Year: 2023

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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the prices of gold, silver, and platinum. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals: Gold and silver prices have been surprisingly strong. Typically in the summer months each year, the precious metal prices have slack sails, drifting around in the doldrums. But because we are seeing prices this strong in early August, I …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 6, 2023

On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time), an American B-29 bomber – the Enola Gay – dropped the world’s first war-time atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a result of the blast, with another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. History is always written by the victors, so the reasoning and justification for this will be argued for years to come. But one thing is for sure: this action officially ushered in the nuclear age in …


“Bidenomics” Is A Fraud Based On Deliberately Misrepresented Stats, by Brandon Smith

Economic issues are some of the most politically abused issues often because the data politicians exploit is easy to present out of context. The vast majority of the public doesn’t spend their time immersed in the intricacies of monetary policy, unemployment stats and the processes of inflation vs deflation. They hear a soundbite on the news or social media once in a while, assume it must be true and then go on with their day. This is how economic crisis events always seem to take the population by surprise – The establishment tells people all is well and no one …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: Senator John Fetterman Has Stepped Up From Wearing Short Pants and Hoodies. He Was Just Seen Wearing a Suit and Tie. It Seems That He’s Putting On The Ritz Links: John Fetterman ripped over Senate hoodies, gym shorts: ‘Unprofessional and an insult’. John Fetterman Ditches His Famous Hoodie for Suit on First Day as Senator — and Jokes About Son ‘in Shorts’. Young Frankenstein Putting On The Ritz. Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — August 5, 2023

August 5th is the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan. — On 5 August, 1923, Hinderikus (“Henk”) Lucas Visser was born in Groningen, Holland. A veteran of the Dutch resistance during World …


Defensive Spray Selection, by SwampFox

Important introductory Disclaimers, Provisos, and Warnings: The author has no affiliation with the companies selling the products mentioned in this article. No financial or other benefits have been derived, and no sponsorship is involved. The product testing mentioned in this article was not conducted scientifically, and was conducted only for the sake of curiosity. Testing chemical agents on yourself is not recommended, and is potentially hazardous to life and health. You should not attempt to replicate the test described in this article, and you should not use chemical agents on yourself, other people, or animals, except in self-defense and in …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 4, 2023

On August 4, 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain took control of Gibraltar on this day in 1704 after Spain surrendered, and “the Rock” subsequently became a British colony and a symbol of British naval strength. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 108 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This …


The Time It Takes, by SwampFox

I work as a truck driver. That means I spend a lot of long, boring hours driving from state to state. I have a regular route, covering the same roads each day. On good days, not much happens that is new or exciting, and to pay attention to my job I need a bit of entertainment in the background. So I listen to a lot of audiobooks. A handful of these have been survivalist fiction or preparedness-oriented. I have discovered that many authors and readers may possess some unrealistic ideas about what a prepared life looks like, or what life …


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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the continuing automotive microchip shortage. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Silver continues to be the biggest beneficiary as US focus on green energy transition – Bank of America. o  o  o Mike Gleason, at Gold-Eagle.com: Fed Expects No Recession as Inflation Negates Actual Economic Growth. Economy & Finance: New York, California lost …