Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at changes in buying foreign currencies with PayPal. (See the Forex& Cryptos section.)

Precious Metals:

At Zero Hedge: Why Silver will be the “Star of the Show”

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Gold gains sheen on renewed US-China tiff

Economy & Finance:

At Wolf Street: ECB’s NIRP-Forever Policy “Destroys Banks’ Profitability Equation”: Bankia CEO. Spanish Banks Reel. Problems Stack Up

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Eric Peters: Is Nissan About to Go Belly Up?

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The Myth of American Middle-Class Stagnation

Commodities:

Just as SurvivalBlog warned you: U.S. cows and pigs gorge on bakery rolls, pet food as corn prices surge

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Corn Claws Back Most of Thursday’€™s Losses. Here is a brief excerpt:

“US corn exports during June were reported at 3.069 MMT (120.82 mbu) by Census this morning, which was the lowest June total since 2013. That was down 24.56% from May and a drop of 57.27% from last year’s record for June. June’s product exports included DDG shipments at 962,592 MT and ethanol exports at 128.42 million gallons (which was the second largest for June behind last year). “

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Will We Really See An Oil Glut In 2020?

Stocks:

The Federal Reserve’s Massive Debt for Equity Swap

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Jeff Bezos just cashed in $1.8 billion worth of Amazon shares, in what could be his biggest stock sell-off ever

Forex & Cryptos:

I just heard that PayPal will be jacking up its transfer spread on foreign currency transactions, as of September 1, 2019, to wit:

  • “We are Changing the PayPal currency conversion spread to 3.75% for transactions that involve a PayPal currency conversion when you pay for goods or services or send money.
  • We are changing the PayPal currency conversion spread to 3.0% for all other transactions involving a PayPal currency conversion.”

This is unfortunate, because up until now, PayPal had been a quick, convenient, and inexpensive place to buy foreign currencies, to hold electronically. (I’ve done this for both overseas travel and Forex hedging.) So here is a time-sensitive tip:  If you want to do any hedging out of U.S. Dollars with PayPal, then make your currency swaps BEFORE September 1, 2019. For instance, on August 1st, I bought some more Swiss Francs. ($622.29 USD bought me 600 CHF.) For some background on the USD-CHF pair, see this piece that coincidentally was posted today at Zero Hedge: The Swiss Battle To Cheapen The Franc. (It is a losing battle.  And just wait until the next global financial crisis. The CHF will soar.) And, since I expect a bounce in the value of the British Pound (GBP) after Brexit is finally completed, this might also be a good juncture to buy some Pounds with PayPal, as well.

If you haven’t done this before, at your PayPal “Money” page, just click on “Add a Currency”. The web page design for the transactions design for swapping currencies is quite intuitive.

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IRS issues warning to over 10,000 crypto investors that they may owe money

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Central Banks to Hedge Dollar Risks with Bitcoin, Pompliano Predicts

Tangibles Investing:

Attic jackpot: Man finds pristine 1987 Nintendo game that could sell for $10,000

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10 Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Games

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Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. video game sells for £78,000

Provisos:

SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.

News Tips:

Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News from local news outlets that is missed by the news wire services is especially appreciated. And it need not be just about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!




7 Comments

  1. I strongly recommend James Rickards’ new book, Aftermath. It’s a very detailed and thought-provoking look at our current financial and economic situation. It also explores various paths financial markets could take. Not for those uninformed on financial markets, though. Rickards has access to a fascinating array of people (as he tells you in great depth).

    1. Palmetto frequently has sales on both 5.56 and .223. Sign up for their Daily Deals e-newsletter. When you order, please be sure to use our link, so that we get our little piece of the action. Thanks!

    1. The rebate is is 5 cents for 62 grain and 3 cents for 55 grain Federal through August. Eiher way, you can end up well below $300 for a case of 1,000 rounds, which is an excellent price!

      Don’t ignore Prvi Partizan and Wolf Gold, which are both decent ammo in brass cases. They are $5.59 and $5.49 for a 20 round box, respectively, at AimSurplus.

      Stock up on ammo and mags before the senate returns from recess. Who knows what will happen then.

  2. Target’s doing their $15 giftcard for every $50 cleaning supplies and household essentials again (including paper products like toilet paper, as well as trash bags, ziplock bags, aluminum foil, etc) this week through Saturday. Equivalent to 30% off, and you can do multiple $50 online orders for in-store pickup; no limit. Should see the giftcard automatically in cart when you have enough eligible items.

    They’re also doing $5 giftcard for $20 personal care and beauty products. Have to enter a code for this one, but again, pretty much the same deal, but equivalent to 25% off.

    $15 giftcard for $75 baby, which is equivalent to 20% off. Rarely you’ll see 25% off baby deals, but the 20% is solid savings.

    You can also get an extra 5% off your order(s) when you use your target redcard, and an extra ~1% on some target items with ebates…

    In store you can stack coupons too — they might even allow you to apply them if doing online order for pickup but haven’t tried that.

    A pretty easy way to save some serious $$$.

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