Economics and Investing:

Fortune magazines asks: Is this finally the economic collapse? (Thanks to Jeff L. for the link.)

G.G. suggested this article over at Forbes: Collapse In Internet Time.

Also from G.G.: America Is ‘Bankrupt Mickey Mouse Economy’: CIO

B.B. was the first of several readers to send an article by Laurence Kotlikoff: Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It?

Items from The Economatrix:

Major Leading Indicator in Free Fall

Stocks Retreat as Fed Grows More Cautious

Trade Deficit Widens to $49.9 Billion in June

US Dollar Falls to 15-Year Low Against the Yen

China’s Industrial Growth Slows, Inflation Jumps

Bank of England Warns of Rocky Recovery

Oil Falls Below $80 Amid Growth Slowdown Fears

Recession Causing a Banking Awakening in Tough-Hit Midwest

Many Shun Bank Accounts But Pay More for Financial Services

Gold Drops as Stronger Dollar Erodes Demand for an Alternative Investment

Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS sent this: ‘Seed ambassadors’ spread the word about saving

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Linda Y. was the first of several readers that sent us this news wire article: Scientists find new superbug spreading from India. Linda’s comment: ” While most readers probably looked over this story with an ‘another-cry-wolf’ view, it definitely caught my attention. This is very worrisome. I have seen first hand how the US-300 strain of MRSA can ravage a body in no time. My son came home ill from college and doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him and kept sending us home. By the time they figured out that it was MRSA, he was near death in less than a week. Antibiotics were not working. The MRSA caused kidney infarcts, destroyed part of his aorta, aortic valve, mitral valve and created a hole in his heart, and finally had to have a bypass around the endotoxins to get his heart to properly beat again. He miraculously survived but only because we had one of the best team of doctors on his case from Loyola University Medical Center and thousands of people around the world were praying for him. One doctor called the bacteria an ‘Entity.’ That is the best lexicon for these antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This should be terrifying news to all. Let’s hope they get this new ‘Entity’ under control with a new antibiotic quickly.”

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Scott B. sent this preview of the coming urban riots as the nascent Depression progresses: Housing crisis reaches full boil in East Point {Atlanta]; 62 injured

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"A wild boar stood under a tree, and rubbed his tusks against the trunk. A fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either huntsman or hound. He replied, "I do it advisedly; for it would never do to have to sharpen my weapons just at the time I ought to be using them." To be well prepared for war is the best guarantee of peace." – The Fables of Aesop, published by Henry Altemus Company, 1899.

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Grub, Guns, and Gold!, by Barry P.

I grew up in a home where the parents believed in being prepared. When my dad went back to dental school after working for fifteen years as a biochemist, we lived for three years on the food storage they had acquired. But we didn’t use the food storage during those three years only. We had always enjoyed wonderful whole wheat bread, pancakes, cookies and cakes made from the wheat in our food storage. We learned that this food wasn’t to be used just in case of emergencies. We ate and rotated the items in our storage on a regular basis. We became used to the ingredients contained in these home-cooked meals made from scratch, and really learned to enjoy them. This is important, especially with whole wheat, because it does take some getting used to. You can’t just begin using it when your emergency starts and expect your body to immediately adapt to it.

When my wife and I were married, we wanted to be as prepared as my parents. We started small because we didn’t have much money or room. During the last 25 years we’ve been able to expand our food storage program and also make some additional preparations. I try to help as many people as possible become prepared by summarizing the basic requirements with these three words: Grub, Guns, and Gold! Of course the list is much more comprehensive than just those three items, but it’s a good starting point.

1) Do you have a year’s supply of basic food and water? If “no”, do have any money in the bank. If “yes”, take as much out as possible and buy a year’s supply of food. If you can afford more than that, that’s even better. Food storage calculators on the internet tell you how much of what items you need based on your family size. The major groups to consider include: Grains, Fats and Oils, Legumes, Sugars, Milk, Cooking Essentials, and Water. Additional items might include vegetables and fruits, whether canned, dehydrated, or freeze dried. Also, in order to fully utilize wheat in your food storage program, you’ll need to have a grinder to convert it into flour. We have a stone-ground grinder powered by electricity, but we also have a hand crank grinder just in case! For water we have eight 55 gallon barrels. We also have a Berkey water filter. What’s good about these filters is electricity isn’t needed – they work via gravity. We’re using our Crown Berkey right now with the additional fluoride filters so that we don’t end up with fluoride and other toxins in our bodies. We could even put Mississippi River water in the Berkey and it would make it safe to drink!

2) Do you still have money in the bank after buying your food? If so, buy guns to protect your family and food. The most effective home defense weapon is a 12 gauge shotgun. You may also want to acquire some type of semi-auto rifle, such as an SKS, or my favorite, the M1 Garand. The SKS is an effective killer out to 300 yards, and the Garand is effective out to 800 yards. Some people like the AR-15. Any of those are great. I also like to have a handgun nearby as well, at least 9mm or larger. If you’re not very familiar with guns, take a hunter education safety course at a minimum (your kids too), and maybe a course for concealed carry. And make sure you have enough ammo on hand for whatever might happen.

3) Do you still have money in the bank after buying your food and guns? If so, buy gold. Or if you’re poor like me, silver. Right now silver is trading at 65 times less than gold. In 1980 it was only sixteen to one, and is historically closer to fifty to one. So there is a greater likelihood that silver will be better insurance for you than gold, especially since it has many more industrial applications than gold. I call precious metals “insurance” because I’ve never considered them investments, and have sold silver only one time – to buy more food, guns, and ammo! Precious metals are what will allow me to do those things that will be necessary for my family to survive after the American way of life collapses. But don’t buy precious metals until you have your grub and guns first! Or at least take care of all of them concurrently.

I think we all realize that the best option for us would be to have remote and secure places we could go to if needed. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option for most of us. That being stated, some additional considerations – for those of us trapped in urban or suburban settings, include:

A) You need to be able to cook your food without electricity. So my first thought was to buy a new propane gas grill and fill up our three tanks. So we did. Then I realized that three tanks wouldn’t last very long. So, we bought a Weber grill, and acquired a lot of free firewood. Then I learned that charcoal is better than wood for cooking applications, so we bought charcoal. But the Weber grill requires too much charcoal, so we did some cooking experiments with our dutch oven. We found that we could cook five dutch oven meals with one bag of charcoal. We ended up buying enough charcoal to cook one meal per day for six months. Unfortunately, the next thing we learned was charcoal in paper sacks tends to absorb moisture, and over time, will eventually become useless. So if you buy a lot of charcoal for your storage, you’ll need to repackage it in plastic bags inside the paper sacks, or put the charcoal in five gallon buckets. But, if there is some cataclysmic event and you’re the only house in the neighborhood with food, the last thing you want to do is cook outside where everyone in the neighborhood can smell your tasty stew. So, what do you do? You install a wood-burning stove in your house and cook on top of it! Whatever you do, don’t cook with charcoal indoors – carbon monoxide kills!

B) Many people put their guns in gun safes, like I did. That would protect them for the most part. But I think it’s more likely that my own government would take my guns than anyone else – remember Katrina. So I moved my favorite guns out of the house to secure locations. Now all I have available are one shotgun, one rifle, and one handgun, but I could get to the other ones fairly quickly if I really needed to. Someone recently wrote a book and created a web site called HideYourGuns.com. My question is this: What if someone in the government wrote that book? They’d know pretty much where you hid your guns! And they would have a record of every address where one of these books was delivered! Even if that book were written by an individual not associated with the government, anyone could read that book and know the most likely places people hide their guns! This one is a tough call, especially since your gun is registered when you buy it. So they know where you live, and they know the most likely hiding places for your guns!

C) When you buy your gold or silver, you won’t want to put it in a safe deposit box in the bank. You’ll want to have it in your hot little hands, or somewhere else safe. And you’ll want to buy it before January 1, 2011. I recently heard that one of the provisions of the recently passed ObamaCare legislation is that effective 1/1/2011, all transactions over $600 have to be reported to the IRS. That surely is reminiscent of 1933, now isn’t it?

D) One more very important thing to consider is related to #3 above. Any financial instrument or vehicle denominated in dollars will be worthless sooner or later. If you read what the experts have to say on this subject, it isn’t a question of “if,” it’s a question of “when.” So at the very least, after you have your grub and guns, take as much of your savings out of the bank as you can and buy precious metals. Also, I took as much of my 401k out as I could and rolled it into a precious metals IRA. There is real silver in a vault with my name on it. When the value of the dollar goes down, my IRA will increase in value. If/when a new currency is adopted, my IRA will still have value. For the rest of my 401k, I was able to open up a brokerage account within it and I purchased two different Exchange Traded Funds: CEF – Central Canada and SLV – Ishares Silver. These ETFs own millions of ounces of actual precious metals and investors buy shares in them. These are still based on the dollar, but there isn’t anything else better I can do to make this money safe.

Numbers 1-3 are what I tell everyone who asks me about preparedness. If they show an interest in becoming prepared themselves, I help them acquire the food storage items at cost through my local church cannery. I also then tell them about items A-D. Once they’ve started working on A-D, I tell them about some additional items to consider. I’ve found if I just dump all of the information on someone right up front, they tend not to do anything. Milk before meat!

Letter Re: Advice on G.O.O.D. Bags

Hi there,
Do you have an opinion on what is the best G.O.O.D. bag?

1. Waterproof?

2. Backpack?

3. Multiple ways to carry it?

4. Wheels?

Thanks and keep up the good work. – KJ

JWR Replies: Unless you have a bad back, I’d recommend waterproof whitewater rafting “dry bags” in a backpack configuration, like this one. It is prudent to get them in earth tone colors–or at least spray paint them to tone them down. And, as mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, anyone with a bad back should consider a small wheeled cart or even a wheeled golfing bag.

Economics and Investing:

G.G. suggested this piece by veteran economist Howard J. Ruff: Why Gold and Silver Seem Stuck

Also from G.G.: Chorus of QE calls is deafening. Stand by for price inflation, folks!

K.T. sent a link to an interview with Gerald Celente: Double Dip Depression Will Lead Us Into War

Readers of my novel “Patriots” might find this familiar: Fed Looks to Spur Growth by Buying Government Debt. ( A hat tip to Wade C. for the link.) This is a highly inflationary move!

And speaking of inflation: Wal-Mart Prices Are Rising: JP Morgan Study. A 5.8% increase in one month!

Items from The Economatrix:

Productivity Falls 0.9% in Second Quarter

Stocks Cut Losses on Fed’s Economic Stimulus Plan

GOP Destroyed American Economy

Geithner’s Claptrap About “The Recovery” Exposed

Gold Thefts Prompt Police to Monitor Sellers

San Fran Fed: Significant Chance Of Recession Next Two Years

A Democratic Panic Attack? Rumors of an “August Surprise”

Side Effect of the New Frugality: Happiness

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader A.J. wrote to tell me that the classic medical book (circa 1913) book “Materia medica: pharmacology, therapeutics and prescription writing” is now available as a Google book. While some of the techniques are dated (such as the use of some chemicals that in more recent times have been determined to be carcinogens) and the safety standards for some anesthetics (including fire safety) fall short of modern standards, there is still some very useful information.

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KAF sent us this: Meet the first man to walk the Amazon. “After 859 days, thousands of miles and “50,000 mosquito bites,” Ed Stafford became the first man known to have walked the entire Amazon river’s length.” See what kept him going in this report.

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R.F.J. spotted this over at Life Hacker: Build a Container Water Garden to Cure Your Pond Cravings. Here is a quote: “Small-container water gardens are actually a collection of submerged potted plants, which makes them easy to set up and to rearrange at will. You can use just about any container to start your water garden, but pots with dark interiors give an impression of greater depth, discourage algae growth, and make algae less obvious when it does grow. Best of all, most water plants are tough so the garden is low maintenance, and even those of us with a black thumb have a chance because they are generally hard to kill.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) by quiet men in clean, carpeted and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices." – C.S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Surreptitious Suburban Survival, by Suburban Survivor

I didn’t start out being a “prepper,” I was born into it…My father was a Command Sergeant Major in the US Army, we lived on many posts and in many cities, and had to travel at a moment’s notice. So, we were always prepared for the most part as a way of life. OPSEC was drilled into us at an early age, strangers asking questions about dad’s job, deployments, etc., were reported and we “army brats,” stuck together like glue on a hot summer day. Mom, kept the home front squared away, and we always had a nice place, warm bed, and hot food, no matter what… We grew up being in the great outdoors, hunting, hiking, fishing, stalking, and shooting each with Crossman BB/Pellet guns and wrist rockets with marbles…Learned real fast about cover vs. concealment…

Fast forward to today, I am 46 years old, married to a wonderful woman who views life thru rose colored glasses at times, US Army Veteran (PSYOPS) myself. I own a small IT consulting firm that pays the bills, and my wife is a Yoga Instructor/Business Coach. We live in a golf course community on the outskirts of a large Southern city. I stay active working out, fly fishing, Krav Maga and Judo, of course Yoga…We own a Mini Schnauzer, actually, she owns us and is a great dog, she thinks she is a giant. We entertain and visit with family and friends, travel..In short, the “typical” suburban couple, with a twist.

As the title implies, we are surreptitious survivors/preppers..It has been a long journey, taking many baby steps, more to come, to get where we are today. I had to get “buy in,” from the wife, as she did not share my “worldly view,” on these matters and has come to appreciate and understand my upbringing and military background, which has driven, and continues to drive, many of my decisions.

It started a couple years ago when we sold our home, and moved into our current one, downsizing to a Ranch…How to prepare, without looking like it and alerting the new, unknown, neighbors? Like many folks, we are not in a position to buy a mountain home and boogey at the first sign of trouble, and we live in a close knit community with a decent, defensible location, typical Scottish requirements, high ground, with open space and clear fields of fire, one way in, one way out. Zero lots lines means we have neighbors 10’ to the left and right of us, homes 100m across the back, and nothing except a big pond and a couple hundred yards to the front of us…Yes, I do have range cards. Not the perfect set up, but okay.

We developed a plan and worked it, with most of the info/strategies coming from insights learned here, and other reference materials, and prior military training.

Basically is went like this: Secure the home, upgrade storage, create and promote the neighborhood PSYOP piece, (our story) and take baby steps to prepare, all under the radar..

I upgraded the basic security system to a full blown, full perimeter, with smoke and heat detectors, glass breaks and dual tec interior motion sensors installed. The garage door is alarmed and there is a Xenon strobe light that flashes when the alarm goes off, and is visible throughout the immediate area. A siren too, that can wake the dead.. Extra exterior lighting was installed too. I upgraded the lower sashes on our single windows to tempered, dual pane units for added security. After move in, I added extra deadbolts with reinforced hinges, and custom steel door jamb guards installed to prevent the easy door kick…

As a former Brinks Home Security Consultant, I learned, saw a lot of home break ins, and invasions..Also, I turned our master bedroom closet into an improvised safe room. I replaced the outward swinging hollow core door, with a solid wood door, reinforced hinges, with a keyed dead bolt that can only be opened from the inside. Once closed, it can’t be kicked in, or pulled open. It is equipped for easy 24 hr stay. The nice thing is that it really doesn’t look like a secure room; deadbolt not withstanding…I also put hardened combo locks on electrical/utility panels to deter easy turn off and send a signal that we are security conscious. I purchased a small safe, dial type so EMP is not and issue and we have enough cash, silver, and nickels to last a month or two if the banks are down. If “it,” really hits, we have other major issues to deal with.

The garage is a totally finished/insulated space and I had a stronger garage door installed, without windows. We had extra shelving installed from the ceiling and on the walls. In addition, we have several wall mounted and free standing cabinets in place to hold our, “stuff,” and keep it from prying eyes. Yes, I also store some of our firearms in a hidden, wall and floor mounted safe, painted to look like the garage walls, and covered by ladders, etc. You have to literally be right on top of it to notice it. It is also hidden by a 4’x6’x24” steel shelf unit that holds my entire “man cave,” stuff, television, stereo, and computer networking routers, switches, etc.

How to hold and hide the ammo and other miscellaneous supplies? I use paint cans with my own codes in sharpie on the lids, and bankers boxes. All nicely stacked on the lower shelves of the rack system, very innocent looking and not worth anyone’s time. These are easy to grab and go

As an IT guy, I am always receiving packages from UPS/FedEx and the like. So, having large boxes shipped is not unusual for me, and does not violate OPSEC. My wife also gets her Yoga and cosmetic supplies shipped to the home as well. We both have home based business and come and go throughout the day, random schedule and have retired, and other home based business owners and teleworkers around us for added eyes and ears.. I also use a P.O. Box for all of our sensitive mail/parcels, and haul away the cardboard boxes to dumpsters in another area, (grocery stores & construction sites) not just dumping it in our trash for all to see or snoop.

Our plan is based on making it thru the first 72 hrs to couple weeks, then bugging out if things look like they’re getting worse, to a close friends place in the mountains a couple hours away..In the meantime, we need to be able to manage/survive in place..We have been buying foodstuffs from the local grocery store, big box stores and online to stock up. A mix of everything from soups, to MREs, Mainstay Rations to five gallon buckets, pre-packaged, freeze dried food and 25 lb bags of rice and beans.. Everything fits into the two interior pantry closets and/or on the garage shelving in five gallon buckets bought from Lowes for just that. You can’t tell that we have enough supplies for 3-6 months, depending on how we ration, and how charitable we feel. We purchase from several of the advertiser here on the blog site, our little way of giving back.

Water was another issue to tackle, as we are on city supplied water and gas, electrical…So, taking the advice here, I did the following: Bought a small 3 person hot tub, 300 gal, that we actually use quite often, and use the minimum and natural sanitizers. I also refresh the water every 3 months. This gives us approx 75 days of water if necessary. I have an REI filter system with extra cartridges and bleach to clean. We also have the 40gal water heater to drain, a 100 gal Water BoB and 12 gal of water on the floor of a pantry, more to be added. In addition, I have the pond in front of our home to draw from. Got water covered I think.

I have a propane grill with three 20 lb tanks, and plan to buy a large, 100 lb tank..That should cover us for a little bit. Our home uses gas for cooking, so we can manage eating until the Gas Co goes south and the gas stops flowing…

Fuel for autos is handled by always keeping the tanks ½ full, having two 5 gal containers, and knowing where there are two, 1,000 gal diesel and unleaded gas tanks nearby that are left unlocked and available for siphoning if necessary. I recon at night while “walking,” the dog…I can get gas…

I have not gotten the electrical covered yet, am in the market for a portable generator to power the HVAC/fridge, basic stuff, as I am not allowed to install en exterior, fixed, tri-fuel generator due to HOA rules…That is the next “big purchase,” and it too, will fit into a space in the back of the garage, created for it, and accessible quickly if need be.

I have developed two 72-hour kits for our autos, that we take daily, The wife’s stays in her car, because she parks in the garage. Mine, goes in and out of the trunk daily, as it parks on the driveway and I do not want it stolen. I have totally sanitized my car, no decals, nothing visible to steal, no personal info on anything inside the car. A police friend told me not to worry about it, since cops can determine instantly if it is yours or not and rarely ticket for such things. Our kits are in nondescript backpacks and contain everything to easily survive 3-6 days on the road..

There are: three 3,600 cal Mainstay rations, 100 oz camel backs with purification tabs, rain gear, Eton radio, shelter, fire, tools, etc…You get the idea. I also included a pair of fence pliers, in case we have to cross fences, etc., I’d rather cut them than climb over/under..They also make a good improvised weapon…I added a Cold Steel AK-47 folding knife, a robust, brute of a folder, that is legal carry, but effective at camp stuff and CQC if necessary. There is also a folding wrist rocket and steel ball bearings for 2-4 legged pests..

The Eton radio has a crank, and USB ports to power our cell phones, and GPS units, and I keep extra cables in the bag. If SHTF, texting will be the way to go, and you’ll need to charge your gear. This does it nicely..

I have slowly changed my wardrobe to be more covert and tactical in nature, thanks to pants, shirts and shoes from 5.11 Tactical. There are a couple of LEO stores and I regularly go in and buy and item or two here and there, always paying cash…

I have swapped my Swiss laptop bag for a Maxpedition Tactical unit, and have it stocked with various and sundry first line survival gear. Expensive, but worth every penny.

Now, on to the other piece put in place, or should I say removed: Social Networking sites and the like. I have gone dark, deleted several online accounts, to reduce my exposure and data points…Remember, I’m an IT guy, know firsthand what is collected on us, and how we, in many cases , make it so much easier for “others,” to glean info about us. Think it thru..How much data do you put on Facebook et al; about your firearms, hobbies, etc.?

My business does not depend on such online sites and found that it was taking more time and energy that they were worth to maintain.

Yes, we have been stocking up on other supplies as well, per JWR’s preparedness course materials, and recently bought the fish meds from Amazon as a recent article suggested…

In closing, I feel we are in pretty good shape, compared to most around us, not up to snuff on some other folks here, but again, meeting the goal of: Surreptitious Suburban Survival.

Two Letters Re: Medicinal Herb Gardening

Hello,
I’ve been using herbal remedies for over 20 years and wanted to add a few notes to Mrs. Celena J.’s Article:

Spearmint and Peppermint are excellent for nausea and gas.

Goldenseal is a natural source of insulin and should be used cautiously with hypoglcemics and insulin dependant diabetics. Its also one of the strongest natural antibiotics known to man, and the root is stronger than the plant.

Garlic is also a very strong and versatile antibiotic when used fresh. It kills both bacterial and fungal infections and can be used internally and externally as needed. This was my herb of choice for curing ear infections as my children were growing up.

Dandelion is a natural liver cleanser and can be used to treat hepatitis.

Parsley is a natural diuretic that will not deplete you of potassium. It also has three times more Vitamin C than citrus and makes an excellent all-around Vitamin supplement.

Kelp is a natural source of iodine and I’ve used it in tea form over the years to cure strep throat. It is also high in iron and calcium which can be critical for women with heavy menstruation or anyone with heavy blood loss. It cant be grown in regular gardens though.

Cayenne Pepper will stop internal and external bleeding. It can also be used to treat shock and reactions to insect stings.

Comfrey stimulates cell growth and regeneration. Can be used externally for cuts and abrasions, torn ligaments, strains and sprains, or broken bones after they’ve been set. Healing is dramatically accelerated, usually without scarring.

Note that like pharmaceutical medicines, herbal medicines may not work the exact same for different people, and it is possible to have allergic reactions to herbs.

Keep up the great work. – SasE in Az

JWR:
I enjoyed the article by Mrs. Celena J. today, however in visiting the wintersown.org web site I learned that they now actually only include six packets of seeds in their free offer, with SASE. For a five dollar donation, they will double that to twelve packets, however, and now also require a printout of the page and delivery after postdate of not more than seven days of the SASE. A small correction, and one that is probably quite recent. Still a great offer, and looks to be a wonderful resource for a host of the medicinals Celena mentioned, and more. Thanks again Mr. Rawles and staff, great blog!

Economics and Investing:

Watch This Interview Clip! Charles Biderman Fox Business July 30, 2010–Collapse Ahead? (Thanks to Mac H. for the link.)

B.B. recommended the American Thinker essay The Death of the Dollar by Vasko Kohlmayer.

This comes as no surprise: States Raising Cigarette, Gas and Sales Taxes to Cover Shortfalls.

Why the US keeps minting coins people hate and won’t use. OBTW, don’t bother stockpiling them, since they are 88.5% copper, and hence it would take Weimar scale inflation to make their metallic content worth more than the coins’ face value.

J.B.G. sent this: Commodity spike queers the pitch for Bernanke’s QE2.

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Inch Higher as Investors Look to Fed

Freddie Mac Requests $1.8 Billion in Aid After 2Q Loss

US Job Losses Double Expected Figure

UK: Commodity Prices Soar, Food Inflation Back

AIG Loses Another Half Billion

The Death Of The Dollar

Who’s Scoffing Now?

Wall Street’s Big Win

The New Push for a Global Currency

The Economy in for a Long Dark Period — Here’s How to Survive

Unholy Trinity Sets Up Bank Failures

The Crisis Of Middle-Class America

Banking Insanity (The Mogambo Guru)

Odds ‘n Sods:

KAF sent this: Injuries, arrests after massive 70-person Metro brawl. KAF’s comment: And this was just a mishap of disorder. Imagine what will occur when TSHTF!

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Reader R.F.J. liked this: Build yourself a portable home – a Mongolian yurt. R.F.J.’s comment: Clearly useful in a TEOTWAWKI situation although some of the pictures appear “fudged” (i.e., different build merged together). Would seem a useful review to “size” the job and prevent “buildus interuptus”.

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Camping Survival (one of our loyal advertisers) is presently offering a free bottle of potassium iodate and 5% off, for any order over $100.

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Readers “AmEx” and A.A.H. both flagged this: U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing.

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NASA to Visit Asteroid Predicted to Hit Earth?