Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: The Eastern Canada Gasoline Crisis

Hi James, It’s interesting to look at what’s going on here in Ontario. The gasoline [filling] station near my office has been out of gas for two days, and others have been out for varying amounts of time. A friend of mine delivers fuel to gas stations, and was telling me what is happening: 1) There is a rail strike at CN Rail. This has prevented refineries from receiving shipments of the additives needed for diesel and gasoline. 2) There was a fire at one of the Ontario refineries, cutting production significantly. This fire occurred on February 15, and by …


Letter Re: The Pending Federal “Assault Weapons” Ban (H.R. 1022)

Jim, Have you read through this bill? The way things seem to be going/looking, is that 4-shot/capacity turnbolts will be all that’ll be “allowed”. Yes; I am scared. Any thoughts/comments/advice/assurances?- Ben L. JWR Replies: The H.R. 1022 bill scares me, too. Paragraph (L) is the nasty catch-all. That paragraph leaves the determination of what constitutes an “Assault Weapons” up to the arbitrary whim of the Attorney General (AG)–a political appointee. (Remember Janet Reno?) The real weasel phrase in paragraph (L) is “…and a firearm shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is …


Letter Re: U.S. Dollar Collapse? I Think We are Getting Close

Sir: Over this past weekend, I began re-reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” . I hadn’t touched it since mid-2000. Wow! page 10 includes:…”just before the Crunch…unofficial debt topped 19 trillion dollars…” a president that didn’t let trifles life ledger sheets and statistics get in his way…the real deficit was growing…”a full scale default on US Treasuries appears imminent…” Then I look at Internet financial and economic news feeds [and see] Fleet Street (London’s Wall Street) recommending that their client firms get out of the US Dollar (USD), China, UAE, Russia and others moving out of the USD. Many estimates …


Letter Re: Propane Shortage and Rationing in the Frigid U.S. Northeast

Mr. Rawles, I have enjoyed your site for years. I was compelled to write when I saw a situation in Maine this week that ties the two current threads on your site together (Just in time delivery and propane as a fuel source). In the State of Maine we have had a stark reminder of the inelasticity of the energy (propane) supply chain. As a result of a Canadian railroad union strike and weather that impacted the the normal shipping schedule, we have had a mini propane crisis requiring the governor to get involved, have the US Coast Guard to …


Letter Re: The Salt Lake City Trolley Square Mall Shootings and “Gun Free” Zones

James, I’m a concealed carry handgun instructor for the state of Kansas. I haven’t come across any articles or news reports that made mention of whether or not the shopping mall had posted “no concealed carry” signs. Have you heard anything? I would like to know as I can use this incident in my classes. – Rick JWR Replies: According to several published new stories, including this one, there were indeed signs at some of the Trolley Square Mall’s entrances emblazoned, “No Guns.” So we can surmise that ostensibly “gun free zones” such as public schools, public buildings and shopping …


Letter Re: Observations on the Recent Missouri Ice Storm

Mr. Rawles, I live in Southwestern Missouri. Did you followed the ice storm that buried the Midwest? We got hit pretty hard. We get hit hard every four or five years. Which brings me to my point. I have never seen so many unprepared people in all my life. After day two of the ice storm power was out (for a month in a lot of places like Springfield). There were no gas cans to be found at any store. Batteries, disposable propane bottles, flashlights, milk, and meat were missing from the shelves of every store. Even Wally World [Wal-Mart] …


U.S. Currency Inflation–Is It Time to Knock a Zero Off the Dollar?

There have been many recent press reports about the base metal value of some small denomination U.S. coins now exceeding their face value. (For example 1.66 cents for a pre-1983 copper penny, and 6.65 cents for a U.S. nickel 5 cent piece. The latter may eventually have to be replaced with an aluminum token.) Fearing that they might disappear from circulation, the U.S. Treasury Department recently issued an edict banning the exportation or melting of pennies and nickels. This is a stopgap measure that ignores a much bigger issue: The U.S. currency has suffered from more than 70 years of …


The Next Pandemic: Starvation in a Land of Plenty

At the dawn of the 21st century, we are living in an amazing time of prosperity. Our health care is excellent, our grocery store shelves burgeon with a huge assortment of fresh foods, and our telecommunications systems are lightning fast. We have relatively cheap transportation, and our cities are linked by an elaborate and fairly well-maintained system of roads, rails, canals, seaports, and airports. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world’s population will soon live in cities rather than in the countryside. But the downside to all this abundance is over-complexity, over-specialization, and lengthy supply …


Letter Re: Observations on the Recent Oklahoma Ice Storm

Jim: Well, I just got back online. I had to go up to the roof and thaw the wireless [Internet] antenna with a heat gun. It seems the ice grounds out the antenna. It was an easy fix with my heat gun for heat shrink tubing. More precipitation is on the way but colder. It will probably just be snow. We never lost power but were ready anyway. I have friends with no power and they have been without power for days and no idea when it will be back on. The further out you live, the less chance of …


From #1 Son: Farm Bill Comment Deadline

Today is the last day before the comment period form the Farm Bill closes. Please put your comments, particularly anti-NAIS ones, in right away! Something like this would probably be good: I am in opposition to the National Animal Identification System. It should not be forced on small farms and individuals, just to create more profits for large companies. If there is to be any NAIS-like program, it should be a truly voluntary system. Currently it is worded to allow for changes if necessary, and its goals include 100% participation. It would be “necessary” to make the system mandatory to …


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, …


Letter Re: Earthquake in Hawaii

Jim: I woke up last Sunday to the sound of my house shaking. Yup, an earthquake and wow, a really big one. Calmly and firmly I ordered the kids out of the house and waited until the shaking stopped. When we went inside my 6 and 8 year olds had already gotten their little mini-survival packs out (emergency mylar bags, flints, tinder and Swiss army knives) and were working on getting their heavier survival backpacks out from the closet (food, clothes and sleeping bags) while I swept up the broken glass on the kitchen floor. They did me proud. No …


Letter Re: An Early Snowstorm in Western New York

Well, mother nature really gave it to them this week. There were 24 inches of snow dumped on us in about 24 hours. That, and the trees still had most of their leaves still intact. That just made more surface for the snow to stick, and it was the wettest imaginable snow you have ever seen. I’m writing this on Sunday. The power has been out since about 5 P.M. on Friday, and they are saying it won’t all be back on till next weekend. I didn’t lose my power, since I live north of the worst of it. I …


Letter Re: Jericho TV Series

Jim: I don’t know if you watch much TV, but this new show Jericho is going to spur survivalism interest, I can see right now. I just watched the pilot (downloaded off the Internet – it won’t be airing for a few more weeks, and will be on CBS) but it was really well done. Small town deals with the aftermath of a multiple nuclear strike on the US. It covers radios and TV being down (a hammer is mentioned briefly as the only one able to get out for info), gas runs, panic at grocery stores, and prisoners being …


Three Letters Re: Some ARM Twisting in the Near Future

James, I wanted to help explain some of the upside to general hyper-inflation. This current well managed hyper-inflation that has been rolling strong since about 1995 went first into the financial markets and then after the dot-com-9-11 went into the overheated housing market,. This inflation is a result of the massive infusion of dollars through fractional reserve bank financing creating new money by loaning out non-existent money. We can likely expect the dollar value of homes to not drop too far if this alleged bubble pops as the fed much like in Australia and the UK central banks try to …