Category: Current Events & Politics

Are Your Neighbors Contrapreneurs?

The American newspapers are presently full of stories about declining suburban home values and the galloping foreclosure rates, mainly in the coastal markets. (The erstwhile “hot” real estate markets have turned bitter cold.) As more and more foreclosures get dumped onto an already over-saturated “buyers market”, there is a strong likelihood that prices will spiral downward. Anyone that bought a “spec” house is now trying to get rid of it, even if means taking a loss. The downward pressure on house prices is likely to continue for several years in the coastal areas, and in few inland markets like Phoenix …


Three Letter Re: The Recent San Diego, California Wildfires

Jim: I have the rest of the day off due to the wildfires in the area so I am at home. The firefighting aircraft have been grounded due to wind until a couple of minutes ago. The evacuation zone is currently a 1/4 mile east of me. My northeastern and southeastern escape routes are currently out of the question. I figure that by the time I get told to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.), the Northern route will be closed off or too crowded to take. Going South into Mexico is currently not an option due to the makeup of …


Letter Re: Lack of Government Preparedness and Infrastructure Upkeep Necessitates G.O.O.D. Planning

Jim, Popular Mechanics magazine outlines five scary Katrina-esque scenarios in various parts of our country might face in the coming years. I find it interesting that two of the five involve California and three of the five involve large bodies of water. People in the affected areas need to seriously consider moving out or having a Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) plan. Also, just because you don’t think you are near any bodies of water, it does not make your home immune to floods. When checking a local university’s Emergency Preparedness Plan, I found out that my neighborhood is part …


Letter Re: The Southeastern US Drought

JWR: I was talking to a friend in North Carolina this afternoon and he was telling me about the drought conditions in the Charlotte area and he relayed to me some interesting drought news. – The several acre sized lake on his property has dried up. – Duke Power has issued a statement, in the local area, to expect power disruptions in the coming months due to low water levels in the reservoirs that Duke operates that is used for hydro power, cooling towers, and such. Here is a link from the DOE about a drought’s drain on power. The …


From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Dumping of US Dollar Could Trigger “Economic September 11” (Posted August 29, 2005)

I very rarely post lengthy excerpts from other sources. However, I am essentially forced to in this case. You see, this prematurely archived article was posted at The Australian newspaper web site for just a few hours, earlier today. (Actually late afternoon on the 28th in the U.S., due to the time difference and being on the other side of the International Date Line). It was briefly on their “The World” page–one of their main pages. But it now shows up only in their archives. No explanation was given why it has mysteriously disappeared from their “The World” page. It …


Meltdown from Modern Financial Alchemy, by Thomas Tan

Nowadays after all the 3rd quarter write-off announcements from many banks, sub-prime has been mentioned less on television and newspapers. The market has returned to the old high and some more. Is this credit crunch crisis over? What might be coming next? The sub-prime is only the 1st layer of the onion being peeled; there is much worse danger yet to be revealed. It is amazing to see the high growth in all kinds of fixed income products during last 10 years called SIVs (structured investment vehicles) such as RMBSs (residential mortgage backed securities), CDOs (collateralized debt obligations), ABS (asset …


Letter Re: The Fragility of the US Power Grid

Hi , I read the recent statements about the power grid and have to tell you the telephone network in in a similar condition. The reasons are the same as power guy’s statements. I was a tech for the phone company for 26+ years, much of it as a lineman but also in repair and splicing. Fiber optic cables are great but the electronics at each end require [grid] power to run the equipment. [Some other topics deleted, for brevity] The point is that things are a mess. You are doing a great job [with SurvivalBlog] to get people to …


Letter Re: The Fragility of the US Power Grid

Hello: I enjoy your web site every day and am very close to the 10 Cent Challenge, I promise. I work for a medium sized electric utility in the west and I can tell you first hand how weak and ratty the executives have allowed the system to become. The name of the utility game has now become ‘defer maintenance to artificially inflate the price of your stock and pay your executives large salaries with massive stock options.’ In the old days we had over 250 guys in construction and maintenance staying on top of pole change outs, system upgrades, …


Letter Re: New Legislation Signed in California by the Governator

Jim: After the [Ammunition] Micro Stamping bill signed by Arnold [Schwarzenegger] and the lead ammo ban also signed last weekend, a lot of firearms owners in California were somewhat angered by our “Terminator” Governor. But this bill (AB 1645) [commonly] called “The Katrina Bill” that would if I read it correctly keep law enforcement officers from taking the firearms and ammo of citizens that posses them legally, in the event of a disaster like Katrina. This might be of interest to those in California that are preparing for WTSHTF or TEOTWAWKI. Take Care. – MGB JWR Replies: That issue was …


Two Recent Incidents Illustrate that the U.S. Treasury Wants to Have it Both Ways With “Legal Tender”

Consider the case of a lad that tried using some $1 US Mint Presidential series proof coins as spending money at a restaurant. And now consider the hung jury in the tax evasion trial of a building contractor that paid his employees in US Eagle one ounce (“$50”) gold coins, at their face value. So if I understand these stories correctly, the U.S. Treasury wants us to accept their “legal tender” coins at face value, when the face value is more than the metal value of a coin, but they’d happily see us thrown in jail when when use a …


Letter Re: A Political Solution to America’s Pending Economic Catastrophe

Mr. Rawles: I recently read your novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. I actually had to read it twice. (The first time for enjoyment, and the second time to take down notes.) With all of the recent news about the collapse of the credit market, monetizing of the National Debt and out of control Federal spending (which all sound frighteningly close to the first chapter of “Patriots”), I can only wonder how much longer America can hang in there before we suffer a total economic collapse. I can only see one possible hope: a return to a fiscally-sound constitutional government.And …



U.S. Foreclosure Numbers are Up–Some Retreat Property Possibilities?

There has been a lot of news in recent weeks about real estate foreclosures in the US. Foreclosure.com (one of SurvivalBlog’s Affiliate advertisers) just published the following US residential real estate foreclosure statistics: National Highlights: * Foreclosure activity increased 36 percent from July * Foreclosure activity increased 115 percent from August 2006 * REO (“Real Estate Owned”)s increased 59% month over month, the biggest increase of any of the three foreclosure categories (Default, Auction, REO) State and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Highlights: * Nevada, California and Florida posted the top three state foreclosure rates * The states with the most …


Hedge Funds–A Disaster Story that Could Unfold in Quarterly Episodes

One of the consequences of the collapse of the credit bubble and the subprime lending fiasco in particular is with hedge funds. There is a substantial risk of uncontrollable instability in hedge funds that could potentially be disastrous for investors. This instability will likely be seen in waves of bad news that will come roughly once a quarter. First, let me provide a bit of background: 1.) Most hedge funds have rules that allow only quarterly redemptions (“cashing out”) by by their investors. (A few hedge funds even have only one annual redemption “window.”) Typically, the redemption requests must be …


Letter Re: A Security Contractor’s Convoy Experience in Iraq

Dear Jim, A friend of mine who is a contractor sent this. It’s been posted elsewhere. Foul language warning. – Michael Z. Williamson Info from Iraq From Someone Who is Doing the “Run and Gun“ Yesterday a friend of mine who runs a small security company here in Iraq emailed me. He is standing up a protection detail and wanted my opinion on tactics and equipment running the roads of Iraq; Tactics, SOPs, hard car or soft? I have been giving it some thought and here is where I am at. I am willing to speculate I’m as well traveled …