Economics & Investing For Preppers

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 SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in Colt Competition Rifles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Michael Gayed, over at Seeking Alpha: From Poor Man’s Gold To Rich Man’s Gold. Here is a key quote: “Over the past three months, the silver ETF (SLV) has outperformed the gold …







Elements of a Security System – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 2.) There’s another potential option for alerting that could be categorized as ‘mobile centralized’ – it’s possible to set up a radio transmitter connected to a centralized console that would transmit a pre-recorded voice alert (e.g. ‘Alert in zone 3 North’) to a radio that you carry around with you. Some of the sensors I’ll be discussing later have this capability built-in, but you could implement a similar function using a Raspberry PI computer to monitor the sensors, connected to a RTL-SDR software-defined radio to transmit pre-recorded audio alerts. Implementing this would be moderately complicated and is …




Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 5, 2019

On September 5, 1774, fed up with the meddling of the crown and being mostly independant-minded, our nation’s founding fathers met together in the First Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, laying the foundation of what would become the world’s greatest nation. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy …




The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the planned intrastate private party transfer ban. Senate is Fast-Tracking a Private Party Transfer Ban The U.S. Senate returns from their summer recess in just four days. (Monday, September 9, …







Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 4, 2019

September 4, 1862 is the fateful day that General Lee invaded the North with 50,000 troops. General Lee was probably gambling on a quick offensive because the South did not have the resources for a prolonged war. Whatever the case was, President Abraham Lincoln trampled the Constitution and created the foundation for the “Big Brother” government we have today. — To help cover some family medical bills, I’ve put a few guns from my personal collection up for sale on consignment through a trusted friend who has an FFL. They are being auctioned at GunBroker.com.  If any of these interest …




Elements of a Security System – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.) The final aspects you need to consider when planning a security system are the types of threats you need to be able to detect. If you live in a wooded area where there are a lot of experienced woodsmen and hunters, you’ll have to consider how to detect people that know how to move silently and effectively and are more likely to notice things like tripwires or trail cameras. On the other hand, if you’re in an area that may primarily experience urban sheeple migrating in search of resources after a disaster, your security situation will …




JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on Fall and Winter Gardening. (See the Books section.) Books: Reader E.M. wrote to recommend the book American Nations, by Colin Woodard. Here is how …







Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — September 3, 2019

As of Monday morning, Hurricane Dorian had estimated wind speeds that were beyond Category 5!  Please pray for the folks in the path of this very powerful storm. — On September 3, 1752, Great Britain and it’s colonies, including the future United States of America officially adopted the Gregorian calendar, and it immediately became September the 14th. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present Part 1 of a five-part entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar …




Elements of a Security System – Part 1, by J.M.

Editor’s Introductory Note: This detailed article series is by J.M., who you may remember as a SurvivalBlog Writing Contest First Prize winner in March, 2018, for his five-part article: Perspectives on Patrolling. (This is the first installment in a five-part article series.) — When you talk to people about preparing, one of the most common themes you’ll encounter is that they want to ensure the safety and security of themselves, their families and their friends in the event something disrupts the ‘rule of law’. The reality is that even with active law enforcement in normal times there are thousands of …




SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Google’s censorship of Redoubt News.   (See the Region-Wide section.) Region-Wide Redoubt News reports: Human Rights Task Force Segregating Redoubters. JWR’s Comment: Since I’m quite vocally anti-racist and have been my entire life, they can’t be talking about me. And since Alex Barron …




The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at a Warsaw Ghetto survivor’s lessons. House Judiciary to Hear Three New Gun Laws During Recess In Some Deep Schumer: Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 4, 2019), while the rest of the House …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry. If allowed to continue, this process will turn the …