Here are the latest news 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 the USD to Euro Ratio. (See the Forex & Cryptos section.)
Public and Private Debt:
U.S. on a Course to Spend More on Debt Than Defense
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And all-time high: Average Credit Card Debt in the U.S. in 2018. JWR’s Comments: When interest rates inevitably rise, installment debt will come back to haunt many Americans. And anyone who has a copious credit card debt who becomes unemployed will be devastated. Get out of debt, folks!
Stocks & Global Economy:
After four days of rallying, there was another bear day on Wall Street on Friday (November 9, 2018) –down .77% in one day. JWR’s Comments: Combined with other recent losses, that brought the Dow Jones Index down to the point that ALL of the market gains for 2018 have been wiped out. I hope that my readers had stop loss orders in place! Don’t try to “buy on the dip” on this one, folks. There is a strong smell of bear in the air.
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The “Nightmare Scenario” For Beijing: 50 Million Chinese Apartments Are Empty
Commodities:
The price of some varieties of crude oil have slipped below the $60 threshold. At this price level most of the Light Tight Oil (LTO) produced in the Bakken fields is just barely profitable. Just consider this a fortuitous dip for consumers, and time for more belt-tightening for producers. Fear not, producers. The oil price pendulum never seems to stop. There are just too many variables in too many nations (and cartels) in play. As survivalists, our best protection against these price gyrations is to have rural retreats with underground fuel tanks. Then we can truly buy on the price dips and chuckle at the peaks. Fuel in the tank is like money in the bank–and sometimes better!
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November 2018: Natural Gas Demand Overview And Forecast
Forex & Cryptos (USD to Euro Ratio):
The USD to Euro (EUR)Ratio has seen a change in the past month. President Donald Trump’s goal of a Weak Dollar seems elusive. Some analysts are predicting dollar to Euro parity by the end of 2022. And with Brexit still unfolding, who knows? Will we approach the point of Dollar to British Pound (GBP) parity?
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BitPay Sides with Bitcoin ABC in Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork
Tangibles Investing:
Anyone who is serious about hedging into tangibles should refer to these three pieces from the SurvivalBlog archives:
Coping With Inflation–Some Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival
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Letter Re: What Are the Best Magazines for Investment?
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A 21st Century Tangibles Investing Rationale
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who particularly watch individual markets. And due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” investing news. We often get the scoop on economic and investing news that is probably ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!
I’ve seen comments in prepper communities to the effect of, I’ll just borrow the money to get self sufficient. Here’s one of the many reasons I think that’s unwise: Survival by its very definition, is getting by on nothing when the economy is bad. Most people have absolutely no idea how to survive on nothing. They have no idea how to scrounge for junk and reuse it. I am not holding myself up as knowing how, either. I have also been spoiled in this modern environment. That’s why I am going through the present exercise of limiting myself and working to save money and reusing things to get by while times are good, and resources are wasted by other people. It isn’t easy. Sometimes, you just want to go and buy whatever it is, because it would be so much easier. However, when you live like this, you really come to appreciate every penny and every luxury. It has been good for me to do this, and I intend to continue living like this.
You can’t fall out of bed, if you sleep on the floor.
If you are in debt, Dave Ramsey should be part of your radio listening regiment .. Preppers talk about freedom and liberty, but there is no better taste of freedom than waking up every morning and owing…. nothing. The economy, the political climate, and natural disasters and the day to day pressures of life are much easier to absorb when you don’t have a bunch of people at your mailbox with their hand out..
The federal debt will eventually destroy the economy and create another great depression. Perhaps even worse in the process of getting to that final crash the citizens will suffer for years under a crushing debt and ever increasing taxes to pay the debt. A dramatic but simple solution that could prevent those years of suffering and inevitable economic crash would be to pay off the debt in one fell swoop. Do it without pre-notification and do it over a weekend so that the various markets would have a day or two to adjust to the event. Simply pay off all of the debt instruments Friday at midnight and begin Monday morning with a clean slate.
One thing I see seldom mentioned when people are talking about barter items, probably because they are more mundane than firearms and magazines, is ball jar lids and to a lesser extent the ball jars and lid rings themselves. The jar lids will be worth more than their weight in gold as they are not reusable. Although there are some reusable canning jar lids made I personally cannot speak to their value as I have never used them. A case of the lids is relatively inexpensive, under $100 last time I bought them, and take up very little room. They can occasionally be found on sale for even more attractive prices as well, however this is very rare. Walmart had a pretty good deal on ball quart jars last black Friday though.
Regards,
Jim K.
Yes! Those lids are a great item to stock up on. But just so you’ll know, they can be used twice. I know it is not promoted by the manufacturers (for obvious reasons). But I always use them twice and have never had a failure. A friend of mine uses them three times, but i’m not brave enough to do that.
Thanks for the info! Just for reference are you reusing the lids you use from hot bath or pressure canning or both?
from the water bath. I don’t pressure can, but I know people who do that and save the lids. I’m not a meat eater and I dry or freeze any veggies that need preserving. So I don’t need a pressure canner.
The key to reusing those lids is thinking ahead. I have found that it’s important to open a jar with a lot of care so as to limit any bending of the lid. It isn’t that difficult. Afterwords, keep them clean and don’t let them get beat up in the “junk drawer” that all kitchens seem to have. Also, sterilizing the lids in a small pot of boiling water for a little extra time seems to help. I have re-used them up to 4 times and never had a failure of a lid that sealed.