Category: Emerging Threats

Guest Editorial: Honey, I Vaporized My Customers, by John Mauldin

By now, everyone knows that the subprime crisis started with non-existent lending standards which resulted in the large numbers of foreclosures we are seeing today. Those foreclosures will be rising throughout the year. We are not near anything like the top of the rising number of foreclosures. Ben Bernanke said last July that losses from the subprime would be in the $100 billion dollar range. True confession. I think I wrote six months earlier that it would be $200 billion. I point that out to make the point that I am an optimist by nature. The latest “bidding war” number …


Debate on Pending Legislation Reveals the Depth of Debasement of Our Currency and Coinage

The US House of Representatives is currently debating HR 5512, (the “Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008”) legislation that would further debase our coinage. According to a article in The Chicago Tribune titled Change for a Penny?, pennies will soon be made of steel instead of zinc. Although the bill leaves it up to the Treasury, presumably, five cent pieces would be made of zinc instead of their current alloy of copper and nickel. I’ve warned SurvivalBlog readers that this was coming, and that they should start saving nickels. Coincidentally, reader RBS sent us a link to an …


The Ides of March–The Dreaded Margin Calls Have Begun at Banks and Hedge Funds

This week the news wires were abuzz about the Bear Stearns bailout. It all started with a margin call. An investment banking insider tipped me that there will be perhaps as many as five more “margin calls that can’t be answered” next week. Three names mentioned as possibly getting the dreaded call are Goldman Sachs on Tuesday and both Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers on Wednesday–on the same day that each reports their first quarter earnings. The word on the street is that all three may need to be bailed out, to varying degrees. Who is standing in the wings …


Credit Collapse: The Depression Countdown Begins

SurvivalBlog includes plenty of gloom and doom, but I do my best to not be a ranting and raving alarmist. The recent torrential flood of bad economic news, however, has led me to now urge greater preparedness. Don’t quit your job and head for the hills yet, but by all means redouble your efforts to get ready. In my estimation, we are now on a short countdown to economic depression. Back in early 2006, I first warned about derivatives trading. Since June of 2007, I have been warning about the larger implications of CDOs. In January of 2008, I pointed …


“Official” Statistics on Population, Employment, Income Levels, Money Supply, and Inflation?

James: In a recent Odds ‘n Sods item, you cited a article published by The New York Times: You stated: “A key data point mentioned in the article: ‘The median household [in the US] earned $48,201 in 2006, down from $49,244 in 1999, according to the Census Bureau.’ “ That’s from changing population dynamics and more careful surveys of low-income families. For comparable populations, income has risen as you ought to expect. Consider the results for “Worked Full Time, Year Round, Both Sexes, White”… For 1999 income: Persons in this group: 81.7 million Mean income of all persons in this …


Letter Re: Some First Hand Experience with Mass Inflation

Dear Mr. Rawles, I lived in Romania in 1993 and 1994 at the height of runaway inflation. It was not a pretty time to see the land of Count Dracula! A meal that cost 5 Lei in 1990, was 2500 Lei in 1993. My rent was paid in Deutsche Marks, as the landlord would not take Romanian currency. However, I had to stay three days in Bucharest prior to my departure for home. I paid nearly 4 Million Romanian Lei for the room, and it was crummy and shabby to boot! By that time, I think the Lei to Dollar …


Letter Re: Property Tax Rates as Criterion in Choosing Retreat Locales

Hi James, I finally took the 10 Cent Challenge and pledge to keep it up in the coming years. Thanks for a site with a reliable source of news and resources for family survival. Thanks for referring me to a good storage food vendor. I bought 60 of the #10 cans of dehydrated food and made sure to tell them a couple of times that I heard of them on SurvivalBlog. They were prompt and delivered everything as advertised. Nice people, as I would expect from your recommendation. I am looking to get more freeze dry foods later this year …


Letter Re: Inflation in Zimbabwe Approaches the Wheelbarrow Stage

Greetings! It’s not quite a wheelbarrow full of money yet, but check out accompanying the photo in this news story. I guess that I should invest in a separate ALICE pack, for when ‘Helicopter Ben’ starts dropping off my paycheck – that way I can at least schlep it all to the grocery store, and keep my hands free to operate small arms. Check out the slide show imbedded in the article as well – shows just how far Rhodesia/Zimbabwe has fallen. – Bob in Pittsburgh


Two Letters Re: 21st Century Property Squatters

Dear Jim: < Sarcasm On > Your disappearing home equity got you down? Behind on your mortgage? What if you could live payment free for up to 8 months or more and walk away without owing a penny? See: You Walk Away < Sarcasm Off > The foregoing is a real solicitation to delay the foreclosure process. When real estate parasites like this have a business helping deadbeats game the foreclosure process, you know the Schumer is starting to really hit. Not that I have much sympathy for the crooked bankers and lenders being taken advantage of here (just wait …


Letter Re: Credit Unions Versus Banks for Safety?

Good Morning Jim, As I read today’s blog, I thought again about the safety of credit unions. As far as I have been able to discover, they have not jumped in to the derivatives like banks and mortgage companies did, and seem much safer than banks. Credit unions are mostly local and (though the requirements are often much less restrictive than they used to be) usually only have local residents as customers. Does anyone know any more on credit unions? I’ve long recommended credit unions to my friends and family in place of banks, since they usually offer lower loan, …


The Elephant in the Room, by Norman Church

“I’m right there in the room and no one acknowledges me.” “We must face the prospect of changing our basic way of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature.” – President Jimmy Carter (1976) Before we discuss this Elephant in the Room we must first briefly consider the notion of ‘sustainability’. Too often people debate sustainability issues from an understanding that is vague, incomplete or frankly flawed. “Just exactly what is meant when the word ‘sustainable’ or ‘sustainability’ …


Letter Re: Spot Shortages at a COSTCO Store a Portent of Things to Come?

Jim: I stopped by COSTCO tonight to pick up some items and they had signs limiting people to two containers of soybean oil and two bags of flour. They were completely out of flour. And they had no 50lb sacks of rice either. So its starting to hit home. This was the case in the West Springfield, Massachusetts store anyway. – John E.


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. …


Letter Re: A Reminder on the Terrorist Toxins Threat

Jim, I bring this news story to your attention: Ricin Found in Las Vegas Hotel Room; Man in Hospital The Center for Disease Control (CDC) protocols don’t give one much hope if ricin is inhaled or ingested. Unclothing and washing procedures for external contact are not reassuring. Other sources indicate that skin contact is usually not fatal unless accompanied by other agents that enhance absorption. [JWR Adds: DMSO is a well-known transdermal carrier.] Other sources also indicate that ricin is 30 times more potent than VX nerve gas. Full MOPP suit and gas mask seem to be indicated to avoid …


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 …