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 investing in farm land. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The spot and futures silver markets are looking strong. Back In May, spot silver was around $14.50 per troy ounce. But presently, it is around $17.50. It has been solidly above $17 per ounce since the 1st of October. My suggestion: Hold on, folks. The silver bull has a long way to run.

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At Zero Hedge: Stunning Clip Shows Billions In Gold, Cash Hidden In Chinese City Mayor’s Secret Basement

Economy & Finance:

Another piece at Zero Hedge: “Money’s Not Worth Anything Anymore” – Ex-Credit Suisse CEO Blasts “Crazy” Negative Rates

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Monitoring yacht prices: Following the Greater Depression on eBay

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An interesting piece at Wolf Street: The Day When Repo Rates Blew Out: Fed Recounts a Fiasco that Occurred as the FOMC Was Meeting, and How it Reacted

Commodities:

$10 Oil – How Far Could Oil Prices Fall If We See A 2009 Style Crash?

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In Huge Blow, Iran Confirms China Has Exited Crucial $5 Billlion Gas Project

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The Oil Company That Couldn’t Afford Toilet Paper Now Wants To IPO

Debt, Deficit, and Government Spending

Over at Wolf Street: US Gross National Debt Jumps by $1.2 Trillion in Fiscal 2019, to $22.7 Trillion, Hits 106.5% of GDP

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Federal deficit estimated at $984B, highest in seven years

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Fiscal Survey of the States

Forex & Cryptos:

Pound Rallies On Report Johnson And Varadkar Nearing Brexit Deal. JWR’s Comments: “Sound as a Pound”, again? I’ve been hedging into Pounds (GBP) for several months. I believe that even a hard Brexit–if not interminably delayed–will actually result in a much stronger Pound, in the next few years.

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Brexit: Britain is proposing a “pared-down free trade agreement” to end the Brexit stalemate – Sky News

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Jay Clayton’s SEC Will Never Approve a Bitcoin ETF: US Counsel

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Official: Alipay to Ban All Bitcoin-Related Transactions

Tangibles Investing:

Real estate is still the best investment you can make today, millionaires say—here’s why

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The Real Estate Guys: Agricultural Land / Farmland — Money growing on trees. It’s fun to imagine … but what if you really could grow money with the power of plants?

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This article ran back in June: As Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland Grows, Efforts to Ban and Limit the Increase Mount

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!




13 Comments

  1. A comment about: “As Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland Grows, Efforts to Ban and Limit the Increase Mount.”

    The world is big enough to grow food for everyone. The USA sends food and money to help starving and hungry people. = From the USAID(dot)gove site (US AID from the American People)

    “In fiscal year 2018, USAID provided over $3.7 billion in emergency and development food assistance to the poorest corners of the world. Contributions included nearly 2.5 million metric tons of U.S. in-kind food and local and regionally procured commodities, as well as cash transfers and food vouchers.

    “USAID’s development food assistance activities focus predominantly on women and children, to ensure adequate nourishment of children under age 2.”

    “USAID has five warehouse sites around the world where prepositioned food is ready to be moved at a moment’s notice to respond to emergency needs.”

    [The Churches in America and American Charities also provide Billion$ of dollar$ in food and medical assistance all over the world.]
    *************
    Plus: “From Russia, With Love: Wheat for Half the World. Russian food ~>exports rose 25% to a record $19 billion in 2017” [Bloomberg February 25, 2018]

    [Many of us are old enough to remember the food shortages in Communist Russia.]
    *************

    The Communists, Socialists and all the other Libtards have lunatic ideas. They only know how to make people suffer, and destroy economies.

    China uses its economic-slaves to produce money, and buy farmland in the USA. Will it ultimately be good for the USA and the rest of world, having Communist Lunatics controlling some of the USA food production? =

    “Bacon shortage could hit US amid pork crisis in China.” = “Americans could soon find it harder to bring home the bacon.”

    “Virginia-based pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc., maker of bacon, ham and sausages, says the United States could face a bacon and ham shortage next year, as the spread of a pig-killing disease in China starts affecting the global market, according to reports.”

    “The deadly hog disease that hit parts of Africa and Europe has spread across Asia infecting millions of pigs. As a result, prices of pork in China — home to half the world’s pig population — have skyrocketed.”

    “And the U.S. could be affected next year if China is forced to increase imports as a result of the shortage, Arnold Silver, director of raw materials procurement at Smithfield, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WH Group of China, told Bloomberg. What’s more, China’s pork production will reportedly be down more than 32 million tons by next year.”
    *******************

    Americans are good people. We don’t want anyone to starve to death or go hungry. But, it’s probably NOT wise to turn American food production over to Communist Lunatics. … There >always seem to be catastrophic problems with the Communist, Socialists, and Libtard governments. … The police state mentality stifles innovation and self initiative.
    Maybe, everyone will be making more money >except for the Americans paying more for food.

    1. “Virginia-based pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc., maker of bacon, ham and sausages, says the United States could face a bacon and ham shortage next year, as the spread of a pig-killing disease in China starts affecting the global market, according to reports.”
      Smithfield foods 100% owned and operated by a Chinese company.
      Their brands- https://www.smithfieldfoods.com/trusted-brands

    2. If China is run by Communist Lunatics, why is their economy continuing to grow so fast? Why do military people fear them? Perhaps they are doing something right…like buying American companies and selling junk to American consumers. If we buy their junk, what does that make us?

      Carry on

      1. Once a Marine; Always a Marine. =

        China’s economic strength is the large workforce and cheap wages. [Communist countries have an economic-slave labor force.]
        China can import oil and other resources, and then ship finished products across the world. = It’s the low wages in China, which enable low cost to USA consumers for Made in China products.

        From TheConservativeTreehouse, ‘China Set to Announce Weakest Economic Growth in Almost 30 Years…. January 20, 2019.

        “The baseline when reviewing economic data from China is to remember the entire economy is controlled by the communist central government. If they say the economy is “less strong” than previously expected, generally we can anticipate the truth is much worse.”

        “China’s economy is deep (manufacturing), but it is also very narrow. There is not enough internal domestic consumer activity to sustain their production. As a direct result any manufacturing slowdown has a much more severe impact on their economy; as compared to a more balanced economy.”

        “If other nations slow down their purchases of Chinese products, the Chinese export driven economy starts to contract. If multiple nations simultaneously begin purchasing less from China, the current status, the Bejing economy shrinks much faster than all others. A manufacturing dependency is the Chinese weakness. Millions of Chinese workers can be put out of work very quickly.”
        **************************

        Peter Navarro, Trump’s Trade Adviser, lists China’s 7 deadly sins with the USA in trading. [china gains economic strength through economic shenanigans.]

        · stealing our intellectual property

        · forcing technology transfers

        · hacking our computers

        · dumping into our markets with cheap goods (which he claims puts American companies out of business)

        · support from state-owned enterprises with heavy subsidies

        · importation of fentanyl

        · currency manipulation
        ****************************************

        China is a typical Communist country. China portrays itself as a Tiger; but it’s a very weak Tiger compared to the USA.

  2. $10 bbl oil,not if Iran determines US/Israel/SA attacked their tanker in the RedSea(2 missiles) and a new round of tanker wars starts. Anyone else remember the ’80’s? This could be far worse.

  3. $10 bbl is not that likely on a sustained basis. It is below the cash production cost (not f&d cost) of probably 70% of daily production. You honestly think oil demand is goin to drop 70% on a sustained basis?

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