Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest 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 JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on the Exodus Cryptocurrency Wallet Tool. (See the Cryptocurrencies section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

Gold rises on dollar weakness, palladium hits 17-year peak JWR’s Comment: With platinum now at around $922 per Troy ounce and gold at around $1,283, it makes more sense than ever to parlay some of your physical gold holdings into physical platinum.  I prefer the 1/2-ounce and 1-ounce platinum Liberty (U.S. Mint) bullion coins, for their ease of recognition, for resale or barter.  Presently, platinum is so low that you might as well buy slabbed (PCGS or NGC encapsulated) Platinum Liberty coins. (In today’s market, those graded MS-66 to MS-68 aren’t selling for much more than the price of spot platinum, if you shop around.) In the long run, the current gold/platinum price inversion is bound to return to its historic norm. Platinum will then sell at a substantial premium above the price of gold, rather than at a discount. Buy low and sell high, folks.

Stock Markets:

Yahoo: Stock Market News For Dec 26, 2017

Economical Travel:

I had a reader give me a tip on inexpensive commercial airline flights–both domestically and internationally.  He uses a web site called Google Flights. It is quite easy to use and if you book far enough in advance, you can save thousands of dollars.  One trick, he says, is to book flights between major hubs and then get inexpensive ground transportation, after reaching those hubs.

Cryptocurrencies (Exodus Cryptocurrency Wallet Tool):

I had a consulting client ask me about cryptocurrency wallet tools. The best that I have found–at least as a Mac user–is a tool called the Exodus Cryptocurrency Wallet Tool. I’m presently using Exodus version 1.41.0. It is great because it gives you a an instant view of all of your crypto wallets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, et cetera.) It provides a very friendly interface for making payments, receiving payments, and transferring balances. And, speaking of transferring balances, I predict that a new financial industry will soon blossom: cryptocurrency arbitrage. Some clever Crypto Arbs will be hugely successful. Likewise, I anticipate that cryptocurrency experts who specialize in wallet and passphrase recovery will be in great demand.

Commodities

Cobalt Miners News For The Month Of December 2017

Provisos:

SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. So 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 particularly watch individual markets. And due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” investing news. We often “get the scoop” on economic and investing news that is probably ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!




14 Comments

  1. Maybe I’m slow or something, tell me again if I have livestock, guns ammo (lots) a shipping container full of food and one with toilet paper (yes) why would I need gold? and I’m not going to sell one cow to you for a brick of gold because it’s useless to me.

    1. I guess I’m a little taken aback by your commment, WW.

      There is a balance in all this stuff. To fully invest in the end of the world is a fools errand, IMO. Prepping and survivalism are an investment in the unknown, not the end-state of affairs. Investing all your money into toilet paper might cover your backside, but it won’t cover your retirement.

      The SB guys speak to investing in physical gold, silver, and platinum as a dual-use investment that historically has served as a hedge against stock market downturns, AND as a potential medium of exchange if disaster strikes.

      If nothing ever happens, and the world turns blissfully along, a person is like to need sources of income at some point say, in retirement.

      Junk silver seems a better barter vehicle due to its lower ‘value’, but for larger “income dumps”, gold and platinum reduce physical size of deposit due to their higher ‘value.’

      1. If forced to bug out, you can take your gold coins much easier than you can take your container full of food and ammo. Its portable and welcome throughout the free world. You can’t eat it, but if you end up in a foreign country, it could be the difference between being a refugee and a well-off expat. It is also an excellent store of wealth if the economy collapses.

    2. What a great opportunity for both of us. Send me all your gold and I will send you all my toilet paper. In the absence of gold I will accept silver and even paper money and coins. No problem. If any of your friends fell that same about this as you do ask them to send me all that wasteful gold, silver and money and I will find TP for them in exchange. I just love people who have no idea that gold and silver are valuable…

  2. ww, I would suggest you review what you purchase now, and the immediacy of those purchases, to gain a better understanding of what physical gold can do. A doctor for much needed surgery might be more interested in gold payment, as well as who ever is in a lot of chronic pain. Or a mechanic needing payment for desperately needed transportation. Or just about anyone wanting it for compensation. Not everyone you encounter will be in the market for a cow, meat, or milk. Gold or other PMs can be used for bribes, tax payments, or legal or other bureaucratic uses. A dependable, definable, and reasonable medium of exchange will always be readily circulating , even in a subsistence type setting. And in the event it’s not being used, you can put it away and bequeath it to your heirs. It’s a game. Get in the game, or have it played on you.

  3. WW – Unless there is a complete
    financial collapse accompanied by a sort of Mad Max “end of the world as we know it” scenario then precious metals will retain value as will many other items recognized the world over as stores of value. Absolute extreme collapse scenarios are the least likely to occur. Think of what you are seeing today as a slow descent into financial ruin and eventually a severe depression.

    A kilo brick of gold would buy 12-15 milk cows with little effort at current gold. value. History shows that livestock still sells just fine unless things have gone so far over the edge that entire populations are consumed as food.

    Also – ask yourself if a true complete collapse ever did occur, at some point trade will resume. You’ll have your cow, others will have PMs or some other means of stored wealth because they diversified. They’ll be in the best position to take advantage of opportunities.

  4. It sounds like ww is either trolling or just doesn’t understand history and doesn’t want to…No man is an island and gold and silver are recognized around the globe as currency…It’s also the one thing that people who are willing to trade will never say no to… Example would be if ww needed something I had and all he had was guns, ammo, food, animals I wouldn’t trade with him because I have plenty of those as well but if he had gold or silver then we would be able to…That’s about as simple as I can make it but he probably still won’t get it…

    1. No you hit it right, I have everything, I Don’t need any gold I can’t eat it, shoot it, throw it at any one, and can’t wipe my butt with it, it’s no use to me, Iv been there and done it all.

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