Day: February 21, 2018

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – February 21, 2018

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February 21st is also the birthday of Group Captain Douglas Bader (born 1910, died 5 September 1982). He was a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter ace during the Second World War. He lost his legs in a pre-war flying accident, but that didn’t stop him from re-entering the RAF when war broke out. He was credited with 20 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable, and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. Bader was eventually shot down and became a POW in Germany. Since the Luftwaffe ran its own POW camps, he became a celebrity with his captors. The …


Surviving in an Urban Environment- Part 2, by J.M.

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I am sharing experience and ideas about surviving in an urban environment in the event of short-term or major, long-term emergency situation. We’re currently talking about getting home, whether from work or campus, since home is where our supplies are most likely stored. Get Home Bag On the subject of equipment and supplies, you’ve probably heard the term “Get Home Bag” (GHB). A lot of the discussion you can find regarding GHBs deals with handling a multi-day trek through the wilderness. Most of the time, the recommended content focuses on things like starting fires, building shelter, finding water, et cetera. …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on Bitcoin taxes.

 

Precious Metals:

Mike Maloney’s Update On the Gold/Silver Ratio

 

Stocks:

At Reuters: Dow, S&P snap winning streak as Walmart weighs

 

Taxes (Bitcoin Taxes):

SurvivalBlog reader Janet X. sent us a scary little snippet from Martin W. Armstrong: Cryptocurrency Maybe Become a Tax Nightmare. JWR’s Comments: While there could indeed be accurate tax tracking of Bitcoin purchases (or sales) through exchanges, what about Bitcoin fractions that are gifts, trades, or personally mined?  Can you imagine what a tax audit would be like for someone who trades, gifts, or sells such BTC at a later date? Imagine this series of questions:  “What was the US Dollar value when you mined it?” “And what was the US Dollar value on the day that you received it?”  “And what was the US Dollar value on the day that you spent or traded it?” Yikes!

With Bitcoin prices all over map in a wild rollercoaster ride for the past three years, who is to say what this crypto’s relative Dollar value was at those precise “taxable event” days or hours?  This would be especially confusing for Bitcoin mining, which is often done very gradually. When is the taxable event Dollar-value benchmark for miners?

Consider that from 2014 to 2017 the Dollar value of a Bitcoin ranged from $4 to as high as $20,000. Then In January 2018 it was back down to $6,000. Now (as of February 20th, 2018) it is back up over $10,800. Those tax calculations might be almost impossible to make accurately!

 

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JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on a course for military surplus waterproof Hardigg and Pelican cases  (See the Gear section.) Books: Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan o o o Guerrilla Camping: Getting Off the Beaten Path Movies: I found a documentary on economics that is definitely worth watching. It is: End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless. (Available on DVD, also available free streaming to those with an Amazon Prime membership.)  SurvivalBlog readers will recognize …