using right now. In some cases, they even said the exact same line, the only difference being the language. About the article “Letter Re: What Are the Economic …


Letter Re: AVGAS as an Alternative Source of Gasoline During Spot Shortages

James, I’m sort of reluctant to share this because, well, I might need to do it someday and its value is in the fact that most people don’t know it. During Hurricane Ike my uncle, who lives in Houston, acquired use of a generator. That’s an interesting story in itself so I’ll divert for a second and elaborate: He didn’t own a generator but his next door neighbor did. Unfortunately, the neighbor had never run the generator and when they needed it, it wouldn’t start. My uncle is a trained mechanic (former career) and was able to fix it. In …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I noticed that spot silver dropped a full dollar per ounce on Tuesday, and spot gold was down about $30 per ounce–both moved by short term gains by the US dollar in international trade. Buy on “dip” days like these! As I’ve said before, I think that gold will outperform silver in the next run-up. Get out of dollars and into tangibles. But remember what Doc Sweeny calls The Five Gs. (GGGGG.) Get right with God and then acquire your guns, groceries, and ground before you buy any gold. Be advised: You can’t eat gold, and Krugerrands make very expensive …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived. We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy – all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment – and prevent the market’s attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.” – Congressman Ron Paul, My …