Year: 2013

Economics and Investing:

The “Cyprus Model” Is Gaining Traction. (Thanks to F.J. for the link.) G.G. suggested this piece: 76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck Not Darkest Africa, but Darkest Nigeria – 120 Million Without Electricity Reader B.C. sent: The Eight Least Expensive States to Live in the U.S. Items from The Economatrix: Consumers To Factories Point To Durable US Expansion Dr. Doom:  A Lot Of Problems Are Coming … Revolution … Social Strife Bank Bailout:  Germany Requires Compulsory Levy of 8% To Savers


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Lee M. sent: Take a Look Inside the Hidden 100 Year Old Caverns Underneath Kansas One Man Says Could Save Humanity    o o o I just noticed that someone updated a list of my quotations at the Wikiquotes page. Thanks!    o o o Calgary, Oil Capital of Canada, Could be without Power for Months.    o o o Some good commentary over at Ryan and The Other Ryan’s blog: How Much Is Enough?    o o o D.S. wrote to recommend: The Trash Can EMP Shield.    o o o The FBI has pulled a ‘most wanted …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The federal government was not intended to be a charity, nor an insurance or retirement agency, nor doctor, pharmacist or health advisor, champion of the poor or rich, changer of foreign regimes, protector of the planet, educator, space explorer, diet and nutrition czar, arbiter of interest rates or prices or wages, nor trafficker in currency unsecured by gold or silver. As legally constituted it may neither promote nor restrict transfats, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, coal, gasoline, drugs, salt or food of any kind; nor may it enact legislation favoring or victimizing or exempting any gender, race or ethnicity. In short, those …


Notes from JWR:

The “Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course” has had surprisingly strong sales now that it is priced at less that $20. You’ll get immediate delivery, via digital download. — Today we present a guest post from Mac Slavo, that first appeared in his SHTFPlan blog.


How Horrific Will It Be For The Non-Prepper?, by Be Informed

Editor’s Note: You have no doubt had your own set of issues dealing with friends and family members that simply don’t see the writing on the wall. The following article may serve to assist you in convincing those who simply don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care, or have never even thought to contemplate. Some of the scenarios outlined below may be frightening, as they should be, because when it hits the fan millions of people will be thrown into desperation with no hope of a solution. Be Informed provides a variety of point-by-point details that may (and hopefully …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from the Black Forest, Colorado Fire

Dear JWR; There is nothing like a real emergency to get you checked out in a quick way for your evacuation plan. During the Black Forest Fire, which began on June 11, 2013, at least 511 homeowners completely lost their homes, many more were damaged and are uninhabitable, two people and countless animals perished in the fire. Our family and business were in the direct path of the fire, but a major wind shift the first night, along with hard-working first responders saved us. Sitting at the office ready for our afternoon of work, a friend walked in and sid, …


Letter Re: What is Money When the System Collapses?

Mr. R.: I just came across a passage that perfectly illustrates what “money” or rather “currency” is, the issue having been nicely framed in Mac Slavo’s recent article. It comes from an unlikely source, “News From Tartary” by Peter Fleming, about an overland journey from Peking to Kashmir in 1935. Fleming states: “There was another thing that the camels carried, and that was various forms of currency. The currency problem was an important one. Through that admirable institution, the Chinese Post Office, I had been able to transfer the bulk of our capital from Peking to points west by simply …


Two Letters Re: The K9 Question

Jim, The ‘information’ provided to you by Jennifer is false.  Please consider these:   The Pit Bull (a combination of four breeds: American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, American bulldog and any other pure bred or mixed breed dog that is a combination of these dogs) has it’s reputation as a dangerous breed for a reason.  Since 1851 there has not been any decade in which pit bulls did not account for at least 50% of dog related human fatalities.  For the past 30 years pit bulls have account for 65% of human maulings and deaths, fairly consistently, even though pit …


News From The American Redoubt:

Bill Jasper of The New American reports: Victory (Temporarily) in Round 1 for Property Rights in Kootenai County, Idaho    o o o Dissent Festers in States That Obama Seems to Have Forgotten. (Note the high correlation with the map of the American Redoubt. Yes, BHO has visited Oregon and Washington, but as I recall only to a few big cities in their populous western halves.)    o o o J.M. wrote to mention that it is not just Weld County, Colorado that is seeking statehood. “Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Philips, Yuma, Kit Carson Washington are all seeking partition.. A …


Economics and Investing:

California’s already high taxes on gasoline will go even higher, as of today. The combined state and Federal taxes will be a whopping 71.9 cents per gallon. (Only 18.4 cents of that is Federal.) Yet another reason to flee California! Just as I’ve been warning you for the past seven years: Multiple Government Agencies Are Keeping Records Of Your Credit Card Transactions More Negative U.S. Bitcoin Developments. Things Could Get Ugly If U.S. Treasury Bonds Keep Rising Getting Physical: Gold price falls fuel ‘record’ bullion sales Items from The Economatrix: The $441 Trillion Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb US Consumer …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I was disappointed to learn that Trijicon is no longer providing any repair or refurbishment services for their older-generation 1″ tube scopes. (These scopes had bee sourced in Japan and then they added their tritium elements.) One of my original scopes–a Trijicon “3-9×40 Wide” with three color elements I had bought around 1993–finally had its radioactive elements fade out past the point of usefulness. (The half-life of tritium is 11.2 years.) Sadly, Trijicon no longer replaces the elements for these scopes, even for a fee. To rectify this, they did offer me a 50% discount on a new scope, so …



Notes from JWR:

There are just two days left in Freeze Dry Guy’s 25% Off Special All Mountain House #10 Cans. And meanwhile, Camping Survival has started their own 25% off sale, which runs until July 7th. — Mississippi’s open carry law was set to go into effect today. Despite a temporary court injunction (which is sure to be overturned soon) Mississippi will soon be a fairly gun friendly state. For example, it is a non-discretionary concealed carry state. Freedom is on the march! — July 1st is the birthday of the late Oakley Hall. (Born, 1920, died May 12, 2008.) He wrote …


Home Power Systems: Batteries, by L.K.O.

[Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series of feature articles by our Central Rockies Regional Editor about alternative / sustainable / renewable energy (RE) solutions for self-sufficiency. Previous related articles in SurvivalBlog that complement this one are “Home Inverter Comparison: Off Grid and Grid Tied,” Home Power Systems: Micro Hydro and Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Upcoming article topics in this Home Power Systems series will include: Photovoltaics, Wind generators, Solar Water Distillers, Solar Ovens, and Solar Water Heating.] First Things, First: Home Power Prerequisites One important foundation of a cost-effective, sustainable home energy system is energy efficiency and conservation; …


Dollar Destruction Averaging

I recently got a letter from a financial planner who derided my occasional “Buy at this dip” recommendations and suggested dollar cost averaging when investing in precious metals. I replied: “While I agree that dollar cost averaging is the right approach in most markets and for institutional investors, it is not necessarily the correct approach in the current secular bull market in silver for small investors and for those who are hedging against the dollar with small sums.  The vast majority of my readers had less than $10,000 to invest in 2005, and they work for wages.  So they haven’t …