Category: Current Events & Politics

The New Century: An Era of Upright Spikes

We are entering an era of upright spikes. Clearly, the debt-driven global economy is spinning out of control. The aggregate value of the derivatives market is exploding and meanwhile food prices are spiking. Both of these are threatening huge economic dislocation and subsequent social turmoil that–just as I predicted five years ago–will topple governments. I stand by that prediction. (And, for the record, I’m not just talking about failed votes of confidence. I’m talking about revolutions.) Note: Because SurvivalBlog’s diverse readership expects access on mobile devices, I intentionally minimize the use of graphics in my blog. But this particular topic …


Letter Re: The Reality of Paying Off Huge Government Debts

James: I missed this news story when it came out last fall: Germany finished paying off its WWI war reparations on October 3, 2010. That was 92 years after the Treaty of Versailles set the amount at 83% of Germany’s GDP.  Funding these payments was largely responsible for the economic collapse of the Weimar Republic (with its hyperinflation). What will it take to pay back the debt we’ve imposed on ourselves? Depending on how you count it, the current government debt is between 14.2 Trillion (Treasury number) and 62 Trillion (when you include liabilities for Fannie/Freddie and current-value obligations for …


Guest Article: The Screaming Fundamentals for Owning Gold and Silver, by Chris Martenson

This report lays out an investment thesis for gold and one for silver.  Various factors lead me to conclude that gold is one investment that you can park for the next ten or twenty years, confident that it will perform well. My timing and logic for both entering and finally exiting gold (and silver) as investments are laid out in the full report. The punch line is this: Gold and silver are not (yet) in bubble territory, and large gains remain, especially if monetary, fiscal, and fundamental supply-and-demand trends remain in play. Introduction In 2001, as the painful end of …


Letter Re: The Argument for Return to Constitutional Principles

Dear SurvivalBloggers: Growing up along the shores of Lake Michigan, I often looked upon the most foundational landmarks of the region; lighthouses.  Each was unique in design but singular in purpose, their sole function being to provide a beacon of hope and direction amidst turbulent times of treachery and despair.  When a vessel lost its bearing, wandering aimlessly, the lighthouse was ever present to guide the way to safety.  Throughout history, man used tools such as lighthouses as guideposts toward security and prosperity.  Without them his efforts were often misguided, lost, and smashed upon the rocks of hopelessness. America’s shores …


Letter Re: TOR and the Onion Networks

The Onion Routing (TOR or Tor) project is one of the best ways to stay anonymous on the web. The project was initially funded by the Navy, but over a few years evolved into a non-profit organization. The goal of the TOR project is twofold: to allow for the anonymous browsing of the internet, and to allow people to connect to the .onion network. This is a basic illustration of how it works is this. Lets say every internet site you visit is a store front in a basic town. You go in and out of stores in the daylight. …


Letter Re: Adjustable Rate Mortgage Rate Resets

Dear JWR: Back in 2009, and even as early as 2007, many dire predictions were made about the massive wave of Alt-A and Option ARMs that were to reset in 2010 and 2011. See this widely-cited chart. (First mentioned in SurvivalBlog in January of 2009, in a link to iTulip.) Like many of you, I braced for impact, and then, nothing. What happened? This happened. Alt-As and ARMs have been resetting, but at very low rates, keeping the level of defaults lower than they would otherwise be. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. The Federal Reserve has been keeping …


Letter Re: The Vancouver Hockey Games Riots

Mr Rawles, I first posted this in a Survival forum I frequent often in response to the widespread, violent riots that broke out in Vancouver after the local hockey team lost in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I just was reading up on it this morning and you got to ask yourself: If your “countrymen” would essentially devolve into barbarian hordes over a stupid game – what do you think they’ll do when they have no food, water, heat, electricity and no government to bail them out or keep them in their place? I was speculating this morning that Vancouver is …


Letter Re: Recent “Debtors Prison” Articles

Jim,   The Economatrix recently posted this article link: Welcome to Debtor’s Prison, 2011 Edition. I’ve read others like it and I feel compelled to comment.  In most states in the union someone cannot be sentenced to jail merely for owing money to someone else.  But in some states, you can, when it comes to child support and alimony. In these cases, a judgment creditor (spouse) can almost literally take the shirt off your back (even in my pro-debtor Texas) and send you to jail, sometimes facing felony charges. If you read the article carefully, you will see that despite the …


The Coming Bitcoin Revolution

SurvivalBlog’s Cheryl N. (also known as The Economatrix) recently sent me a link to a news article that deserves special attention: Peer-to-Peer Currency Takes Banks Out of the Picture. In my estimation, Bitcoin has the potential to trigger a huge shift in how business in conducted via the Internet. . Think of it as a “Local Currency” (such as the well-known Ithaca Hours experiment), but that is scaled up to be a Populist Global Currency. Because of the distributed architecture, it is beyond the control of banks, governments, and taxing minions. Now that is economic freedom! I highly recommend that …


A Real World Test of My Preparations, by Daisy in Canada

Last week my city was taken by surprise by a terrible windstorm.  There were some weather warnings but nothing prepared residents for what would come.  Winds reached 110 km per hour and the damage to property was extensive.  Several people lost their lives due to flying debris and downed power lines.  While some were without power for only a couple of hours, others were without for up to a week.  Although we got our power back after 48 hours, we still suffered sporadic outages for two more days. It was with a completely different attitude that I met this storm.  …


Surviving Foreclosure, by Cindy D.

I know there are a lot of intense feelings out there about people who have had a foreclosure.  I wanted to write about my experience to help others that may be facing the same situation. Even though I may write this very simply and factually, it was a very emotional and devastating time in my life. I learned a great deal but don’t want to ever go through it again. I want to preface my story with a little background. My husband and I have been married for 28 years and have always been fortunate enough to pay our bills …


Letter Re: RC Aircraft Possibilities

James Wesley: I fly radio-controlled (RC) aircraft, and the Switchblade is a definite possibility. As you can tell from the video, there is a lot of computer generated “help” going on there, but the concept is solid, the technology to do this is already readily available and has been for some time. It’s just a matter of time until somebody completes the package. The problem is, for an aircraft that small, the maximum payload I could see might be around a pound, maybe slightly less. But a pound of C-4 could put a distinct “dent” in your day! Lately, the …


Watch The US Dollar Index — A Dollar Panic May Be Ahead

I’m often asked about my mentions of the US Dollar Index in SurvivalBlog, and about the Dollar Index ticker link at my Investing Recommendations page. This foreign exchange (FOREX) market index is often mentioned by its shorthand names (“USDX”, “DX”, or less commonly, “USDI”). It measures the value of the U.S. Dollar (USD) relative to several of our country’s major trading partners. Although the mix has changed over the years, presently the index gauges the value of the U.S. Dollar versus six currencies: the Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and the Swiss Franc. The USDX was …


Letter Re: 33 Ways to Encourage Atlas to Shrug

Mr. Rawles, Thank you sir for “33 Ways to Encourage Atlas to Shrug” article. I, too, was born in 1960. It’s nice to know that you’re a young man. I moved to “the Redoubt” nine and a half years ago, and have no regrets, other than the fact that my state’s Workman’s Compensation rates are some of the highest in the nation. As a building contractor, I have had to pay upwards of  65% for the privilege of wearing out my knees and back, working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. At the end of the year my …


Letter Re: Underscoring the Absurdity of Gun Control Laws

James,   I read your recent “Quote of the Day” by Sam Cohen, and it got me thinking. The quote was: “The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90 MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20.” – Sam Cohen, inventor of the Neutron Bomb Cohen has the basics down, but he failed to capture just how far into the realm of the ridiculous the regulators have gone. A more complete analogy would be as follows: The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at …