Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: Estimate on the Likelihood of an Economic Depression or Full-Scale Collapse?

Jim, I know you get a lot of mail so I’ll be brief. I highly value your information and input on the current economy. I also have read your book “Patriots”, and your current assessment of our economy’s future terrifies me. What are the probable chances of this turning into a worse case scale as seen in your novel? Even if it is not worse case, I have no idea what a Moderate case would look like. Your wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.- William JWR Replies: In the context of America’s current economic situation (namely, the implosion of …


The Fed’s Monetization Madness: A Word of Warning

I’m sure that most of you remember back in the first week of August when CNBC market analyst Jim Cramer was screaming hysterically: “Open the discount window!” Well, it seems that Bernanke and Company have done exactly what he asked. As of the past week, commercial banks are now taking $2.7 billion in loans per day from the Federal Reserve discount window. With just this lending from the discount window, the increase in the U.S. money supply has jumped to an annualized rate of more than 50%! I’ve said this before: The biggest red flag imaginable for pending economic catastrophe …


Letter Re: Surviving Major Changes in the Political Landscape

Jim, I’m a believer in being prepared for the worst. However, how do I (we) survive 4+ years of an extreme left wing political take over of our system? Right now it looks like Hillary or Obama will win the Presidential elections in ’08. With either of those two in and a left wing house and senate, I have to believe that we’re doomed. You have to know that firearms will probably be banned similar to Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Are you going to give up your means of defense? When times get tough and food gets scarce, the …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

The Disappearing “Jumbo” Creates a Window of Opportunity for Some Retreat Buyers For many years the “Jumbo” mortgage has been the means by which middle class buyers have purchased A.) Large homes, B.) Homes on large acreages, or C.) Homes in desirable suburbs. With the recent credit market crisis, the availability of Jumbo loans has declined precipitously. This has had a number of immediate effects. First, it has been an impetus for owners of houses that had been listed between $417,000 and $450,000 to lower their asking prices to $416,000 or less. Secondly, with a few exceptions, it has effectively …


Letter Re: Honey Prices Escalating, Just as Predicted

Jim: Saw the post regarding imported honey. Heard the same thing from my small time honey supplier. For west coast Costco’s, Silverbow honey is pure and made from US and Canadian honey. Verified this with the folks at Silverbow, based in Moses Lake, Washington state. For the record, I do my best to support local businesses and suppliers in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest, followed (naturally!) by SurvivalBlog [paid advertisers and affiliate] advertisers. Regards, – MP near Seattle


Two Letters Re: Projecting Some Possible Outcomes for The Panic of 2007

Jim, Very, very well done post, “Possible Outcomes for the Panic of 2007”. I would say you nailed it as good as can be done. However you will not be invited to be a guest on CNBC. – DAV Jim: Don’t ignore the compounding effects of a) an energy shock from peak oil, a major gulf hurricane, or geopolitical conflicts, b) natural disasters, particularly major 8.0+ earthquakes on the West Coast or the New Madrid fault, or c) wars and terror attacks driven by causes other than angry debt collectors (e.g. Al Qaeda, false flag attacks). All of these could …


Letter Re: Recent Floods in the UK and the Impact on Our Preparations

Further to my recent post about the recent flooding In the UK, things in the immediate area are pretty well back to normal now, aside from some continuing disruption to the road network due to land-slips, undermining and in some cases, bridges across water courses being washed away. Here, we got off very lightly, compared to some. No loss of life, no injuries, very little property damage. There are many families, however, who will be counting the cost of this incident for a long time, both in terms of loss of loved ones and of property and livelihood. One’s heart …


A Full Scale U.S. Dollar Panic Before November?

The news wires were abuzz last week about the global credit squeeze. Bankers are unwilling to make loans when they can’t calculate risk. What risk? Here is a big one: Many of their clients have derivatives exposure, which means that lenders can no longer calculate their credit worthiness. In the banking world, the standard “safe” answer to any loan question in the absence of data is almost universally no. I surmise that if this situation gets any worse, governments may step in and make loan guarantees. (Meaning that the taxpayers would shoulder the risk instead of the bankers.) That may …


Letter Re: Povidone (Betadine) Will Be Exempted from the New U.S. Iodine Ban But Polar Pure Will Not

Jim, I was reading through FR Doc E7-12736 (Federal Register: July 2, 2007, Volume 72, Number 126, Rules and Regulations, Page 35920-35931, online at your link this morning when I found this language at the bottom of the document: Sec. 1310.12 Exempt chemical mixtures. … (4) Iodine products classified as iodophors that exist as an iodine complex to include poloxamer-iodine complex, polyvinyl pyrrolidone-iodine complex (i.e., povidone-iodine), undecoylium chloride iodine, nonylphenoxypoly (ethyleneoxy) ethanol-iodine complex, iodine complex with phosphate ester of alkylaryloxy polyethylene glycol, and iodine complex with ammonium ether sulfate/polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate. It appears that Betadine and some other organic iodine …


Letter Re: Observations on the Flooding in Central England

Sir: You might have seen the news reports about the flooding in Central England last week. We’re in amongst it, but fortunately (and thanks to forward planning) high enough to have remained dry. The primary cause of the floods was a prolonged period of exceptionally heavy rain, up to 131mm (c.5-1/2 inches) in one day. This followed hot on the heels of a very wet summer which left the ground sodden an unable to absorb the downpour, which caused flash-flooding as it ran off. Areas not normally flood-prone have been inundated. Rivers broke their banks and filled their flood-plains. Now …


EBay Expands its Firearms Parts/Magazine Sales Ban–and SurvivalBlog Takes Action

The liberal do-gooders at eBay have turned the screws even tighter on gun owners. First they banned the sale of guns, receivers, and ammunition. Then they banned the sale of 11+ round magazines, barrels, and gun parts kits. They’ve also banned any auction for knives with “fighting” or “throwing” in the title or description. (But they still allow box cutter knives. Hmmmm…) Now they’ve announced that they are banning auction listings for all gun clips/magazines and most gun parts. They are now using the standard of “any part required for firing of a gun” for their new restriction. So I …


Letter Re: Betadine and Polar Pure from Ready Made Resources

Jim, [Regarding the recent mention of soon-to-be-banned Polar Pure water purification and Betadine iodine products,] Just to let you know, today I picked up some Betadine at my local Walgreens store [a discount drugs store] and it was $17.99 for the name brand (8 oz.) and about $13 for the Walgreens’ [generic] version (also 8 oz). I got home, and called Ready Made Resources, and their’s is $12.96 for a QUART (32 oz). This is between four and six times less expensive! The owner was very courteous, mentioned that he has two sons in the military, and I look forward …


The U.S. Stock Market: “Eject!, Buckaroo, Eject!”

The massive injections of liquidity from the Federal Reserve for the past five+ years–created by artificially low interest rates–have clearly come to an end. Cheap credit “fixes” are no longer available, and the credit junkie is going to experience withdrawal symptoms. Recently, news of the sub-prime debacle and teetering derivatives hedge funds have registered with investors–at least at the institutional level. Collectively, they have come to the realization that the party’s over. So it was no surprise that Wall Street prices declined 4.23 percent last week. I predict that this is just the beginning of a major bear market cycle …


Letter Re: Drinking Water Shortage in Gloucester, England

James: This is an excerpt from a report in The Drudge Report on 7/23/07: “Police at an emergency services briefing in Gloucester said the water treatment works could be out of action for at least a week – and possibly two before it would be fully operative again. This would have serious implications for water supply in the Gloucester, Didsbury and Cheltenham areas, they warned. In Gloucestershire, members of the armed forces have been taking 600 water tanks into the area while 22 miles of temporary mains are put in place to enable water to be pumped from outside the …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Indiscriminate Weapons Confiscation

Dear Mr. Rawles, First off, I would like to thank you for writing the novel “Patriots” and starting SurvivalBlog. My dad sent me your book in the mail and told me to read it. Being a fan of Tom Brown-ish survival literature, I decided to give it a try. I read it in one night, starting at about 8 pm and finishing at 3 in the morning. Truly, my world view has changed. I have immediately started making preparations—getting my Bug Out Bag together, my Bug Out Routes planned and starting to practice some of the skills sets I’ve let …