Category: Odds ‘n Sods

By way of SHTF Daily, James Saft of Reuters reports: Americans charge it as Bank of Subprime closes. A collective $909 billion balance on credit cards? ¡Ay Carumba! Meanwhile, we read at The Baltimore Sun: Credit card debt is ready to blow: (Thanks to Hawaiian K. for sending that link.)    o o o RBS flagged this: Heating Oil Prices To Jump 22 Percent Over Last Winter, Says Energy Department    o o o RBS also sent us this: Mortgage Lender Thornburg ups estimated loss on loan sales    o o o I hope that most of you took my …

More “ARM Twisting” ahead: It has been widely reported that nearly one trillion dollars worth of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) will reset to higher interest rates in the next 18 months. That is nearly 20% of all mortgage loans outstanding. Are the majority of sub-prime borrowers ready for the higher monthly payments? Probably not. So we can expect to see a lot more delinquencies and foreclosures in the next two years. As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, a small portion of rural foreclosures may represent a retreat buying opportunity. Monitor the market closely, either through a cooperative agent in your selected …

Speaking at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming conclave in August, Yale University Professor Dr. Robert Shiller said that residential house prices might fall as much as 50% in some former real estate boom areas. As evidence, he cited how much home prices have escalated in comparison to rents. Personally, I think that 50% is an optimistic figure. Given the pendulum-like nature of macro market swings, I think that prices in some cities like Phoenix and San Diego may drop at much as 65% from their peak. And it may take five or six years before prices hit bottom. I …

Writing in the September, 2007 issue of The American Rifleman magazine, Walter J. Kuleck reports that there is a logistical support problem for the thousands of M14 rifles that have been issued to US troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kuleck writes: “…there is essentially no support available through Department of Defense channels–no parts, accessories, magazines, tools or documentation beyond a new Preventive Maintenance [PM] Magazine comic book and a 40-year-old manuals printed from on-line PDF files. The Army has made some efforts to buy back parts surplused decades ago and to purchase new walnut stocks, for example. Most components, …

Via SHTF Daily comes this commentary from Robert P. Murphy: The Worst Recession in 25 years?    o o o Typhoon Season: China Evacuates 1 Million As Storm Hits    o o o Blair recommended this article by Dr. Gary North (my hero): A 10-Step Personal Self-Defense Strategy Against a Coordinated Bioterrorist Attack    o o o RBS flagged this piece from The Age (in Australia): Food shock as ‘agflation’ sees prices rise

Alphie sent us this: “Adding Insult to Injury Department ” news story: Lost your home? You may owe IRS    o o o Homebuilders: Lennar’s Loss Deepens the Pain    o o o DV sent us this item: Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form. The article begins: “The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said…”    o o o Found at the Drudge Report: Adventurer ends 13-year human-powered world trip

Sam M. sent us this: CIBC Economist: $100 Oil by End of ’08–Expert: Oil Prices Set to Hit $100 by End of ’08, and Will Likely Stay at Triple-Digit Level. Perhaps the “alarmist” Peak Oil crowd was not far from the mark.    o o o A hat tip to Ben L. for forwarding us this article link: Tamiflu may create resistant bird flu    o o o The folks at SHTF Daily linked to a great primer on sound, specie-backed money being replaced by fiat currency: The Rule of Planned Money    o o o Chuck suggested ED-Day–Dead Sydney, …

Pending Home Sales Index Hits Record Low   o o o From Newsweek‘s Daniel Gross: There’s No Inflation (If You Ignore Facts)    o o o Green Mountain Gear has found a limited supply of some more original German HK91/G3 alloy magazines. This new batch is in new-in-the-wrapper condition. These are in the original factory wrappers, with factory labels and anti-corrosion paper strips on the followers. (Just as they left the factory in the 1960s.) They don’t come any better than this.    o o o DV and David L. both suggested this article: Dollar’s double blow from Vietnam and Qatar

The Chartist Gnome chided me in a recent e-mail, after I had mentioned that after having dropped decisively through the 80 level: “Some analysts suggest 75 or perhaps even 72 as the next support level for the US Dollar Index.” He said that I was being overly optimistic. By his calculations, “the next logical support level for the USD Index is 72 and then if that fails to hold, we can expect a step off the cliff with no support until 42.” Lest you think that this is some wild-eyed exaggeration, Jordan Roy-Byrne (editor of The Trendsman) came up with …

Frequent contributor RBS sent this article link: Credit derivative volumes rise 32 percent to $45.5 trillion. I’ve warned SurvivalBlog readers about the threat of a derivatives implosion before, but for the sake of new readers, I’ll mention it again: Derivatives–The Mystery Man Who’ll Break the Global Bank at Monte Carlo    o o o The bidding is now at $500 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for a scarce pre-1899 antique Finnish M39 Mosin Nagant rifle from my personal collection. This rifle was rebarreled by Valmet during WWII, and is in excellent condition. It comes with a replica bayonet, original sling, …

Reader Nathaniel noted that Netbank, a major online bank, just went under due to problems with subprime loans and other issues. Not a good sign…    o o o “Florida Guy” mentioned a piece posted at This is London: Tom Cruise building ‘£5m bunker to protect against alien attack’    o o o SF in Hawaii mention this product as a valuable aid for teaching centerfire rifle and shotgun shooting for folks not yet accustomed to stout recoil.    o o o The ever-vigilant Stephen in Iraq mentioned these two related news articles: Citigroup Sees 3Q Earns Down 60 Percent …

Five different readers sent us this: Alabama City Reopening Fallout Shelters    o o o NFA sent us this link: A spike in the germination failure rate for commercially grown seeds?    o o o Bill N. came across this web site for women with guns. Has some good information for any woman that may carry a gun.    o o o A hat tip to Desert T. for sending this from The Wall Street Journal: Historic Surge In Grain Prices Roils Markets

There is an interesting thread in progress titled: “Popular Mechanics new take on Heinlein’s skill list“, over at The Mental Militia Forums (formerly called the Claire Files Forums.) I agree with the consensus view there. Parenthetically, I’m glad that I’m raising our kids out in the hinterboonies in a largely self-sufficient lifestyle with plenty of “do it yourself”–mostly by economic necessity but partly by choice. A boy should know how to build a field fence just as well as a web page.    o o o From Bloomberg: U.S. New-Home Sales Drop, Prices Fall Most Since 1970    o o …

I was doing some web surfing and stumbled across this video clip on American Gun Owners. I haven’t yet seen the book on which it is based, but the video is remarkably unbiased. I think that it would be a good introduction to the American “gun culture” for SurvivalBlog readers that live in countries that restrict firearms ownership.    o o o A Financial Sense editorial by Eric Englund: From Prime to Sub-Prime: America’s Mortgage Meltdown Has Just Begun    o o o The WRSA has a high power rifle shooting clinic scheduled for October 6-7 in Brookings, Oregon. These …

From The Independent: Only £4.4m left to protect UK’s bank deposits    o o o There is an interesting topic posted over at The Mental Militia Forums (formerly called The Claire Files), about the tremendous gains in the price of Rhodium in the past five years. Obviously, somebody made a lot of money. (FYI, it wasn’t me. I was very conservatively invested in silver and gold.)    o o o Pets being slaughtered in meat-starved Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is now truly in crisis. 80% unemployment. An average life expectancy of just 37 years. The inflation rate is continuing to increase–some analysts …