Category: Economics & Investing

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. …


Gold and Silver’s Rise are Actually Symptoms of the Dollar’s Demise

Today, in place of our usual Economics & Investing news column, we offer some brief commentary from Senior Editor JWR: — I’m often irritated to hear the mainstream financial media report on the gold, silver, and platinum markets.  In reporting the ups and downs of the spot and futures metals markets, they seem oblivious to the bigger picture.  The metals are all now in primary bull markets. They blithely report: “The price of gold rose today…” But the rise (in Dollar terms) of gold, silver, and platinum are actually symptoms of the U.S. Dollar’s demise. In fact, all of the …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

A Special Editor’s Note:  This will be the last regular Economics & Investing For Preppers news column.  Because so many news outlets have put their content behind paywalls, it has become increasingly difficult to assemble this column.  It will be replaced by a new weekly item: Economics & Investing Media of the Week.  That will typically be photos, video links, or the occasional news item. — Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This …


Gold: The US Dollar Bank Run Is Speeding Up, by Hubert Moolman

Previously, I have shown how the US dollar banking system is in the midst of a bank run. We have entered the critical part of this bank run. The US dollar banking system has become too debased, and nations are running to an asset like gold as a reserve asset instead. It can be described as very similar to the events since Nixon ended the direct convertibility to gold in 1971. In the Gold/Monetary Base chart (below) you can see currently how a similar pattern has developed to the 1971 end of convertibility.


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the end of Dollar Dominance. Precious Metals: A clear-pitched bell rang at 9:25 AM Eastern Time on Monday morning, when we saw these numbers posted: Gold: $4,111.40 Silver: $52.00 And by Thursday evening (Friday morning in Asia), we saw these even more astounding numbers, marking two more all-time highs: Gold: $4,358.20 Silver: …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, more coverage of the bull market in gold and silver. Precious Metals: On Thursday, spot gold was at $4,076.10, and spot silver hit $51.42 per Troy ounce.  This eclipsed the record high price set in January 17, 1980, when the Hunt Brothers attempted to corner the global silver market. When I last checked, it took …


How To Buy and Store Gold and Silver – Part 2, by Rocket J. Squirrel

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Security First off, never tell anyone that you have gold and silver stored at your home. Second, you must break rule #1 and tell someone you trust about the location, emphasis on trust. You will want to tell your wife/husband. Additionally, you will want to tell one of your heirs. You do not want to have your gold and silver lost to the person who buys your home when your heirs sell it if your heirs are unaware that you have gold/silver hidden on the property. Whomever you tell, emphasize to them …