Letter Re: Karatbars

Hugh, I love your site and read it almost daily. I was wondering if you know anything about Karatbars? One of my coworker’s pastor is promoting them. The ones he has shown me look like gold leaf on a business type card. Is this worth looking at, in your opinion? It’s European Euros currency exchange from what I see. Thanks for your time and input.

HJL’s Comment

Karatbars is nothing more than a multi-level marketing scheme.







Economics and Investing:

U.S. Shale Rebound Hobbled By Higher Drilling Costs. While the U.S. oil majors are seeing earnings improve in the first quarter of 2017, breakeven prices are on the rise and could limit profitability of E&P’s o o o What The Gold Futures Curve Could Be Telling Us o o o Build Your Own Home DIY Without a Bank Loan: “Avoid Regulation, Crime and Floods” o o o Gold Manipulation And $1.2 Quadrillion In Derivatives o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

Good-bye to cabin life: U.S. government tells owners in U.P. to leave – S.R. o o o Gun Control Fail: Baltimore Mayor Asks FBI to Stem Rising Murder Rate – H.L. o o o The Pentagon may send up to 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan “The Pentagon is considering sending between 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to advise Afghan military and police units fighting the Taliban, as well as an unspecified number of special operations forces to fight ISIS and al-Qaida militants along the Pakistani border.” – T.P. o o o Spokane’s own End Times prepper turns inventions …










S&W SD9 VE, by Pat Cascio

Truth be told, I’ve never been rich. All of my life, I’ve been forced to scrimp and save every penny I could get my hands on. My extra I could come up with from time to time wasn’t put in the bank. Instead, it went to raising a family as best I could. My kids didn’t lack for the necessities in life. That’s for sure. My interest in firearms started when I was 15 years old. I still have a great interest in firearms. Needless to say, I can’t buy, or hardly ever buy, guns out of my own pocket. …




Recipe of the Week: Italian Stuffed Peppers, by JFG

Hey HJL! I’m a huge fan of SurvivalBlog.com. Thanks to you and JWR for all you do. Here is a recipe I like to make when camping. I use a Dutch oven on the fire, but you can easily make this at home in the kitchen. The beauty of this “oldie, but goodie” is that you can substitute any meat/protein you have on hand as well as add any canned veggies to the mix to make it go farther. This is the recipe I prefer. Ingredients 1/2 lb. to 1 lb. dehydrated ground beef (reconstituted), fresh ground beef, or ground …




Letter Re: Suidlanders, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Suidlanders

Conservative Christian white citizens of South Africa believe that anarchy and a racial civil war are soon coming there. So, they have created a national emergency response plan consistent with the Geneva Convention as a Civil Defense organization. They have limited this organization’s activities in order to be internationally recognized and legally protected

  • Warnings
  • Evacuations
  • Management of temporary shelters
  • Management of collapsing infrastructure (life saving)
  • Medical services, including first aid
  • Firefighting identifying and marking dangerous areas
  • Disinfecting and similar safety measures
  • Supplying emergency accommodation and supplies
  • Emergency management and restoring order to crisis stricken areas
  • Assisting in the maintenance of infrastructure essential to survival
  • Handling the dead
  • Assisting in the maintenance of important resources
  • Additional activities required to do any of the above mentioned tasks, including but not limited to planning and organizing.



Economics and Investing:

New Jersey Town Takes On Wells Fargo Bank: ‘They Stole Our Wealth’ – DSV o o o Economic Reality: Bottom 50% of Americans No Longer Matter. “The unfortunate truth of the matter is a record Half of American Families Live Paycheck to Paycheck.” o o o Central Banks’ Obsession with Price Stability Leads to Economic Instability o o o Analytical Charts – Jim Wyckoff Gold Scores a Solid 1st Quarter Performance o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

The Horror! The Horror!. The third president in a row reneges on his promises to get America out of the nation building business. o o o The Terrible Damage Created by the Left’s War on Women. Excerpt: “Now, even worse is the Liberals’ War on Women. No fault divorce and women’s rights plus Democrat financial policies in government have forced wives and mothers into the marketplace and their children into daycare warrens. The government is being made the parent. Is that sick or what? Women now epitomize just what our culture does not need, namely binary entities that won’t nurture, …




Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“When people can vote on issues involving the transfer of wealth to themselves from others, the ballot box becomes a weapon with which the majority plunders the minority. That is the point of no return, the point where the doomsday mechanism begins to accelerate until the system self-destructs. The plundered grow weary of carrying the load and eventually join the plunderers. The productive base of the economy diminishes further until only the state remains.” – G. Edward Griffin







Lessons From the First TEOTWAWKI- Part 2, by Sarah Latimer

Reviewing Where We Left Off In this series of articles, we’re looking at the lessons to be learned from the Genesis creation story, particularly from the actions of Eve. The choices she made are similar to the ones that are drastically affecting our world today. They are even affecting the survival community and you also, whether you. It doesn’t matter whether you are male or female or whether you recognize it or not at this point. Eve Knew the Instruction & Vision God Gave Adam God’s plan for Adam was to care for all that which was within this paradise garden. Eve was …




Letter Re: Should I Convert My Nickels to Silver?

Hello Hugh and Jim, Per Jim’s good advice, my wife and I have been taking nickels out of our pocket change each day and setting them aside. It has been an easy and painless way to simultaneously set aside some cash, hedge against inflation, and invest in industrial metals. Over the last couple of years, we have accumulated over $150 in nickels. I’m wondering now, at this point in time, whether it would be wiser to take the cash value from those nickels and use it to purchase pre-1965 “junk” silver coins, or retain the nickels as a store of …