Category: Economics & Investing

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 …


Economics and Investing:

Reader Sue C. sent us this: Don’t Look Now, But Stagflation May be Here KAF flagged this: Economy faces weaker growth, higher prices BG sent this from the WSJ: The Economy is Worse than You Think. Items from The Economatrix: Priced In Gold, The Median Home Price Is Down 80% Many Of Us Won’t Be Able To Retire Until Our 80s Worsening Greek Debt Crisis Sinks Stocks, Euro Late Credit Card Payments Hit Pre-Recession Levels


Economics and Investing:

PG&E Hit Hard By Antioch Copper Thefts. (Thanks to K.A.F. for the link.) Digging Into the U.S. Budget: What We Spend, and How SurvivalBlog’s G.G. kindly sent three links: Jim Jubak: The Coming Global Financial Crisis Central Bankruptcy: Why QEIII Is Inevitable Number of U.S. Expatriates Continues to Soar Items from The Economatrix: Report Points to Lower Food Prices, More Hiring Mainstream Media Signals Economy Getting Bad Dr. Gary North: The Next Financial Crisis Zombinomics And Volatility


Economics and Investing:

Loyal contributor C.D.V. sent this: US Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression Sovereign Man asks: What are the Social Implications of Economic Collapse? (Thanks to James C. for the link.) Nancy N. sent this: Roubini Says “Perfect Storm” May Clobber Global Economy. I love hearing mainstream market analysts go wild talking gloom and doom. C.D.V. sent this: Gold to Reach $5,000 Due to Supply Shortage: Report An exhaustive report by Standard Chartered predicts that gold will more than triple to $5,000 an ounce because of a lack of supply, not just because of a surge in demand that …


Prioritizing My Prepping, by R.W.L.

First of all, a note of praise to JWR: thanks for all you do.  You’ve got an amazing reference blog site going here and are providing an immeasurable amount of help to your readers.  I stumbled across SurvivalBlog via a link in the comments section of another blog called The Deliberate Agrarian, last October. The link included the warning: “Just see if you can escape from the archives in less than four hours.”  Two weeks later, I emerged from the archives with blood shot eyes and was both enlightened and scared at the same time.  I had a lot of …


Economics and Investing:

C.D.V. sent this alarming article: US Is in Even Worse Shape Financially Than Greece: Gross. JWR’s comment: Default may be delayed, but it looks inevitable! The latest from Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge: The Fed’s $600 Billion Stealth Bailout Of Foreign Banks Continues At The Expense Of The Domestic Economy, Or Explaining Where All The QE2 Money Went. (Thanks to C.R.W. for the link.) Sue C. suggested: Goodbye Recovery, Hello Recession. Sue’s humorous comment: “Wish I had noticed when we came out of the recession.” Also from Sue: “Meaningful probability” of a China hard landing: Roubini A.N.R. sent this bit …


Economics and Investing:

G.G. flagged this bit of government spending orgy news: Federal budget deficit on track to eclipse $1 trillion for third year. How long do they think they can continue to do this without destroying the U.S. Dollar? L.M.W. sent this: Why We Are Facing an Inflationary Depression Hathaway Confirms Gold to Trade in the Five Digits An interesting piece over at FOREX Crunch: We Have A Volunteer For Greek Losses Items from The Economatrix: Example How Gold Can be a Debt Protection China Warns US Debt-default Idea Is Playing With Fire US Hurtles Toward System Failure Death By Debt Global …


Letter Re: Extreme Coupon Prepping

Jim, I’d like to share my recent experience with grocery discounts using the controversial discount cards that stores issue. First of all, I’ve never filled out a customer-information form for any such card, and since I pay cash nobody knows who I am. So since my name is not connected with the discount cards, I gladly use them to take advantage of every possible discount. There are three Kroger stores in my area, and one day recently I was on the canned vegetable aisle and noticed a tag that said that a certain brand of diced tomatoes was priced at …


Economics and Investing:

I predicted seeing ads once the base metal value of nickels hit two times their face value (“2X face”), but not this soon: BoxOfNickels.com. I’m confident that you can expect to see more such nickel entrepreneurs in the near future–especially once the base metal value exceeds 1.5 times face value. (7.5 cents for a nickel.) Speaking of changing valuations (in this case, deflation), have you seen the chart showing the change Bitcoin values in the past three months? It now takes more than $15 USD to buy one BTC and in a brief spike the rate got up past $30. …


Letter Re: Too Late for Precious Metals Investing?

Mr. Rawles: Is it too late to invest in precious metals? Do you still recommend Northwest Territorial Mint? In Christ, – Karen F. JWR Replies: No, it is not too late to invest, but you should watch the market carefully and buy during price dips. Yes, Northwest Territorial Mint is trustworthy.  But I’ve heard that they can develop a backlog of several weeks when the precious metals market is in a particularly frantic period.  Summers are typically slow for the precious metals market, so it is a good time to buy, both in terms of price and no worries about …


Economics and Investing:

Several readers sent this piece, highlighted at The Drudge Report: China ratings house says US defaulting: report. “In our opinion, the United States has already been defaulting”. It is beginning, folks: German Rating Agency Feri Downgrades US Government Bonds: AAA to AA! George C. suggested this commentary from Doug Casey: Our Economic Future: From Best to Worst Case Sterling and Euro Fall on Economic Concerns – Gold Rises to Record £950.81 British Pounds an Ounce B.B. sent this: US Is Nearing Even Worse Financial Crisis: Jim Rogers Some other recent quotes from Jim Rogers: “Bernanke Is A Disaster” Who Will …


Two Letters Re: Home Security, Inflation Hedge, and Liquidity, All in One

JWR,   I have read with great interest articles posted on your blog.  Scott’s article was a good read but left me scratching my head.  I am no math whiz but dropping an extra two tons onto a residential second floor seems a little unsafe.  I know Scott did not mention the overall room dimensions or joist sizing, or extra precautions he took, but overall I thought a residential floor is generally rated to a safe load of 40 pounds per square foot.  For a 10’x12′ room that would be 4,800 pounds. A box of pennies is 3.25 inches tall, 4 inches wide, and …


Economics and Investing:

SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large, Michael Z. Williamson sent this: A Few Charts That Show Why Quantitative Easing Was A Miserable Failure That dreaded “D.” word is spoken again: Bullard sees debt default as big global risk. (Thanks to B.B. for the link.) A bit late to jumping on the band wagon: Traders Are Dumping Stocks and Buying Gold and Silver Reader Pierre M. suggested this: President Obama’s phony accounting on the auto industry bailout Bill J. sent this: Senators seek crackdown on “Bitcoin” currency. (JWR’s Comment: I’m not surprised to see Senator Schumer’s name mentioned…) Items from The Economatrix: Low …


Home Security, Inflation Hedge, and Liquidity, All in One, by Scott in Wisconsin

I’ve been prepping for about five years now, and I thought I’d share a little “trick” I discovered, to cover three very important prepping problems, all at once. We all want a more secure home, of course.  If the SHTF, we may well need to hunker down and be self-sufficient for a while.  But no matter how much stuff we’ve put aside, it’s meaningless if we can’t hang on to it.  So home security is very important. We also want a hedge against inflation, which seems sure to come.  The way the Fed is printing money, and the government is …


Two Letters Re: Extreme Coupon Prepping

Mister Rawles; Someone recently mentioned that some people buy too much stuff with coupons that they can’t possibly use up.  Also there was someone who usually buys “cheap” products like V05 shampoo, etc.  I have been couponing for four years.  My husband is a pastor and we took a lesser-paying church about the time the economy went South.  Then we added a family member.  I prayed and asked the Lord what to do.  We were spending $500-to-$600 each month on groceries with me trying to buy less expensive stuff, cheaper cuts of meat, etc.  I have always lived a frugal …