Silver–I Really, Really Told You So!

I noticed that the spot market price of silver closed at over $14 per ounce yesterday. Back when silver was around $7 an ounce I told you that silver was likely to double, and now, just 17 months later, it has indeed. I also predicted that silver would out-perform gold. I was right about that, too. As I’ve stated before, I think that we are in the opening phase of a multi-year bull market for precious metals, and a bear market for the dollar. I hope that you folks took my advice and bought some silver. Back on August 6, …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader H.V. suggested this article: Zimbabwe Finance Minister promises to slash inflation by two-thirds. What a vast improvement! If he manages to accomplish this, then the inflation rate would only be around 400%, annually. Please pray that Comrade Mugabe and his henchmen leave Zimbabwe soon and that they are replaced with a legitimate, competent government. o o o Fred The Valmet-meister mentioned that he was experimenting with his Civil Defense surplus Geiger counter and was shocked at the high readings from his lantern mantles. “With Coleman [mantles], I got 800 – 1000 millirad. I also have a set of Primus …



Note From JWR:

The high bid is at $245 in the latest SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and give them some business. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.) Please submit your bid via e-mail. The auction ends on January 15th. The books in the auction lot include: 1. From Seed to Bloom- How …


Letter Re: Signs of Potential Currency Hyperinflation, by Lee Rogers

Jim, The article on currency hyperinflation [by Lee Roger, posted on November 30th] was interesting. However, trying to keep the puny penny alive to prevent hyperinflation is like trying to prevent floods by banning depth gauges. Someone will need to explain to me why we need any coinage with a denomination less than the value of a minute of a minimum wage worker’s time. For decades in earlier times, our smallest coin was worth about as much as out current dime. How many billions in wasted time would be saved if we had a simple coinage system that reflected real …


Letter Re: Muzzleloaders for Long Term TEOTWAWKI

Dear Mr Rawles, It is possible that I am simply not an attentive reader of the Survival Blog, so I may have missed this. However, it seems to me that rather than getting into technically very difficult and potentially very dangerous pursuits involving home-made brass & home-made primers, why not become proficient with a flintlock rifle? Flintlocks never went completely out of style, and there are many, many excellent makers today. In the hands of a practiced marksman, a flintlock is certainly the equal of any modern rifle out to 100 or 200 yards, and at the Battle of New …


Letter Re: A Further Slide For The US Dollar?

Jim, I wonder how many other folks have read this: ” …Ritholtz told WorldNetDaily that yesterday’s downward move “was a major market correction that points to the risk of subsequent downside to the dollar,” and “… but the recent fall suggests “the probabilities have increased of a major dollar correction, or even of a collapse.” ” The whole story can be found at the WorldNetDaily web site. – Joe from Tennessee


Odds ‘n Sods:

 Reader S.P. mentioned this interesting new photovoltaic power technology. Could a price breakthrough on solar panels be coming soon?   o o o In a recent phone conversation, The Chartist Gnome told me that there are now rumors of a U.S. Dollar collapse circulating on Wall Street. Echoing this sentiment came this article: about the dollar’s slide. The Dollar lost 1.7% against the Euro jut last week. (Thanks to Mike the Blacksmith for that article link.) My advice: Be like the Boy Scout. If you haven’t already, diversify out of dollars and into tangibles.    o o o Ben. L. …


The Memsahib’s Quote of the Day:

#2 Son, in the back seat of the car: "What was that I just saw run across the road? I just caught a glimpse." #1 Son: "I think it was a chipmunk." JWR, at the wheel: "To be precise, that was a Lesser Western Black Deathwish Chipmunk." #2 Son: "How can you tell the variety?" JWR: "Ah! Good question. The Deathwish subspecies nearly always starts to cross the road but then displays its second thoughts by stopping and rushing back from whence it came. Their odds of making it across a road are slightly better than playing Russian roulette."


Note From JWR:

In response to those that asked for details, my newly-released nonfiction book, Rawles on Retreat and Relocation is 225 pages, in 8-1/2×11 format, and wire-o bound, so that it will lay flat when open. There are lots of maps and a comparative table. In answer to those of you that asked for details about the contents, here is how it is organized: Introduction Chapter 1: Population Density and The Golden Horde Chapter 2: The Self-Sufficient Retreat Chapter 3: Climate and Growing Season Chapter 4: Water, Power, and Fuel Sources Chapter 5: Property, Income, and Sales Taxes Chapter 6: Weapons Laws …


Book Reviews: Last Light and Night Light, by Terri Blackstock

James: I am writing to recommend two novels that may be interest to your readers. Written by Terri Blackstock, I would like to recommend a series of two novels: Last Light and Night Light. These are novels that are written in a series, and while they can be read one at a time, are better read in sequence. As survival junkies, we are always in search of decent fiction centered around survival motifs – a rare genre of writing. Terri does a pretty good job of producing some entertaining and page-turning yarns. I will admit for those of us that …


Letter Re: Communications for Disasters–Are Scanners Useful?

James: The hot thing in scanners right now is digital trunking. Most public-safety services use this approach, without scrambling or encryption. Analog scanners are useless, but the new generation of scanners include direct support for digital trunking. I recently bought a Uniden/Bearcat BCD 396T, which totally restored my ability to listen to common public-safety traffic where I live. Some more sensitive government agencies use encryption on top of digital trunking, but there’s no strong survival-oriented motivation to listen to their transmissions. Unless you’re trying to survive an FBI manhunt, I suppose. In an emergency, being able to monitor fire and …


Letter Re: Yukon Gen 1 Night Vision Rifle Scope – A Product Review

Jim, I had delayed writing a review of the Yukon night vision rifle scope because I have to wonder who else is reading your site. I don’t want to do a disservice to all the good folks that visit your [blog] site. I surely don’t want the bad guys knowing the following. Unless they stumble on it themselves. If they are going to use one I would rather they use one of these gems. I may buy a few other night vision scopes just to see if the problem is in the design or I got a bad one. Here’s …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Thad K. suggested this link on how to grow your own luffa sponges. His comment: “What a great survival plant, eat them when young, wash with them when they are mature!”    o o o The previously mentioned special promotion at Northern Tool & Equipment (one of our affiliate advertisers) ends tomorrow. (December 4th) Northern is offering sitewide Free Gift Cards with purchases over $100. You will need to enter keycode 94660 in order to receive their free gift card.    o o o I got a note from Freeze Dry Guy, with good news: They are extending their November …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of …