Month: February 2010

Economics and Investing:

George Gordon (“GG”) sent this: In Coke We Trust; Investors now view a default by the U.S. Treasury as more likely than a default by the Coca-Cola Company. Sue C. sent us this: It only gets worse this year for commercial real estate Kevin K. flagged this: Kalashnikov Gun Factory Offers Food in Place of Salaries. JWR’s Comment: If they don’t have cash to pay workers, then they probably don’t have cash to pay the food suppliers, either. I suspect that some barter is going on. (Which would make me very happy, if I were a local farmer.) Items from …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Chad suggested this piece on austere medicine: Hard lessons, humility for big-city doctors in Haiti    o o o G.G. mentioned that both my novel “Patriots” and my latest non-fiction book were part of this round up book review: Three Views of TEOTWAWKI.    o o o SurvivalBlog regular Matt R. recently posted a great vehicular gear list, over at AtlasTrekker.


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“In a country like America where riots occur during brownouts, and people stab each other for cutting ahead in service station lines during gasoline shortages, one has to wonder how our society would react to a total disruption of its artificial life-support system. In researching magazine articles I’ve interviewed urban disaster planning authorities who are more skeptical about saving their citizens from major civil disruption than Mel Tappan ever was.” – Massad Ayoob, in “The Truth About Self Protection“


Notes from JWR:

And the winner is… We’ve completed the judging for Round 26 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. I must mention that the judging was very difficult, since there were 35 great articles submitted! First Prize goes to Lin for her article: Feeding Your Family Well During Hard — and Harder — Times, that was posted on December 9th. She will receive all the of the following: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost …


The Money Market Managers Unleashed–An End to the Road to Redemption

Last week, SurvivalBlog reader Noah C. sent me a link to piece by Dan Denninger: SEC Tightens Rules for Money Funds. Noah made this comment that amplified Denninger’s observations: “Here is the most interesting part: That a Money Market Fund’s Board of Directors can now ‘inform’ the SEC (instead of request) that they are suspending fund redemptions.” I also heard from our friend Darrin in Wyoming about same topic. He wrote: “A Wall Street Journal report mentioned that the SEC voted Wednesday (1/27/10) to allow money market fund managers to freeze redemptions, in an effort to ‘make your investments more …


Letter Re: Are Decommissioned Missile Silos Still Potential Nuclear Targets?

Jim, I know your time is valuable,so I will get right to it. The recent post on buying [decommissioned underground US Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic] missile sites raises a question. Aren’t these sites vulnerable during nuclear attacks/exchange with a foreign country? Thanks for your site and your service. – John JWR Replies: They would only be pinpoint targets if the Soviets are still using ancient targeting data, and that is very unlikely. From all that I have read, they simply are no longer included in the “target structure” for any nation states that are potential combatants. (Like Russia, China, and …


Letter Re: The Importance of Testing “Dead” Batteries Before Recycling Them

James- I wanted to share a money saving tip that applies to inexpensively preparing for TEOTWAWKI. With so many digital devices depending on batteries these days, most of us are conditioned so that, when a device like a digital camera or other smart gadget tells us the AA or AAA batteries need replacing, we simply toss out the “dead” ones and put in fresh batteries. But are the batteries really dead? Usually, not all of them are. I have a handy little Canon digital camera that we use around the house for insurance documentation, family photo opportunities at parties, pictures …


Two Letters Re: A Simple Off-the-Shelf Solar Power System and Off-Grid Power Tools

James, Your readers recently bring up good points about the advantage of battery powered tools with solar recharging. The advice to use an inverter connected to a 12v deep cycle battery and regular corded AC tools was good advice also, since the batteries may not last very long. Having just recently purchased a set of Ryobi one+ tools myself, I found a seller on ebay selling an adapter for the one+ tools. It plugs into the tool in place of the battery then you can plug an AC DC power supply into it. This will give the best of both …


Economics and Investing:

Price Tags are Merely Suggestions: Haggling is Back (Thanks to Damon for the link.) Bill R. flagged this news story: Swiss warn UBS bank could collapse From Jeff D.: Bailout Cop: U.S. May Face Another Financial Crisis J.S. spotted this: Bailouts created more risk in the system From George Gordon (“GG”): UK claims it will end debt monetization this week Items from The Economatrix: Roubini: Greece is Bankrupt Greek Crisis Shows Euro is Too Big to Fail Soros Warns Gold is Now the “Ultimate Bubble” Are You Ready for the Coming Obama Retirement Trap? Truckin’ for God and Country (more …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I was pleased to see that Mel Tappan’s hard-to-find book Survival Guns has gone back into print, by Paladin Press. Although the book is now a bit dated, it is still a great reference. His subsequent book Tappan on Survival (published shortly after his death) has also been back in print for about a year. The new edition has an introduction penned by Bruce D. Clayton.) I have often mentioned that Mel Tappan had a profound influence in the development of my preparedness philosophy.    o o o Clifford D. May’s piece in National Review Online, titled The Sun Also …