Day: October 3, 2008

Notes from JWR:

Courtesy of the liberal majority in The U.S Senate, the TARP Bill (which is supposedly limited to $700 billion USD) appears to be a fait accompli. (It now headed to the House of Representatives.) Both senators McCain and Obama voted for it. (So much for us making any meaningful “choice” in the upcoming presidential election.) Disregard all the headlines, folks. In my estimation, the all-fired hurry to enact the TARP bailout was driven by a.) the sudden huge jump in the LIBOR rate, and b.) the chaos that is quietly is going on in the background with derivatives. The politicians …


From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Hedge Funds–A Disaster Story that Could Unfold in Quarterly Episodes

One of the consequences of the collapse of the credit bubble and the subprime lending fiasco in particular is with hedge funds. There is a substantial risk of uncontrollable instability in hedge funds that could potentially be disastrous for investors. This instability will likely be seen in waves of bad news that will come roughly once a quarter. First, let me provide a bit of background: 1.) Most hedge funds have rules that allow only quarterly redemptions (“cashing out”) by by their investors. (A few hedge funds even have only one annual redemption “window.”) Typically, the redemption requests must be …


Letter Re: Advice for City Folks on a Budget?

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read the two letters that were posted on September 27, “Advice for City Folks on a Budget”. What struck me was how similar Mike H.’s situation is to mine. I too have a wife similar to the Mike H’s. At first my wife thought I was out of my tree when I began preparing years ago. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, she came to believe that what I was doing was prudent, but somewhat overkill. Now that we have entered this period in history, she’s starting to pay attention, and has become a participant. I …


Letter Re: Questions on Short Term Survival in an Urban Office Building

JWR, To follow up on Flora in New York City’s “Questions on Short Term Survival in an Urban Office Building”, here is a link to Aton Edward’s highly recommended book Preparedness Now! which also contains a link to the April 2008 New York Times article that allowed me (thankfully) to find Survivalblog.com for the first time. Additionally, here is a video interview with Mr. Edwards recorded in New York City and addressing exactly the kind of equipment/tools and awareness/preparedness issues that an office-bound urbanite like Flora needs to survive. Since April, I ordered and read “Patriots“, the Rawles Get’s You …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Rourke flagged this article from Marysville, California: Preparing for financial apocalypse: Wall Street scare has some thinking chaos coming    o o o Commander Zero posted some interesting commentary in his blog about why people don’t prepare, even in the face of immediate and overwhelming threats like the current economic meltdown.    o o o The gasoline shortage in the southeast has intensified.    o o o The latest news is that the banking crisis isn’t any better in Europe: France seeks €300 billion rescue fund for Europe. And meanwhile, Senator Harry Reid drops a bombshell: Another major insurance company …