Category: Odds ‘n Sods

Courtesy of KTO: Food crisis looms as climate change, fuel shortages bite    o o o Reader Tim P. found this article interesting from a sociology standpoint: The California Fires: Where were the Looters? Tim’s comment: Of course with a long term situation the results would end up differently, but this is an interesting contrast in any case.    o o o Tim P. also found us this one: The Coming U.S. Drought (Is Here)    o o o China Hikes Fuel Prices Amid Shortages (A hat tip to RBS for sending that link.)

Thanks to D.V. for sending this: Charles Merrill Fears Market Crash . The article begins: “Fearing a stock market crash worse than 1929, Charles Merrill (http://www.merrillcharles.com) of Palm Springs, cousin to the founder of the Merrill/Lynch dynasty, is quickly converting to gold coins…”   o o o Derrick G. and Brian H., and Jeremy C. all suggested this article: Town learns to live with water three hours a day. Brian posed this question: question: Would people stay this civil if the same were to take place in Atlanta or another major metropolitan area?    o o o For the dreaded worst-case …

Latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index Shows No Turnaround in Sight    o o o Vic at Safecastle mentioned that because this year’s hurricane season turned out to be more mile than expected, one their vendors found themselves overstocked on MREs. Safecastle was therefore able to arrange some advantageous pricing. They are now having a special short-term sale on MREs.    o o o RBS sent this: Vultures eyeing mortgage corpse    o o o D.V. suggested a piece by The Mogambo Guru (Richard Daughty): Drowning in Inflation is Never Popular. (Warning: this one has some literary license that is not …

I’ve recently received two anxious e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers about the Mental Militia Forums (formerly called “The Claire Files Forums”). It seems that the old URL: http://www.tcftalk.com/clairefiles/index.php — was allowed to lapse and folks were getting a “not found” error message. But the new URL http://thementalmilitia.com/forums/ is working fine. I hope that the board’s new owners see the wisdom of maintaining the old URL with an automatic URL redirect.    o o o Eric S. sent us a link to a speech by Federal Reserve Board Governor Frederic S. Mishkin: Financial Instability and the Federal Reserve as a Liquidity Provider. …

Thanks to LW for sending this: The $915 Billion bomb in consumers’ wallets    o o o I just received a review copy of Michael Z. Williamson’s latest science fiction novel “Better to Beg Forgiveness”. I really like his books, so I can’t wait to dig in to this one. I will post a full review once I’ve finished it. The novel is now available from Amazon.com.    o o o RBS flagged this one: US Mint considering cheaper coins. Our currency has become a pitiful reminder of its past greatness. So go all irredeemable fiat currencies, in time.    …

Stressed borrowers use plastic to delay default    o o o Writing in his most recent quarterly newsletter, economist John Mauldin mentioned: “…at the end of the second quarter, household mortgage debt [in the United States] totaled $10.143 trillion, compared with $4.295 trillion in 1999. Thus, in six and a half years the household sector’s mortgage debt increased by $5.8 trillion, or 136%.”    o o o Chester sent us a link to a hilarious YouTube video on hedge funds, credit derivatives, SIVs, and government bailouts.    o o o Thanks to Eric S. for sending this article: NYSE Eliminates …

Desert T. sent this article from las Vegas: Hot seller’s market shifts into reverse — Upside-down sales picture won’t change soon    o o o The Army Aviator notes: “On Sunday, the US Dollar Index dropped -0.25 to 76.98. What a Sunday! Did you see the Euro go to 1.4498 [ to the US Dollar]? That’s darned near 1.45, huh? What a day.” JWR Adds: The opening bell in the US market on Monday morning should be very interesting. It is also no surprise that the price of gold just spiked in Asia.    o o o Frequent contributor RBS recommended …

Will the house-flipping contrapreneurs on both coasts of the US soon be in Deep Schumer? Reader Charley S. sent us this snippet from The Daily Reckoning: “Two million homes will go into foreclosure in the next two years, if home prices continue to slump, said a report released by Joint Economic Committee Chairman Senator Charles Schumer.”    o o o Jason flagged this one: US lacks enough labs to test for contamination if a ‘dirty bomb’ explodes in a major city    o o o A hat tip to SJC for sending this: Report: Oil production peaked in 2006, will …

Eric Fry from The Rude Awakening penned this about Citigroup’s recent SIV accounting shenanigans: SIV Positive.   o o o Hawaiian K. and The Army Aviator both recommended an alarming piece of commentary on silver storage from Ted Butler: Money for Nothing. My favorite quote from the article: “I found it appalling that Morgan Stanley would claim to store silver that didn’t exist and even have the chutzpah to charge for the storage.” As I’ve often written: there is no safe and sure substitute for in-home storage of precious metals . Any other method–be it shares, or certificates, or “bonded storage”, …

The US residential housing market implosion isn’t over yet. My recent web searches turned up some testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. In reading it, we learned that the majority of ARM rate “resets” in the US will occur in in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. And specifically, the peak for subprime resets will be in March of 2008, the peak in agency loan resets will be in September of 2008, and the peak in “jumbo” loan resets will not be until April of 2009. Buckle your …

I found Cathy Buckle’s most recent letter from Zimbabwe well worth reading. The ravages of hyperinflation are hard to appreciate except when seen first hand, as related by someone like Cathy.    o o o California Fire Battalion Chief – Whoever Did This Knew What They Were Doing    o o o Alphie mentioned that the October Backwoods Home Magazine e-newsletter is now available.    o o o The Black Swan’s lessons–The value of considering improbable possibilities  

Writing in The Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner offers this snippet of investing Gloom and Doom: “Foreclosures in the yankee state [Massachusetts] are running three times last year’s level. And losses are working their way up the socioeconomic ladder. Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) Trust 2006-S3 is a sophisticated investment instrument containing 8,274 mortgages. One out of every six of those mortgages is in default – only 18 months after the thing was put together. When that many people stop paying, it wipes out the entire capital value of the derivative. And since speculators usually take leveraged positions, the losses can go much …

An insider at Cyalume just let me know that because of pressure from the US State Department, infrared chemical light sticks have been reclassified and will no longer be produced for the civilian market in the US. (When activated, these light sticks are barely detectable with the naked eye, but shine with high intensity when seen through “Starlight” light amplification technology night vision goggles or weapons sights. I strongly recommend that you stock up now, while there are still some of these light sticks on the civilian market. You should buy a five year supply for your retreat, and store them …

Does this sound familiar?: Burned by Real Estate, Some Just Walk Away. Meanwhile, with thanks to RBS, here is a housing affordability analysis from Dr. Housing Bubble: A $626,00 Short Sale in Burbank, California    o o o Yet another reason to dislike eBay’s ultra-liberal managers: EBay customers’ cash linked to risky assets    o o o “Kit” sent us this AP wire story on the global SIV fiasco: The credit crisis is far from over, just look at what the new facts show    o o o RBS sent us this article from Alan Farago, posted at the Daily …

From our friends at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), we learned of the National “Empty Holster” Protest on College Campuses, this week.    o o o Bill in Las Vegas mentioned this article about the lengthy drought in the southeastern United States, necessitating severe water rationing in Atlanta. Bill’s comment: “I can’t get over our Federal Government’s arrogance. When asked about what plans are being made in case Atlanta runs out of water, a major with the Corps of Engineers actually said ‘We’re so far away from that, nobody’s doing a contingency plan’. Incredible.”    o o …