Category: Economics & Investing

Letter Re: Will US Banking Turmoil Depress the Price of Gold?

Good Morning, I am a fairly new SurvivalBlog reader but like your range and depth of coverage in all things “survival”. I Hope you can help me with a metal question… I have collected gold and silver coins for over 10 years now and have always assumed I could sell them when the time was right, but I recently had a conversation with a local coin dealer who indicated they were cutting back their hours and that there were several other shops that were closing down their retail operations because a lot of people were only wanting to sell precious …


Letter Re: With Bank Runs Looming, Check Your Bank’s Safety Rating!

Jim, Here is a link to “The Street”–a web site that offers ratings of banks throughout the USA. I checked out the banks in my state (California) and found that I currently bank with a “B” rated bank. However, there are a number of A rated banks that are in my town. It might make sense for each of us to know and check up on our financial institutions on a regular basis. This along with choosing the highest rated bank in your area could provide additional layers of insulation from the bank runs that I believe with be inevitable. …


The Fleecing of the Sheeple–America Discovers “What That Thing Will Bring”

There is a very old legal maxim: “The value of a thing, is what that thing will bring.” It was developed by the courts to establish the value of a loss, in civil claims. The maxim has been perhaps over-used in central Europe, where if you recklessly drive your car and run down a farmer’s laying hen, you can be held liable for for not only the replacement cost of the chicken, but also the value of its future offspring for the next year–or perhaps even two years if the judge is in a bad mood. That ancient maxim is …


Letter Re: Calculating The Bullion Value of US Silver Coins

Mr. Rawles: My parents and grandparents gave about $60 face value in junk silver coins, including a few Morgan and “Peace:” dollars. The quarters and dimes are all 1964 and earlier, but some are the 50 cent pieces were made in the late 1960s. (Those are 40% [silver content], right?) With silver now rocketing up past $20 an ounce, how do I determine the current market value of these coins? Thanks, – G.E.T. JWR Replies: To calculate the silver metal value of 90% silver pre-1965 mint date US dimes, quarters, and half dollars: A $1,000 face value bag contains approximately …


Arm Thyself, by William Buppert

President Bush has embarked on the final phase of Pax Americana and is ushering in an advanced imperial stage that will endanger every living American. The coming election will assure us that every American will have his Second Amendment rights infringed or predated upon in some fashion no matter which party succeeds (is there a difference except the spelling?). Perennial readers of this site are better versed than most in the predatory nature of the state and its ability to target and vilify those it wishes to eliminate eventually whether through political neutralization such as Trent Lott or lethal means …


Letter Re: Are Simultaneous Inflation and Deflation Possible?

Hi Jim, Your excellent post about the possibility of simultaneous inflation and deflation got my head to spinning about ways to protect ourselves from a seemingly near-certain banking crisis. Such a scenario would certainly be a major headache for everyone, no matter how large their bank accounts, but it would be a huge problem for those of us who are in business for ourselves and need a constant cash flow through the banking system to pay payroll, expenses, taxes, etc. Therefore, I wondered if you and/or any of your readers had any suggestions for preparing for banking problems ahead of …


Letter Re: The EconomicIndicators.gov Web Site

James, It looks like the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Indicators web site now will continue to operate and they are going to enhance the site to boot. Here is the recently updated notice from their web site: The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) has decided to continue the economicindicators.gov web site. Featuring the economic releases from ESA’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the site was started by this Administration in 2002 to give greater awareness to these economic statistics. ESA initially planned to discontinue the service due to cost concerns but given …


Letter Re: Lessons from Brazil, Circa the Late 1990s

James, I was chatting with a friend of mine who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil and we got to talking about their economy. What really caught my attention was what life was like about the time they went their economic collapse, I think he said around 1998. Brazil had several years of increasing inflation and finally reached 50% per month! At that rate people were paid weekly instead of monthly and everyone would convert paychecks to hard goods and consumables. I told him there would be riots in the streets and marches on the White House if we ever had …


Two Letters Re: Are Simultaneous Inflation and Deflation Possible?

Jim, We are clearly experiencing deflation, as bad debt and derivatives unwind. At the same time there appears to be massive inflation by the Fed, or else where did the three Trillion for Iraq come from? The only “X factor” now is the money multiplier. Reserve requirements are now [effectively] zero. A good video (Flash required). But now eliminate the reserve component, [and its] Zimbabwe dollars ahoy. Here is some scary stuff, directly from the Fed. And here is an explanation similar to what I had wanted to write about the “Its the Economy Stupid” with Clinton and Greenspan – …


Are Simultaneous Inflation and Deflation Possible?

I often have friends and clients ask me how I can talk about inflation and deflation in the same breath. They’ve asked: “But I thought that inflation and deflation were contradictory. How do you think that we could experience both inflation and deflation at the same time?” Let me explain, starting with a bit of background: The fractional reserve banking system, based on usury, creates money. Here is a simplified example: Each time you deposit a $1,000 at your local bank, the bank then lends nearly all of that money out to someone else, charging interest. The bank holds just …


Letter Re: Drastic Changes in the Global Derivatives Market–Be Ready for the Mother of All Bailouts

Jim, Scroll down this article to the link to the Quarterly Derivatives Fact Sheet. It shows Citi[Bank] exposed to $3 trillion and J.P. Morgan at $7.8 trillion [in OTC derivatives.] Continue to the bottom of the piece for “Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules.” It looks like the Plunge Protection Team is operating in overdrive. Eisenhower warned of “The military-industrial complex”. What about the corporate-government complex? This looks like something Il Duce would have been proud of. Best wishes for our free enterprise system, – William JWR Replies: I’m glad to see that some readers took the time to look …


Letter Re: Advice on a Whole Life Insurance Policy and Firearms

Jim, I’m a newbie to your site and I love it! Read it every morning instead of the newspaper. I’m a single female horse rancher living in Alabama (not originally from Alabama). I attend a home church and have been preparing for our future events for several years before reading your blog. After reading the blog I realize how much farther I have to go. Especially in the home defense area. I own two .22 rimfires and a BB gun. LOL! Thank you so much for all the time and information your providing us. I’ve referred many of like mind …


The Credit Collapse–The World’s Bankers Revert to Saying “No”

A recent news article titled Dresdner Rescues $19 Billion SIV, Follows Citigroup illustrates the severity of the global liquidity collapse. Note that the article mentions that the K2 SIV had no “direct exposure” to securities backed by subprime or midprime debt. But yet the fund failed dramatically. This adds credence to my assertion that the world’s entire credit market is essentially broken, and that despite frantic attempts by the central banks to inject liquidity (BTW, another $25 billion was just injected the Fed on Thursday), most of the major financial institutions are starting to crumble. In the very near future, …


Selecting a Rifle for a Budget-Constrained Prepper

Dear JWR, I have first taken the time to read through your previous posts on Main Battle Rifle (MBR) recommendations before asking this question, but have not found what I am looking for. I am sure you receive an over abundance of firearms questions but any help would be greatly appreciated. Due to financial restraints I am the weak link in my group so far in preparedness. I have chosen to spread what resources I do have at my disposal evenly rather than focus only on firearms as too many seem to do. I feel a need to escalate all …


Letter Re: Mining Claims as Potential Retreat Properties

Sir, I am so happy to have stumbled onto your site today. I have not been on the internet in a very long time (1997 or so). I have been working for a number of mineral exploration/mining companies south of our border on and off since 1998. I will no longer travel outside of the U.S. (unless I’m reactivated by the Army) for work or pleasure. I am going to be 40 this month and I don’t feel like getting shot at any more, at least not for money. I am a former Army Combat Engineer, Electronic Engineer, small business …