Category: Economics & Investing

Opportunity Knocks: Building and Registering Tax-Free Suppressors – Part 1

Introductory Legal Proviso:  What I’m presenting in this article is solely for informational purposes. Consult local, state, and Federal law before buying or constructing a suppressor.  Stay legal!  Take note that the following applies only to folks who live in free states. There are many states like California and Illinois that have bans on suppressors. – JWR — As of January 1, 2026, the National Firearms Act (NFA) Tax on suppressors (called “silencers” in the legal world), short-barreled rifles (SBRs), and short-barreled shotguns (SBSes) will drop from $200 per transfer to ZERO. So now, although the NFA transfer application no …


Update: Tracking The Silver Bull Market — Key Channels and Fractals, by Hubert Moolman

Editor’s Introductory Note:  Today’s short feature post is from our friend Hub Moolman, in South Africa. Hub’s analysis includes two very useful charts. While I don’t rely on technical analysis, I do find that it often provides useful confirmation for the study of market fundamentals. For the big market traders, the current silver market seems to be transitioning from the “disbelief” stage to the “mania” stage. It is always difficult to time a market top, and missing a top can be perilous. I did quite well in calling the silver market bottom, on February 8, 2001 in a Usenet post …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. H.L. suggested a graphic derived from data from the IMF World Economic Outlook produced by Visual Capitalist that depicts aggregate world debt, by country, in 2025. The darker the color, the higher the percentage of a nation’s GDP. We are not far behind Japan!  There are several sovereign debt defaults ahead. Japan will probably just be the first of many. – JWR The thumbnail below is click-expandable.           (The graphic by Dorothy Neufeld is …


Planning Your Silver Bull Market Exit Strategy

The recent physical silver shortage and the run-up in the spot and futures prices of silver (around $59 USD per Troy ounce the last time that I checked) has prompted me to issue some supplementary advice about how and when to SELL some of your silver.  We should all be ready to start slowly SELLING or trading a large part of our silver once the spot price passes $125 per ounce.  There will almost certainly be a peak and then a crash in silver. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that …


America’s Future Can Be Seen in Spain’s Past

My goal in the essay is to use a well-known historical precedent to illustrate the U.S. Federal government’s untenable indebtedness predicament. Spain, 1500-1590 In 1500, the New World had just recently been discovered, and Spain had just recently forced the Moorish invaders from the Iberian Peninsula. Expanding their army, expanding their navy, and the lengthy campaign to kick out the Moors had been expensive for the Spanish crown. They also needed to maintain a large army to keep the Islamic North Africans from returning. There were also the expenses of building and supplying a large fleet of ships, in the …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.  This week, a FRED graph showing the M2 Money Supply, provided by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. JWR’s Comment: With such a dramatic expansion in the number of U.S. Dollars in circulation, there is no doubt why inflation is so pernicious, and why commodities are enjoying secular bull markets. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.     Economics & Investing Links of Interest Silver was shining brightly again this week, as the Silver Shorts have nearly surrendered, following the …


Practical Preparedness Suggestions – Part 1, by R.J.

This article is a compilation of practical preparedness tips, insights, and lessons learned. It starts with what I call inner resources, or mindset and moves toward the hard, practical items. I offer a rather broad field of experience, including military/industrial electrical work, Christian hospitality in organized retreat settings, hospice/end of life care, and some alternative power experience. I’ll close the article with a Christian exhortation as we head into this Christmas season. Mindset You can break the preparedness mindset down into: homesteading, military, social, domestic categories, etc; or synthesize it into one grand holistic prepster/survivalist perspective. Just don’t flunk the …


Update: Coping With Inflation–Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival

JWR’s Introductory Note: This is an update to an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog back in December, 2007. It is part of a series of SurvivalBlog 20th Anniversary update re-posts, in recognition of the fact that the majority of readers did not join us until recent years. — As of September, 2025, statistics released by the Federal government claim that the current inflation rate is 3.0 percent. That is utter hogwash. Their statistics cunningly omit “volatile” food and energy prices. It is apparent that something is seriously out of whack. Meanwhile, the buying power of the US Dollar has …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week, we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. This week: A map of U.S. job cuts from January to October, 2025. JWR’s Comments: As you can see, the Trump Administration is sending part of the entrenched D.C. Deep State packing. It is no wonder that the statist Mainstream Media is apoplectic. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.         (Graphic courtesy of Visual Capitalist.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest Spot silver touched a record-breaking $56.67 USD per Troy ounce today. This brought the …


Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System: A Fragile House of Cards

JWR’s Introductory Note: This is an update to an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog in February, 2007. It is part of a series of SurvivalBlog 20th Anniversary update re-posts, in recognition of the fact that the majority of readers did not join us until recent years. — When I give lectures or do radio interviews, I’m often asked for examples when I mention that “we live in a fragile society.” Here is one prime example: kanban. The kanban or “just in time” inventory control system was developed in Japan, and became popular in America starting in the 1970s. It …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, or occasional news items of interest to preppers. Today, a map showing the top imports of most countries of the world.  The thumbnail below is click expandable.  (Map courtesy of HowMuch.net, by way of Reddit.)       — Links of Interest Housing alarm as half of all US homes fall in value — biggest drop since the Great Recession. Pennies are being canceled and the US Mint won’t make any more. What does that mean? At Zero Hedge: Visualizing The World’s $111 Trillion …


The Foreign Worker Scam Exposes Trump’s Economic Achilles Heel, by Brandon Smith

If you really want to counter the chaos grifters of the political left in the US, then you have to be willing to offer a coherent and consistent plan which dissolves the chaos they thrive on. Planning eases instability. Consistency defeats confusion. Clarity squashes disorder. The public needs to see a comprehensive list of standards, actions and goals and they don’t like it when their leaders suddenly derail the train. When it comes to economics, vision is meaningless. Every idiot out there has an economic “vision”, very few people have any idea how to get from Point A to Point …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, video links, or occasional news items of interest to preppers. The map image below, showing Unemployment Rates, By County is from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, posted for unrestricted use by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. It is click-expandable. For a detailed and zoomable view, see: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?m=1wm8j       And here is some related data that explains some of the gray-shaded patches seen in the otherwise low-unemployment western states: Native American Labor Market Dashboard. — Reader T.M wrote to recommend the book The Great …


Are Democrats Trying To Start A Civil War?, by Brandon Smith

Whenever you delve into the modern history of internal national conflict you’re bound to come across post-crisis accounts from people who said “We never saw it coming…” or “The violence hit us from nowhere…” Generally speaking, these were the people who weren’t paying attention and they just happened to survive by sheer luck. I think of this dynamic a lot these days. I see a large contingent of American society (perhaps 25% of the population) which has been radicalized or brainwashed beyond all reason or repair. These people (leftists) operate deep within a protective bubble of propaganda and zealotry; they …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

A Special Editor’s Note:  This weekly item replaces the Economics & Investing For Preppers news column.  Because so many news outlets have put their content behind paywalls, it became increasingly difficult to assemble that column. In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we will feature photos, charts, graphs, video links, or occasional news items of interest to preppers. Today’s selection is data from the U.S. Treasury Department, showing that the U.S. National Debt now exceeds $38 Trillion Dollars. See: Debt Dashboard.  The image below is click-expandable: Other Links of Interest Household debt hits record $18.6T as delinquencies remain elevated. …