Idaho: Avalanche danger closes multiple sections of Highway 21
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Montana: Montana ‘dark money’ group financed by a dozen wealthy donors in 2011, 2012
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Wyoming: Report offers new details on Cole Creek Fire’s origins
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Washington: Snow causes cancellations, delays at Spokane Airport
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We Are Now Entering The “Discovery” Phase Of Financial Collapse – B.B.
The Reason For The Coming Breakout In The Gold & Silver Market
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Items from Professor Preponomics:
U.S. News
Why Capitalists are Repeatedly Fooled by Business Cycles (Mises Institute) Spoiler Alert: “The only way to stop the menace of boom-bust cycles is for the central bank to stop the tampering with financial markets.”
Junk Bonds Finally Capitulate to Lower Oil Price Environment (Visual Capitalist) From the Article: “When low oil prices hit last year, many fringe oil and gas producers believed that it would be possible to wait out the market for better prices. Some of these companies even issued risky junk bonds to raise capital to sustain operations until better times.”
The History of Junk Bond Meltdowns Points to Trouble (Contra Corner) David Stockman asks an interesting question: “…is high-yield debt the canary in the credit mine?”
Junk Bonds Send Ominous Warning to the Market (Barrons) From the Article: “What we see is that junk bonds seem to flash a warning ahead of major incidents in stocks including the crash of 1987, the stealth bear market in 1994, and the end of the bull market in 2000.”
International News
Oil Prices Hit Lowest Since 2004 as Supply Balloons (Reuters via Yahoo News) From the Article: “OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, will stick with its year-old policy of compensating for lower prices with higher production, and shows no signs of wavering…”
Brazil’s Worrying Change of Finance Ministers (The Economist) From the Article: “That change is likely to make a terrible situation worse. It suggests that Mr Levy lost an argument within the government about whether austerity is the right cure for Brazil’s sickly economy, and that he lost it not because his economic remedy was wrong but because it was politically unpalatable.”
Personal Economics and Household Finance
7 Austerity Measures for Your Personal Budget (Investopedia) Commentary: This article encourages readers to attend to their health and wellness as a way to reduce the financial costs of illness over time – it’s a suggestion we don’t see often among the ideas for reducing household costs, but it’s an excellent reminder!
A reader sent in this link to Thoughts from Frank and Fern: Just Grow Up.
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Human Rights Campaign Calls on Christian Colleges to Repent of Their Christianity. JWR’s Comment: Of America’s 4,084 colleges and universities, just 56 have sought Title IX exemptions. So they say that 0.0137 of institutions have sought independence and that constitutes a “disturbing trend”? What is disturbing to me is that 99.98% of colleges haven’t stood up for Christian morality.
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From the Desk of Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog Editor At Large: The Fallen of World War II
I notice the Soviet troops are referred to as “Soviets” or “Russians,” not “Communists.” Americans are not referred to as “capitalists,” or “republicans.” Yet German soldiers of the Wehrmacht are referred to as “Nazis,” not “Germans.” The Wehrmacht was officially apolitical, and quite a few officers spoke out before and after against Nazism. I think it’s important to draw a distinction between the troops fighting the war and the political arms of the SA and Gestapo, who orchestrated the exterminations, especially as the Soviets had their own anti-Jewish and other programs ongoing at the same time.
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Anti-Gun Sheriff Negligently Discharges Weapon, Shoots Himself – Sent in by B.B.
HJL’s Comment: One might actually call this “poetic justice” as the comments given by the sheriff indicated that he “knew in his heart” that some should not be carrying.
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Most Asylum Applicants Are Interviewed by Telephone. Feel Safer? – Sent in by J.L.
“On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.” – Robert Anton Wilson
Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
I don’t remember where I first heard about custom knife maker Bob Terzuola, but I remember where I was and when it was. My family and I had just moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in June of 1984. During that summer I managed to get my hands on a brochure from Terzuola, and it was pretty plain. There were no pictures at all, just drawings of his fixed blade knives. However, I was impressed by what I saw and ordered one of his knives, which was my very first custom knife. I fell in love with custom knives after that and had quite a collection of custom knives. All have long since been sold, however.
A bit of history on Bob Terzuola is in order, because his life is more than a bit interesting, to say the least. Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1944, he went to Panama as a Peace Corps volunteer. After this, he was invited to become a Peace Corps trainer in Puerto Rico. He went on to work on several experimental education projects in Guatemala. During this time, Bob taught himself jade carving and became the general manager of a jade jewelry company. In 1980, Terzuola began making knives, and in 1981 he joined the Knifemaker’s Guild, on an endorsement from legendary knife maker Bob Loveless.
As I recall, the first knives Terzuola made were fixed blade, combat knives that were held in favor by those in the military as well as others, like myself, who appreciated a serious fixed blade, combat knife. Over the years, Bob did some collaborations with other knife makers as well as knife companies, also lending his expertise on designs and manufacturing of knives.
The fixed blade I bought from Terzuola was his Model 30 (if I recall correctly), and it had a blade made out of D2 tool steel, which was something new to my mind, and black Micarta handle scales. The blade also had the Terzuola “dragon” logo embossed on the blade, which is his trademark. One thing about D2 tool steel is that, first of all, it is not one of the super stainless steels; it will rust. Also, if you don’t heat treat it properly and put just the right grind on the blade, it will take a lousy edge and hold it, seemingly forever. Terzuola knows how to do it right.
Over the years, I most assuredly regretted selling my original Terzuola, fixed blade knife, as I understand they are commanding some big bucks these days, as all his knives do. He is still, at age 70, in demand, and he can’t possibly keep up with demand. Enter Columbia River Knife & Tool and their collaboration with Terzuola on this BT-70 model. BT stands for Bob Terzuola and the 70 for his 70th birthday. Cool!
To be sure, many consider Terzuola to be one of the founding fathers of tactical blades, if not the founding father of these types of combat blades. Bob makes his home in Albuquerque, NM and has been there since 1981. I was a police officer, for a time, in a little town called Questa, NM, and I wish I had taken the time to go and visit with Terzuola and picked his brain on knives and life in general. Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it?
The CRKT BT-70 is worthy of celebrating Terzuola’s 70th birthday, and it’s a design that will stand the test of time. So, let’s take a closer look at the CRKT BT-70 and see what Bob has brought to us. The blade is 4.03 inches long and made out of AUS 8 stainless steel, which is one of my favorites stainless steels because it makes a knife more affordable, holds an edge a good long time, and is easy to re-sharpen, too. The blade is Rockwell’d at 57-59, and this is important; without the right heat treatment, a blade can be too brittle, too soft, or it won’t hold an edge. The overall length of this folder is 9.1 inches open and closed it is 5.15 inches. The knife weighs a hefty 7.6 ounces. The blade is stonewashed for a nice subdued look. The blade is a modified Tanto design with a dual grind, which is hard to do under any circumstances. The pics will show the dual grind on the blade; it is “stepped,” for lack of a better description. You can have the blade any way you want it, so long as it is a plain blade, no serrations. The handle material is dark brown/blade G10, which is some of the best material for serious use knives. The blade is a liner lock design and has a thumb disc on it for easy opening.
The pocket clip is worth noting in that it isn’t screwed onto the front of the handle scales and it is a one position clip; you can’t move it to the opposite of the handle. The clip is attached from under the G10 scales. No screws are visible on the clip at all, and I’m telling you that this clip isn’t moving on you like some pocket clips can do. (Those others loosen-up over time.) The clip is positioned “just right”, so the knife doesn’t ride too high or too low in the pocket; this is also a great touch. Some folding knives stick out of your pocket like a sore thumb, some ride so low in the pocket, they are hard to get out. The clip is also slim, not too wide and not too narrow. A lot of thought went into the design.
On the left side of the G10 handle is the Terzuola “dragon” logo, which really is a cool-looking design. The hand scales, liner, and locking liner are dished out in order to reach the thumb disc for easy opening. I had some problems, when I first got the knife, getting my thumb right on the disc in order to open the blade. It’s not a design fault, just a learning curve for my thumb muscle memory. In the end, I took my Dremel tool and lowered the dished out area on the liner a tiny bit, so my thumb could more easily find the disc.
You will also note there is a blood groove on the blade; that’s a nice touch. The blade is .015-inches thick, bit it sure looks thicker than that. It is a hefty looking blade. The liner and liner lock are also a bit thicker than many knives in the CRKT line-up. We are talking one brute of a folder, and I think it is the new flagship in the CRKT tactical folding knife line-up, in my humble opinion. The spacer for the two halves of the knife is located in the rear of the handle scales, and it is about half the length of the handle scales. There is no butt wag in this knife at all.
My BT-70 sample came a bit tight, so I used a little bit of knife lube on the pivot point, rather than loosening the pivot screw, and I worked the lube into the pivot area by repeatedly moving the knife blade back and forth for a few minutes. Now the knife opens and closes super smoothly, without much effort at all, It may be one of the smoothest opening and closing CRKT folders I’ve run across. There is also a raised porting on the back top of the blade, with friction grooves for a sure thumb placement when using the fencing grip. Nice touch.
Part of the weight of the BT-70 comes from the thick G10 handle scales. They are really thick, giving the hand a good grip on it, and with the added thickness of the liner and the heavy blade, we have one super tough folder that will give your years of service. Remember, CRKT provides a limited lifetime warranty on their products.
I’ve been carrying the BT-70 for more than a month now in my right front pocket and using it for all manner of chores around the homestead as well as doing my usual testing– cutting poly rope, slicing paper and cardboard, and, of course, slicing blackberry vines. You have to have a really sharp knife to cleanly slice a blackberry vine in one swift move; they are tough, to say the least. The BT-70 sailed through all my testing, and I only just touched up the edge of the blade the other day. It took all of a minute to do. As I mentioned at the start of this piece, I like AUS 8 stainless steel blades because they hold an edge and are easy to re-sharpen, when the time comes. I normally carry and test a folding knife for two weeks, which is a fair test. However, the BT-70 is still riding in my pocket and doing all I ask of it– lots of cutting!
If you check around, you will see what some of the original, handmade Terzuola knives are selling for, and there really aren’t many to be found to start with. Bob, doesn’t lend his name and his design to just anything. He seeks out the best and makes sure that the knives are made to his specifications. The BT-70 is manufactured in Taiwan, in one of the plants that is owned by CRKT, and every couple of weeks someone from CRKT is there, checking on things to make sure knives are being made to their specifications.
This is your chance to lay claim to a Bob Terzuola collaboration, one from CRKT, and to be sure these knives won’t be around forever. This particular knife was announced in January 2015 in the new CRKT catalog, and it just now came out for us all to buy. Don’t wait! If you want a super tough folder, one that won’t let you down, and designed by one of the best tactical knife makers in the world, then jump on this one. It would make a great everyday carry folder and one that you can bet your life on, if the time comes to use it to defend yourself. Full retail on the BT-70 is $150; however, you can usually find CRKT products discounted at many locations. Get one, before they are gone, forever!
Makes 5 or 6 servings.
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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!
Hugh,
Reference “Water Works, by JSP”. Back in 1960’s Dad buried a 250-gallon steel fuel oil tank. The oil tank was buried in heavy clay soil. In the 1980’s Dad retired and since he no longer needed the fuel tank, he left the tank empty. After an unusual heavy rain fall, the oil tank had floated out of the ground about one foot. Since the author is burying plastic tanks, I feel it is very important to strap the tanks to a concrete base, if he wants to keep them buried. – R.L.
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HJL,
In reference to JSP’s article on hot water heating in SHTF situations, I have a recommendation for a whole house hot water heater that has worked well for both myself and another off gridder that I recommended it to. We both have BOL’s that are over two hours from the nearest town and, needless to say, we do not have public power. I personally have a solar/generator/battery bank system, and it powers all my needs. We pump water from a stream to a cistern and then pressure pump it into a pressurized tank. We use an on demand Bosch Therm 330PN-LP (Liquid Propane) Tankless Water heater. It requires no electric power or batteries. We keep track of our propane consumption and with a gas stove, gas refrigerator, and the gas water heater, we use a one hundred pound LP cylinder about every 30-40 days under regular use (not trying to conserve power) for two people. We have found this tankless on demand water heater to be very efficient and we have used it now for three years. The price is reasonable as compared to the one recommended in the article (Navien), about $400. They also make a larger model for about $700 for larger families or more demand. I like the Bosch because it does not require electricity and because you can store tanks of LP gas indefinitely for a SHTF scenario. Hope this helps some of your readers looking for a reliable, efficient, and affordable method to heat water for your BOL or off grid home. – Mike Y.
Obama Increases Deficit $1 Trillion a Year – B.B.
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Items from Professor Preponomics:
U.S. News
Official Time: Practically Opaque in Every Way (Cato Institute) Little truth or transparency here… “The current scenario is ripe for abuse: there is no limit on the amount of official time, no mandated system for tracking the time, and no imperative for the agencies to publish the information.”
Obamas Treat Air Force One Like an Uber Ride: Spending Watchdog Says the President’s Christmas in Hawaii Trip Too Expensive to Justify (Daily Mail) The cost of fly-time alone was estimated at $3.5M, but the exact cost is difficult to know since not all the data is available. Since the American taxpayer if funding most of the bill, shouldn’t the American taxpayer know the cost? It’s another example of a lack of transparency.
Report: Price of Obama’s Getaways $70M and Counting (McClatchy DC)
International News
Hong Kong Watchdog Fines JP Morgan for Darkpool Control Failures (Reuters) Dark Pools are not a new financial phenomenon but remain important as they relate to both market transparency and to liquidity. “Critics of the platforms say they distort public markets and disadvantage traditional investors, while their proponents say they offer an important source of liquidity.”
What is ‘Mifid’ and Why Care About It’s Delay? (Financial Times) In response to the financial crisis of 2008, the EU has introduced Mifid II. It’s an ambitious effort to govern the trading of derivatives, to reduce risks associated with volatility, and to establish a framework for policing conflicts as those arise among financial advisors.
China Now Has So Much Bad Debt, It’s Selling Soured Loans on Alibaba (Zero Hedge) Hmmm. Little transparency here either… “Still, the official numbers on NPLs (shown above) look surprisingly low for an economy, which is supposedly careening towards a debt crisis. There’s a simple explanation for this apparent discrepancy: the numbers, like China’s official GDP prints, are fabricated.”
Personal Economics and Household Finance
Gallup Daily: US Consumer Spending (Gallup) An insight into the daily spending of an American consumer (and an interesting relative comparison to the spending of our government officials).
Link submitted by Avalanche Lily: Vote for my husband for president
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Gift Suggestion for Christmas 2016 from Krayton Kerns, the Conservative Cow Doctor
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From the Desk of Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large: Propaganda Games: Sesame Credit – The True Danger of Gamification – Extra Credits
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Sometimes, it is actually possible to win against the system: 5 Mothers are Victorious Against the New York City Flu Vaccine Mandate – D.S.
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SurvivalBlog reader T.A. submitted this disturbing link: IS Jihadists Stole TENS of THOUSANDS of Passorts: Where are they now?
“Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow!” – John Stark at the Battle of Bennington, 1777
Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Let’s all agree that we can survive without hot water. Yet, as some have successfully argued on this blog that when it comes to food “variety is the spice of life”, I would ask why it is important, especially in a survival situation. “Morale” would be my answer. We could all survive on rice and beans, but it would be hard to keep group morale up if after a supper of rice and beans the group only could look forward to a breakfast of rice and beans.
My personal bias is certainly involved in this, as I can go without a lot of modern or “creature” comforts. I look forward to no cell phones, Internet, and television, and I can get by without a microwave. However, without an occasional hot water shower, I could get grumpy. Even more to the point, I want my team, my group, to never question that they are in the right place doing the right things and that we have thought about their sanitation and comfort. Additionally, I can use hot water showers as a reward for acts and work that is above and beyond the call of duty.
In this article, I am going to explain three ways to obtain flowing hot water without electricity or much electricity. The first two methods require some form of flowing water (like gravity feed for example). The third method is best with some water flow; it can function without it, but you won’t be taking showers in the traditional sense. If you look at non-electric communities, like the Amish, it is the third method that they use.
The methods are:
1) Single point, battery fired, on-demand, propane water heaters
2) Whole house, 110, fired on-demand, propane (or natural gas) water heaters
3) Wood fired range boilers
Let’s take them one at a time.
The vast majority of on-demand water heaters take 110 volts to fire them and then a fuel source to heat the water, which is typically propane or natural gas. The only company that I am aware of that offers something different is the EZ Tankless people. They offer two water heaters which have an ignition source of two “D” batteries, so consequently they don’t have to be “plugged in” to anything. They have two different models that do this, and I have purchased six of their units. Two of them had problems, and in the end had nothing to do with the manufacturer. I once saw a “Camp Chef” (a brand I have respect for) version of one of these, but it looked to me like it was made by EZ Tankless and branded for them. In the next part of this article, I will highlight a few projects and identify how I have implemented these units. However, what I mean by single point is that they will heat plenty of water for one appliance, whether it is one shower head, one sink, et cetera.
Let’s talk about the problems I have had with these units. First, the usual application is to attach a water source and a fuel source, commonly a garden hose and then a 5-gallon propane tank. To do this you need a pressure regulator on the propane tank, and it turns out that most pressure regulators are now China garbage.
I typically have purchased the heaters directly from EZ Tankless and the pressure regulators online. I had problems with a heater, so my first thought was to switch out the regulator hose, but it still didn’t work. I switched out another one, and it still didn’t work. Long story short, I had three brand new propane regulator hose assemblies that were all defective, and one of them was purchased six months prior to the other ones from another supplier. The EZ Tankless people were very helpful working through this, even though it was annoying at times. When we finally figured out the problem, they suggested that I buy (online) a two-stage regulator.
The second problem I had was all my fault, as it was in a location that froze during winter, which I knew. I thought I drained it well, but I didn’t. (There’s more on that later).
Our standard hot water tank is an electric basic unit. I have always wanted a whole house on-demand unit, so I did some research and purchased a Navien. What I liked about them was their efficiency. For example, most whole house on-demand units require some type of metal exhaust pipe, and the Navien is so efficient you can use PVC for exhaust. Also, they don’t take that much flow to make them turn on or electricity to make them fire. They are not cheap though, and I am not sure how much use it will see in a Schumer situation, but it’s possible.
Just to back up for a second “on demand” just means that the units sense water movement and fire up to heat the water. If you turn on the hot water valve in the shower, water will flow past the on-demand unit, which will cause it to fire up and heat the water. So that means that as long as you don’t run out of water or fuel, you will never run out of hot water. Our whole house on-demand unit is probably best used grid up, when we have a house full of people taking showers and doing laundry, dishes, et cetera. It is a tool in our “kit bag” though, as it and other things are attached to a 1000-gallon, buried, propane tank, and a simple inverter and battery will fire it.
We have two Range Boilers that I was skeptical about at first, but they really do work well. With the right configuration, the saying is totally true that with a good wood stove you can “heat your house, cook your food, and heat your water”.
Range Boilers work on the concept of “thermo siphon”. What that means is that just as hot air rises and cold air descends, so too does hot water rise and cold water descend.
A Range Boiler is typically a stone-lined steel tank designed to hold water, especially hot water. To work effectively you need a wood burning stove that has stainless steel coils inside the fire box. The fire heats the water in the coils and circulates it into and out of the Range Boiler Tank. We have had wood stoves that try to heat water using convection (without coils in the fire box), and frankly they are lame and don’t work.
I have seen a video online of a gentleman retrofitting an existing wood stove with stainless steel coils to heat water, so it is “doable”. However, it’s way easier to just order them as an add-on accessory when you order your stove. A review of stoves is beyond the scope of this article, but I will let the readers know what we are running. Our main stove that is in the house near the kitchen is a Flame View with a 80-gallon Range Boiler and 20-gallon water jacket. On the patio (there’s more on this later), we have an Ashland Delux (40-gallon Range Boiler), and then two Lopi stoves that are in the house and are wood burners only.
When you order products like those stoves and Range Boilers, they are typically made by Amish craftsman custom to order, so I hope you’re not in a hurry! The Amish make amazing products, but they don’t use computers so you’re not going to get much in the way of instructions or diagrams. The one page set of “instructions” we got with our Range Boiler was obviously typed on a manual typewriter and the diagrams were hand-drawn. They were helpful but certainly didn’t tell the whole story.
If you are serious about a long-term ability to heat your house, cook, and heat your water, then a wood stove with heating coils and a Range Boiler is the only way to go. Consequently, I want to spend a minute on the details of installation that is not found in the instructions we received. A Range Boiler typically has five threaded holes that are plugged when they arrive. There are two holes on the top, one on the bottom, and two on the side. The side holes are what comes and goes from the stove fire box coils. The side hole at the top is for hot water in from the stove (thermo siphon), and the bottom side hole is for cold water out of the tank to the stove. If you look closely at the back of your stove where the coils come out, you will notice that one threaded end is lower (cold in) than the other end (hot out).
When you are connecting your range boiler to your stove, it is absolutely imperative that you only use galvanized steel pipe. I am going to admit it is a first-class pain in the rear to get everything lined up and attached, especially in this day of products like copper compression fittings, PEX, copper and stainless flex hoses, and so on. Those products are just not going to hold up long term to the type of heat you’re going to be generating, and if you have a pipe failure while under pressure, the water can be so hot that things can get real ugly real fast. You can go to copper for water coming out of the boiler for domestic use but not between the stove and boiler. The last safety point is that one of the top holes on the boiler must be a pressure relief valve (just like you see on regular home water heaters) that is plumbed to a safe place outside. You can use PEX-type products for this.
The hole in the bottom of the tank is where the house water supply comes in, and the second hole at the top is where the hot water is taken off. Where does the hot water go? You plum that to your regular house hot water tank to the cold water “in” side of that tank. Yes, I said cold water in. We shut off the standard cold water in to the electric heater and everything that we will use for hot water first cycles through the Boiler and then into the house hot water tank.
The reasons we do it that way are as follows:
On paper this may sound complicated, but it really is just understanding the concept of Thermo-siphoning, which is using quality materials to put it together and some basic plumbing. You will be surprised how much hot water you can generate. Just like wood heat is unlike any other, wood heated water is like no other. When taking a shower, I can tell if it’s wood heated water, electric heated, or gas heated.
Our household size ranges from sometimes just two of us to at times a lot of us. Yesterday there were just two of us, and the main Range Boiler got sufficiently hot, so much so that I was concerned about the pressure valve opening to “let off some steam”. So I told my wife that I needed her to go take a long, hot shower… as long as she wanted! That’s a good problem to have.
In the next and final part of this series I will highlight some water-related projects we have done and try to answer a few questions that I imagine the reader might be wondering about.
Hello:
The article on the importance of maintaining privacy with regard to ownership of property, and particularly retreat property, was very good. One other option, which was not addressed, is to use a trust under state law. Trusts are not generally registered with the state, but they will require use of an attorney in order to be sure it is properly formed, can receive and hold title, is enduring, and can eventually sell property if that becomes appropriate. A trustee may need to be named for the trust, as may beneficiaries, but again none of that is registered with any state anywhere. – Kass Andrada
Items from Mr. Econocobas:
House Passes $1.15 Trillion Spending Bill: Here Is What’s In It
Peter Schiff- Mission Accomplished – A good article from Peter Schiff in regards to the Fed Rate hike this past week.
Items from Professor Preponomics:
U.S. News
The Other Three Rs: Risk Adjustment, Reinsurance and RISK CORRIDORS (Citizens Against Government Waste) Article Excerpt: “…ObamaCare’s risk corridors are designed in such an open-ended manner that the president’s action now exposes taxpayers to a bailout of the health-insurance industry if and when the law fails.”
How the Spending Deal’s Risk Corridor Provision Would Affect Obamacare Co-ops (The Daily Signal) Here it comes… “consumers are likely to see increased premiums in 2017 as insurers decide how to address losses and the potential for lower risk corridor payments.”
Nearly Half of Uninsured Went Without Coverage Because It Was Too Expensive (Washington Free Beacon) No surprise… “The failures of Obamacare continue to pile up: co-ops have failed across the country, tax penalties have increased, and last year’s extended open enrollment period was not renewed.”
International News
Greek Lessons for Puerto Rico (US News and World Report) Article Excerpt: “It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly, this adage appears again about to be proved true by the way in which the United States Congress is dealing, or more correctly not dealing, with Puerto Rico’s financial and economic crisis.”
Congress’ Funding Package Offers No Debt Assistance to Puerto Rico (NPR) Spoiler Alert: “Puerto Rico’s economic woes run deep and have been building for a while…”
Personal Economics and Household Finance
Running Out of Other People’s Money (Cato Institute) When many American families cannot manage their individual household budgets, how in the world are they supposed to tackle this? ” Each American’s share of that debt is more than $56,750. And that’s the good news. America’s real debt is far, far worse.”