Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: Food Riots in Haiti

Mr. Rawles, The BBC and several other news outlets are reporting Food Riots in Haiti, where food scarcity and price increases have resulted in violence. Reports say mobs are looting shops, burning cars, blocking roads, and shooting at UN Peacekeepers. It is also reported one man was shot to death by UN Peacekeepers. The rioters are responding to food prices increasing some 50% over the past year. Apparently the United States and France will be sending more money to assist in subsidizing food prices. There’s plenty of information about this showing online. Here are a couple of links, one from …


Letter Re: Implications of High Grain Prices for Livestock Owners — Stock Up!

Dear JWR, The prices for wheat and soy and orchard grass crop seed have risen 40% in our region this spring. And that is the farm supply co-op pricing. The N and Phos. fertilizer is pretty well matching this increase. Lime is only 20% higher than last fall. Most of the larger crop farmers (200 acres or more) in our eastern central area (which 5 years ago used to be primarily tobacco fields) are now counting on a moderate to large profit in return because these edible cash crops are being currently negotiated and purchased in bulk to be shipped …


Letter Re: Sign of the Times–An Ambulance Service Shuts Down

Howdy; My name is Ed and I am a paramedic in central Mississippi. Last month a private ambulance service shut down with only eight hours notice that they would stop operations, leaving 26 counties without 911 Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Other local providers and services were able to help provide coverage. But this is difficult with increasing fuel cost, the ongoing War on Terror and overseas deployments, shortages of personnel and lack of payments from medicare and medicaid and people without any coverage. These are all are driving the remaining ambulance providers out of business. Be safe out there! – …


Economic Climate Change: The Long Winter May Begin This Summer

I’ve had several consulting clients contact me in recent weeks, all with notes of fear in their voices. They realize that something is horribly wrong with the economy, but they cannot properly isolate and articulate the problem. I haven’t been able to calm them, however, because to an extent I share their anxiety. In my estimation, the “something wrong” that we sense is nothing short of a monumental shift in the economic climate. America is clearly headed for a recession. Most economic recessions are simply a product of the business cycle. These recessions are relatively mild and they often last …


The Hedges Get Trimmed

Just as I warned the readers of SurvivalBlog many months ago, hedge funds are vulnerable to rapid swings in interest rates. (My first warning was even before the pair of Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed in the summer of 2007.) As the global liquidity crisis has expanded, other hedge funds have started to collapse en masse. Here is an article is from England that is indicative of what is happening globally. (This is a global collapse, because again, as I warned, the current liquidity crisis is global in scale.) Hedge fund legends hit by financial crisis. And here is an …


Letter Re: Sword Ban Begins on April 6th in the United Kingdom

James: In the past you have recommended that SurvivalBlog readers in the UK to get a samurai sword. Well, they are banning them now. As of the 6th April 2008 it will become illegal to manufacture, import or sell (but not own) all swords with a curved, single edged blade over 50 cm in the U.K. Although they can still supply such weapons for “permitted activities”. These activities include; Historical re-enactments and Sporting Activities. The legislation does not mention samurai swords. It only mentions single-edged curved swords with a blade length of 50cm or over. As per the document, it …


News from Wall Street and Capitol Hill–The Mother Of All Bailouts Begins to Grow

Last week, the mainstream media described the latest expansion of the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB), but they politely refrained from calling this what it is: socialism, plain and simple. The grand plan, as it stands now, is to bail out not just consumer banks, but also investment banks, with taxpayer dollars. They are effectively making our life savings and our future earnings surety for a bunch of idiotic contrapreneurs‘ loans on everything from flat top duplexes to McMansions. These were houses that the contrapreneurs bought, that they could never really afford unless the market continued to rise at an …


The Nationalization of Wall Street, by John Ing

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke once said: “By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.” The Fed slashed short-term interest rates six times in six months to 2.25 per cent from 5.25 per cent despite the U.S. Department of Labor …


Letter Re: Choosing a State for Relocation

James, To follow up on Mike Williamson’s recent letter on choosing a state for relocation, the April 2008 issue of Outdoor Life magazine has a good article on the best 200 towns in the U.S. for hunters and fishermen. The towns were rated for: Abundant Fishable Species Abundant Huntable Species Public Land Proximity (This may or may not be a good thing, IMHO.) Trophy Potential Gun Laws From 1 to 10, the top 10 towns rated were: Mountain Home, Arkansas Lewsiton, Idaho Sheridan, Wyoming Cody, Wyoming Pocatello, Idaho Lewistown, Montana Marquette, Michigan Dillon, Montana Page, Arizona Bismark, North Dakota They …


Some Offshore Retreat Considerations, by P. Traveler

Moving to a new area is a challenge, as any city-bred person from the US East Coast could tell you after his first winter in Wyoming. And the job market is not exactly as promising, either, at least for office workers. Yet, many make the move, and come to regret having waited so long before having done so. An even more difficult move is to go from the country of your birth and to explore a new life somewhere else. Many of our ancestors did this, however, and under far more difficult circumstances than you would face today. Just think …


Letter Re: A Machine That Sorts Pennies by Composition

Mr. Rawles, With a 70 pound weight limit, [USPS] Flat Rate [Priority Mail] boxes can be a fantastic deal, especially for small heavy items, as you mentioned. Up until this month, the two sizes available were 11″ x 8.5″ x 5.5″ and 13.625″ x 11.875″ x 3.375″. They cost $8.95 to send anywhere in the U.S.A. Now there is a third alternative, a larger 12” x 12” x 5-1/2” box that costs $12.95 to send (or $10.95 to an APO/FPO address). This is a real bargain. I recently shipped a large quantity of these from Arizona to Alaska. Most of …


Letter Re: A Machine That Sorts Pennies by Composition

Sir: Referring to your comment about sorting pennies in your post about nickels: “At present, sorting pennies simply isn’t worth your time. Although I suppose that if someone were to invent an automated density-measuring penny sorting machine, he could make a fortune. As background: The pre-1983 pennies presently have a base metal value of about $0.0226 each.) Starting in 1983, the mint switched to 97.5% zinc pennies that are just flashed with copper. Those presently have a base metal value of about $0.0071 each.” A penny sorting machine has been developed by a member of the Gold Is Money information …


Flawed Oral Arguments in DC v. Heller

The press has been heralding the apparent agreement by the majority of supreme court justices in the recent oral arguments to DC v. Heller. that the Second Amendment confirms an individual right to keep and bear arms. This is good news, but I think that at least two crucial points were missed in the oral arguments. The arguments made by Mr. Gura, in my opinion, were a disservice to American gun owners and “the militia at large”. (Which consists of all male citizens age 17 to 45, per US Code Title 10, Section 311.) Gura discounts any Second Amendment protection …


Meet The Economic Collapse Family, by Will in Wyoming

In recent months, as he described America’s incipient economic peril, Jim Rawles has made references in SurvivalBlog.com to “The Mother of All Bailouts.” To illustrate the extent of the disaster that is awaiting us–I’d like to introduce you to the entire Economic Collapse Family’s cast of characters. This family is so large that I’ll use numerous analogies and, with apologies, some mixed metaphors. To include the full Dramatis Personae I’ll have to borrow from both The Addams Family, and The Munsters. My apologies to anyone that never saw these two TV shows from the 1960s. This will seem like gibberish …


Letter Re: More on the Emerging U.S. Grain Shortages

Jim: I was told by a local LDS Bishop’s storehouse that the church is out of white wheat and will no longer be providing it because they buy it and it’s simply too expensive right now on the open market. The wait time for [hard] red [winter] wheat orders is 3-to-4 weeks. Another LDS cannery in Utah is also out of several items that they typically have on hand. Get your food storage while you can. – Junior