Gold and Silver: An Ounce in the Hand is Worth 77 Million Ounces “On Account”

The recent seizure of eGold’s gold bullion holdings by the U.S. Government may have some more far-reaching unintended consequences. I predict that it might trigger some panic selling of holdings at the various “virtual” precious metals institutions. And it might even spill over to the fairly new gold and silver ETFs. This situation also illustrates a key point that I often emphasize with my consulting clients: There is no substitute for personally holding your precious metals in tangible form. Don’t trust any individual outside of your immediate family or any institution to hold your precious metals for you–not even in …


A Matter of Will, or a Matter of Inventory?, by George L.

I really enjoy sitting down and watching movies. What the radio once was to us as Americans, I believe the DVD player has become to us now. On any night of the week, people are gathered together watching movies together. That being said, The Usual Suspects is one of the most interesting movies around. I should warn you before I go further that it is not for the squeamish, or the easily offended. The subject matter is coarse, and the movie is unapologetically rough. However, there is one particular exchange that sticks with me to this day, and it’s been …


Letter Re: A Solar-Powered Atmospheric Water Generator

Jim: Good morning. The heightened awareness on SurvivalBlog surrounding sourcing pure drinking water, especially for the survival community, reminded me of information on this topic that I had wanted to send to your attention. There’s a bit of self-interest here, as the company is owned by my father-in-law, but the short story is that his entity is on the cutting edge of fresh water production from air. That’s right… he sells atmospheric water generators. Water Pure International is his company, it trades on the stock market under [the stock symbol] WPUR.OB (about $0.50 per share currently.) The machines are similar …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Mogambo Guru speaks: Elements of the Dollar’s Death Knell   o o o Signs of the times? Fish die offs in the American southwest and in Idaho.    o o o From financial commentator Darryl Schoon: Depression, not a Recession, expected.    o o o A hospital emergency room in Atlanta, Georgia: “We’re at the Breaking Point.”


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5% per year. This has been determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5% devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years. At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5%, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government …


Note from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction is now at $575. This auction is for a scarce pre-1899 Mauser that was arsenal converted to 7.62mm NATO. (It was converted by the Chilean national arsenal, using original Mauser tooling.) The auction ends at midnight EST on Tuesday, May 15th. Just e-mail me your bid. Thanks!


Two Letters Re: Living in Times of Partial Law and Order, by FerFAL

Jim: As a veteran cop and blog subscriber, I read FerFAL’s posting with interest. He makes solid points but forgets some basics about the response of “law enforcement” in a SHTF time. Additionally, US law enforcement is a different culture than say, Argentina. What kind of peace officers a particular jurisdiction has is based upon where there are. Rural towns and regions usually have a more dedicated cop that will stick around when things go bad (ala your Iowa example in [your novel] “Patriots”). They live in the area and are often either born and/or raised there. Even when the …


Letter Re: Storing Ammo in Cans–Should I Leave it in the Cardboard Boxes?

Hi Mr. Rawles, I’m currently reading and enjoying your fine book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation as well as a few other publications (such a Boston’s Gun Bible, by Boston T. Party), and actually have a rather simple question for you. At present, I am in the process of trying to prepare an urban retreat at our home in Orange County (in the PRK). Until we can early-retire and move to our newly acquired land in either Montana or Wyoming, we are stuck here because of our jobs. In any event, with regard to the subject of long-term ammo storage, …


Letter Re: Bees, CCD, Honey, and Mead

JWR, I’ve been perusing your site for a while now, and I must say I’m very impressed and quite grateful for such a fabulous resource. I just wanted to drop a line to address an issue that occurred to our small preparedness group. In a word: Honey. Or more importantly of course, the potential lack thereof. I don’t know if anyone else has addressed this potentially important issue, but if not, then allow me to be the first to do so. I am referring of course to the developing crisis with our nation’s bees and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). With …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Steve Quayle’s site: Additives Across Asia Feed Fears. In related news: Concerns raised on China’s global health disclosures   o o o Calls for increased U.S. defense spending, as China’s defense budget rises 17.8%.    o o o Reader Luke F. recommended this commentary from David Kopel: A World Without Guns



Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 10 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $2,000.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I might again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article for Round 10, which ends May 30th. Remember …


How to Harvest, Process, and Store Vegetable Seeds, by Grandpappy

A Quick Comparison of Vegetable Seeds to Silver Dollars The small seed envelopes available for sale at hardware stores and supermarkets are generally priced between $0.97 to $1.69 per package. Each individual package usually contains somewhere between 100 mg to 3.5 g of seed, with an average of 900 mg of seeds per package. 1000 mg equals 1 gram and 1 gram equals 0.035 standard ounces. Therefore 900 mg equals approximately 0.0315 standard ounces or 0.0287 troy ounces. If the average seed package contains 900 mg of seeds and cost $0.97 then that is equivalent to $33.80 per troy ounce, …


Letter Re: Advice on Diesel Vehicles–Motorcycles and ATVs?

Dear Mr. Rawles: I already had a diesel Ford tractor, so I took your advice and got a diesel pickup, and I’m shopping for a used [diesel] Mercedes. Those things run forever. And as my budget allows, I’ll also plan to buy a diesel generator to replace my gasoline backup generator. So now I have logistics problem: I have two types of fuel to store, since my motorcycle, Polaris ATV, and my Husqvarna chainsaw all use gasoline. Diesel stores way longer than gas. But I guess that there is no way to avoid having some gas vehicles and tools. JWR …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Two readers mentioned this article: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic. This is more evidence that every family needs to have a three month supply of food and essentials on hand in case they have to “hunker down” in self-quarantine. A good start on this can be found in the family provisioning details included in my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course.   o o o Reader Jason in North Idaho sent us this story Supreme Global Warming Derangement: Having Large Families ‘Is an Eco-crime’ Jason’s comment: “This is the same rubbish I have heard …