In place of my usual news items and commentary on economics and the markets, I have some annual housekeeping to do:
My Annual Financial/Investing/Foreign Interests Disclosures:
By Federal law, I am obliged to make the following annual public disclosures.
For the record: I am presently the sole author of SurvivalBlog’s twice-weekly posted Economics & Investing For Preppers column. I am not a paid investment counselor or adviser. Please see our Provisos [1] page for our detailed disclaimers. My paid consulting is primarily on preparedness, relocation, retreat property development, and related topics–not on investing, per se.
Personal and Family Interests
My highest loyalty is to Christ Jesus (Yeshua.)
I am not a board member of any corporation. I hold no stocks, mutual funds, bonds, options, hedge instruments, registered securities, or ETFs whatsoever. I am not paid or otherwise compensated by any individual, company, or country to promote any investment vehicle or currency.
I do not recommend or endorse any financial particular investment advisor, firm, blog, vlog, or web site, although I do quote various advisors and make links to their web sites. Such mentions and links are my own choices, and are never compensated.
While I personally hold precious metals, firearms, ammunition, and other tangibles as a large portion of my family portfolio, I have no connection or financial arrangement with any firm, other than that some such firms do buy advertising space in SurvivalBlog, and that we have affiliate advertising contracts in place with others. I do on occasion personally make purchases from these companies. However, I receive no special discounts nor other consideration from them. Such advertising relationships have no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make. I have never held any Forex or Comex options.
I own and operate Elk Creek Company, a small home-based mailorder business that sells antique guns, replica percussion guns, percussion cartridge conversion cylinders, knives, bayonets, and multitools. I have no contractual relationship with the makers of any of those products. My ownership of Elk Creek Company has no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make. From time to time, I mention sales and particular Elk Creek Company products in this column. Throughout my adult life, I have recommended investing in antique guns. Operating Elk Creek Company has not changed that. I held a Class 01 Federal Firearms license from 1981 to 1992. The merchandise that I now sell has no license required.
Along with one of my sons, I operate CFAPA.org, to distribute press credentials free of charge to adult citizens of the 50 States, as Citizen Journalists. We do accept donations, but in most years those donations barely cover the operating expenses of CFAPA.org.
Walls of Separation
We maintain walls of separation between advertising, consulting, and editorial realms. No editorial space or content in this column is ever promised to any advertiser or consulting client. Stephen Cochran of Gainseville Coins voluntarily writes a monthly precious metals column for SurvivalBlog, but he and Gainseville Coins are not compensated by me nor vice versa, in any way. I am afforded no discounts by the company, and have received no free merchandise or other favors from them.
A few article links have been suggested by our advertisers, but we have never been compensated or felt obliged to post them. Because of legacy links still in SurvivalBlog’s archives, I still earn a few small commissions on sales of books and other items linked to Amazon.com, through the Amazon Associates program. Because of their censorship and unfair business practices, I have publicly distanced myself from Amazon, and recommend that my readers and consulting clients buy from other vendors.
We universally reject the dozens of paid editorial, infographic, product review, and link placement requests that we receive every week via e-mail from spammers, scammers, SEO wonks, and content manipulators.
Foreign Interests
I am not now, nor have I ever been an agent of any foreign nation. I do hold some foreign currency. I own no foreign real estate. Only a few of my consulting clients live abroad, and most of those are U.S. citizens.
Clearances and Taskings
Up until 1991, I held a Top Secret security clearance and had access to SCI. I did some tasked intelligence work overseas. That ended before 1991. After being de-briefed from Special Access Programs (SAPs), I resigned my commission as a U.S. Army Intelligence Corps officer. My formal resignation letter was submitted on January 20, 1993 — the day that Bill Clinton first took office. Since then, I have had no intelligence tasking nor relationship whatsoever with the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, or any government agencies, other than as a normal taxpaying citizen.
I have had no contact with the FBI or any other Federal law enforcement agency since the conclusion of a foreign intelligence penetration case in 1990, where I provided a signed statement as a witness.
I did work as defense contractor in a technical writing and proposal writing capacity for various defense contracting companies with an Industrial Secret clearance up until July, 2006. I no longer hold an active security clearance. I am a past member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), but have had no contact with that organization since the mid-1990s.
Summary and Conclusion
In sum, we do our very best to operate SurvivalBlog.com as ethically and independently as possible. Our editorial integrity and independence is very important to us. We will never betray the trust of our readers. In an age where journalistic prostitution has become the norm in the blogging and vlogging world, we stand apart.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR [2]. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form [3].) These are often especially relevant because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News items from local news outlets that are missed by the news wire services are especially appreciated. And it need not be only about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!