Letter Re: Influenza Exercise Shows the Potential for Major Infrastructure Disruptions

Jim: I thought you and your readers might be interested in this flu pandemic exercise recently carried out by financial services firms. An article in Computerworld describes the scenario: “If a pandemic strikes the U.S., it will kill about 1.7 million people, hospitalize 9 million, exhaust antiviral medications and reduce basic food supplies…”, and, “Among the other things that may happen in an actual pandemic are school closings, as well as blackouts or brownouts in major metro areas because of degraded service as a result of absenteeism. Internet service throughput could be reduced by 50% due to congestion, and Web …


Letter Re: Thoughts on Defensive Handguns

Dear JWR: I have been reading SurvivalBlog for about a month and I really enjoy it a lot. One subject came to mind that I thought was worth discussing. That area is the [Colt Model] 1911. It is worth saying that I find the term combat tupperware incredibly amusing, as a Glock owner. I do not know what kind of high end custom 1911s people are talking about when they say it is necessary to spend $2,000 to get this platform to be functional. I bought a Springfield [Armory] Mil Spec .45 for about $535 and it works fine though …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Will the house-flipping contrapreneurs on both coasts of the US soon be in Deep Schumer? Reader Charley S. sent us this snippet from The Daily Reckoning: “Two million homes will go into foreclosure in the next two years, if home prices continue to slump, said a report released by Joint Economic Committee Chairman Senator Charles Schumer.”    o o o Jason flagged this one: US lacks enough labs to test for contamination if a ‘dirty bomb’ explodes in a major city    o o o A hat tip to SJC for sending this: Report: Oil production peaked in 2006, will …




The Game, by Oliver Velasquez

In the past 25 years interest rates have fallen from as high as 15% to as low as 1.25%. During this time our economy has gone through different cycles, everything from stagflation, recession, to historic bull markets, and real estate booms. Today, in my opinion, we are living one recession away from a massive depression which can be credited to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. Historically, it’s never been a good sign to have both gold prices and the stock market trade at such peak levels like we have today. During the past ten years we have gone through a …


Letter Re: Phases of the Moon and Deer Hunting

James, Ungulates (cattle, deer, antelopes, camels, deer, goats, pigs, sheep, as so forth) daily routines are keyed to the moon. People’s routines are keyed to the Sun. The moon cycles each 28 days, the sun in 30 or so days. Each day, the sun is always somewhere near high noon, i.e. 50% past sun-up, at 12:00 sun time (duh). However, the moon can be at ‘high noon’ in moon time at any given hour, i.e. at 9:00 a.m./3:00 p.m., etc.—because the moon has a shorter cycle. Recent satellite telemetry studies on collared white tail does and bucks across North America …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Eric Fry from The Rude Awakening penned this about Citigroup’s recent SIV accounting shenanigans: SIV Positive.   o o o Hawaiian K. and The Army Aviator both recommended an alarming piece of commentary on silver storage from Ted Butler: Money for Nothing. My favorite quote from the article: “I found it appalling that Morgan Stanley would claim to store silver that didn’t exist and even have the chutzpah to charge for the storage.” As I’ve often written: there is no safe and sure substitute for in-home storage of precious metals . Any other method–be it shares, or certificates, or “bonded storage”, …



Notes from JWR:

A reminder that the special “six pack sale” for autographed copies of the latest 33 chapter edition of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” will end in just five days. The sale price of a box of six books is still just $90, postage paid. (Normally they are $24 per copy, but during this sale you get six autographed copies for $90, mailed in a Priority Mail Flat Rate box, sent to anywhere in the United States, including APO/FPO addresses.) This sale ends on October 31st. This is your chance to buy some extra copies for Christmas presents. Note …


Letter Re: Advice on Private Party Gun Purchases

Mr. Rawles: We have a few guns that were passed down from my father, father-in-law, and grandparents. But after reading SurvivalBlog, I’ve determined that its wise to buying a few more, ahem, “capable” defensive guns. (Like an M1A and a scoped Remington 700 Sendero or maybe a Remington 700 PSS .308.) I would rather not buy them from a [Federally licensed] dealer, so I can avoid that whole paperwork trail. My difficulty here is that I live out in cow country where guns shows are infrequent. And the few we do have, have a poor assortment of guns to choose …


Letter Re: Reverse Osmosis Water Purification for Urbanites

Dear Jim, Concerning Justin B.’s letter on reverse osmosis: Why go to all the trouble of using a reverse osmosis system and having to Jerry-rig a way to use it if the electrical system goes on the blink? Use a non-electric, non-water wasting, gravity-based water filtration system like the Big Berkey (30,000 gallons on one set of filters!) and get used to using it for your drinking water every day. It’s a great way to develop a habit and a mind set of preparedness. Every time I fill my Berkey (once or twice a day) I think about my preps …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Thanks to all of you for your patience as I dealt with some important family issues, several visiting SurvivalBlog real estate clients, and the opening of Idaho’s Deer and Elk season, all in the past two weeks. Sometimes there is no such thing as the slower-paced life at a higher altitude! Well the financial news these days just keeps getting darker and for those of you who are actively searching for your retreat, just press on, you’ll make it. As we get back into reviewing actual retreat locales (next week) it’s important to have a solid standard operating procedure (SOP). …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The US residential housing market implosion isn’t over yet. My recent web searches turned up some testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. In reading it, we learned that the majority of ARM rate “resets” in the US will occur in in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. And specifically, the peak for subprime resets will be in March of 2008, the peak in agency loan resets will be in September of 2008, and the peak in “jumbo” loan resets will not be until April of 2009. Buckle your …