Recipe of the Week: Homemade Haifa Hummus

The following recipe for Homemade Haifa Hummus is from SurvivalBlog reader Yair L.

Ingredients
  • 1-1/2 cup of cooked chickpeas — Canned, preferably skinless, or home softened and cooked (or you may substitute garbanzo beans)
  • 1/2 cup Tahini (ground sesame seeds) Storebought or homemade – Optional
  • 1 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1/8 to 1/4 cup  Fresh-squeezed lemon juice (to taste)
  • Water (or liquid from a can of chickpeas)
  • Salt (optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
  • 1 clove of pressed fresh garlic, finely chopped (optional)
  • Chopped olives (optional)
  • Pine nuts (optional)
  • Chopped red pepeprs (optional)
  • Garnish of your choice
Directions (With Tahini)
  1. Place the chickpeas in a medium saucepan. Cover the chickpeas by several inches of water
  2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling, reducing heat if necessary to prevent overflow, for about 20 minutes, or until the chickpeas look puffy, their skins are falling off, and they’re quite soft.
  3. In a fine-mesh strainer, drain the chickpeas and then pour cold water over them for about 30 seconds. Set them aside.
  4. Meanwhile, start with tahini and lemon juice, in a blender or food processor. Blend for at least a minute until it fluffs up and lightens in color.
  5. Add a sprinkle of water (or liquid from the can of chickpeas) and blend it some more, until super fluffy and pale. (To the consistency of dip.)
  6. If desired, also add salt and/or already finely-chopped garlic. Process until the garlic is very finely chopped.
  7. Add the chickpeas and cumin (if desired) to the tahini. Run the blender or food processor until the mixture is again smooth and fluffy.
  8. Scrape down the sides of the food processor or blender, add the oilve oil, and blend again.
  9. Do a taste test. Add salt or more olive oil, if desired.
  10. Blend again.
  11. If desired, add pine nuts, or red peppers, or chopped olives, and then mix them in by hand, or very briefly blend again.
Directions (Without Tahini)

Same as above except omit the Tahini, but add more olive oil.

SERVING

Serve chilled. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, and either finely-chopped fresh parsley or ground paprika.

STORAGE

Keeps well in a refrigerator for up to five days.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers: A History Lesson

Today, in lieu of my usual bi-weekly Economics & Investing column, I will describe some ongoing shifts in the global credit and currency spheres. The driving forces behind the present-day monetary and fiscal trends date back to the year 1909, as I will explain. This is not just an academic exercise. Take heed that there are some serious preparedness implications for you and your family, in all of this — especially in light of the latest round of currency inflation. – JWR

The Robbery of Our Genuine Dollars

Most Americans are essentially clueless about what constitutes a “Dollar”, and how Dollars come into existence. The word Dollar is Spanish (and Thaler is the German equivalent), and in fact, the first functional currency in the American colonies was in the form of Spanish milled Dollars.

Up until 1913, U.S. Dollars were minted by the U.S. Mint, under the U.S. Treasury’s bi-metallic currency system. Dollars were either gold ($5, $10, and $20 gold pieces), or silver (dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollars.) Most people carried money that jingled in their pockets. And the limited supply of Treasury-issued paper Dollars were redeemable, on demand, in gold or silver. But starting in late 1913, millions and then billions of credit-based Federal Reserve Note (FRN) paper “Dollars” were created out of thin air. This new funny money issuance stemmed from a congressionally-authorized fractional reserve banking system that employs a money multiplier effect. This violated Article I, Section 8, Clause 2 of the Constitution. Let me explain this multiplier effect, briefly:

By law, starting in 1913, for each Dollar on deposit in a Federal Reserve-affiliated bank, those banks kept just a fractional reserve and then could lend out the remaining 90% of those dollars as credit–primarily home loans, industrial loans, and farm loans. But as they were spent, most of those loaned-out FRN Dollars eventually ended up back in banks, where they were loaned out again. Thus, over the years, each credit-based “Dollar” was loaned out over and over– effectively multiplied, greatly benefitting bankers. This change in our currency was a gross violation of Article I, section 10, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution.

Genuine Dollars and the U.S. Constitution

To back up even further: The terms “dollar” and “money” are used in seven places in the U.S Constitution:

  1. “Congress shall have power to borrow money on the credit of the United States”: Article I, Section 8, Clause 2.
  2. “Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures”: Article I, Section 8, Clause 5.
  3. “Congress shall have power to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States”: Article I, Section 8, Clause 6.
  4. “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law”: Article I, Section 9, Clause 7.
  5. “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person”: Article I, Section 9, Clause 1.
  6. “No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, or make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts”: Article I, Section 10, Clause 1.
  7. “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved”: Amendment VII.
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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.” – General John Stark. While ill and unable to attend a 1809 reunion gathering for veterans of the Battle of Bennington, Stark sent this toast to be given at the event.

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — June 26, 2022

June 26th is the birthday of Marine Corps Lt. General Chesty Puller (born 1898, died October 11, 1971). Perhaps America’s finest-ever maverick officer, Puller was part of what I call the Even Greater Generation.

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Because I have some travel scheduled, I’ve put Elk Creek Company on hiatus for a week. I will resume taking orders, via our shopping cart, on July 1st.  Thanks for your patience.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 101 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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 $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx, both made in USA.
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 101 ends on July 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.

 

Review: Warrior Poet Society Network, by N.C.

I wrote this review after being a paid subscriber for two months and watching through (while taking notes) Pistol 1,2,3, Rifle 1 & 2, “Projecting The Cut”, and I also watched “Unbreakable Mind”. I only sampled the other shows that I will mention here. If I was more casual in my viewing I certainly could have covered more ground but except for “Unbreakable Mind” I was always watching while taking notes and with full attention.

The quick takeaway is that it was certainly worth two months’ subscription to get the virtual training I did — with some caveats. These are the same caveats that always accompany all self-paced, independent, virtual, or self-taught training. WPSN notes that this virtual training is only supplemental. It’s not as bad as say grappling, which you straight up cannot teach yourself, but there are limitations. You can learn a lot of what they offer…but not everything. The price at the time of writing was $10 dollars a month or $90 for a year.

I found WPSN on youtube via Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics and Rory Miller who is an excellent writer on force, legal self-defense, and martial arts. I really respect Kyle Lamb as a trainer (probably my number one training wish would be to take a class of his) and if he takes someone seriously I take them seriously. Watching Rory Miller’s interview with WPSN on youtube had a similar impact on me. I generally felt like I would not mesh personality-wise with John Lovell, but people that I take seriously took him seriously. So I started looking at his content. His video “#1 Tip to Keep from Missing” was just such an excellent example and identifies a weakness in my own marksmanship so well that I started looking deeper. His video where he came out against Abortion as a matter of principle convinced me that philosophically we are in accord and that matters a lot. So I spent the money to take a look at his virtual training network.Continue reading“Review: Warrior Poet Society Network, by N.C.”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” – John 3:1-21 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — June 25, 2022

On June 25th, 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. The Battle of Little Bighorn–also called Custer’s Last Stand –marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. While complicated, the generally accepted reason for the battle is that the discovery of gold in South Dakota’s Black Hills in 1875 led to the U.S. government disregarding previous treaty agreements. The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

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Today’s feature article is a guest post selected by JWR, reposted with permission. It was written by Daniel Amerman, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the author of a number of books on finance and economics, including, most recently: The Stealthy Raid On Our Bank Accounts.

Combining Three Distinct Sources Of Inflation, by Daniel Amerman

The rolling average 3-month rate of inflation in the United States has now reached 10.7%. This is an important number as it represents the first time that we have a full three months of inflation data – March, April, and May – that include the economic impact of the Ukraine War and the related sanctions.

What is being lost in the political and economic talking points is that we have three underlying sources of inflation. As we will graphically develop in this analysis, these three sources can be broken apart, and the stepping up of inflation as the second and then third sources merge with the first source becomes boldly obvious. This is a particular issue because the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases are not addressing any of the three root causes of the inflation.

This analysis is part of a series of related analyses, which support a book that is in the process of being written. Some key chapters from the book and an overview of the series are linked here.

The First Source Of Inflation

History seems to be going through a period of acceleration in the early 2020s, and this makes it easy to lose track of what was the fantastic and unprecedented just a year or two ago.

In the early stages of the COVID pandemic, the government shut down much of the country while flooding the nation with stimulus checks.Continue reading“Combining Three Distinct Sources Of Inflation, by Daniel Amerman”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

This week I mainly did manure hauling, cleaning out our bullpen. I also took our electric ATV in for a speering box repair and some brake work.

Lily will give you a full run-down on other happenings here at the Rawles Ranch:

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,

And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.” – 2 Samuel 17:27-29 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — June 24, 2022

June 24th the birthday of rifle-toting abolitionist pastor Henry Ward Beecher. (Born 1813, died March 8, 1887.) He and his adherents from his church smuggled so many Sharps rifles to Bleeding Kansas that the Sharps rifles picked up the nickname Beecher’s Bibles. Wikipedia states: “Several of his brothers and sisters became well-known educators and activists, most notably Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved worldwide fame with her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

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Some Good News: Supreme Court Strikes Down New York Concealed-Carry Restriction.  This will force at least six liberal states to adopt “shall issue” instead of “may issue” CCW permitting. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have “may issue” laws, like New York’s. Those will most likely be changed within a year. Hooray!

Some Bad News: In a late-night session, after very limited debate, the U.S. Senate passed the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (S. 2938) that I warned you about. This is the 80-page, fast-tracked, RINO “compromise” anti-gun rights legislation package. It passed with a 65 to 33 majority. It will now move to conference with the House of Representatives.

I could see that things were going badly, on Thursday morning. A cloture vote to block any possibility of a fillibuster passed with a rollcall vote of 65 to 34.

They ramrodded this Steaming Sack of Schumer legislation through the Senate before the public was informed and had much chance to speak up, in opposition. The last of the votes were recorded last night at 10:15 PM Eastern Time.

I sincerely hope that voters will remember the votes cast by the RINOs who stabbed us in the back. See the rollcall of that final vote. Please print it out and refer to it, for the next three Senate elections–as their six-year terms in office come up for re-election at two-year intervals. Turn those Democrats and RINOs out of office!

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 101 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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 $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx, both made in USA.
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 101 ends on July 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.

Task-Driven Preparedness Planning, by J.M.

At it’s core, preparedness is a planning activity – we think about what bad things can or may happen and take steps to help ensure our survival if one or more of those events does occur. But what is it that drives that planning? Many of us tend to take a list-driven approach – we identify the types of resources we think we’ll need to survive such as food, water, medical supplies, plans, skills, etc., evaluate relevant factors such as our location, weather, family and finances, then make or find lists of what we think we’ll need to increase our chances of surviving. These resources typically fall into one of several categories:

  • Material – Tools, equipment, supplies, etc.
  • Environmental – Location, housing, etc.
  • Social – Friends, community, etc.
  • Information – Information on how to do something, what to do, etc.
  • Skills – Being able to effectively apply Information (Experience)
  • Plans – Predefined (and usually documented) organized collection of activities, checklists, procedures, etc.
  • Time – The avearge time required for the task

Based on these categories, here are some examples of how preparedness planning is frequently done for most event types:

  • Medical – We know we’ll need medical supplies such as bandages, antibiotics, sutures, etc. (Material), books on first aid (Information), someone in our group (Social) that knows how to perform the procedures (Skills), and preferably someone with a medical background of some kind (Experience).
  • Food – We know we’ll need stored food, seeds and tools (Material), somewhere to grow and raise food (Environment), books on growing, raising and/or harvesting food (Information), people (Social) that have grown food, raised livestock and hunted/fished (Skills & Experience), methods (Information) and supplies (Material) for preserving food, and planting schedules (Plan).
  • Defense – We know we’ll need weapons and ammunition (Material), defensible locations (Environment), familiarity with the use of the weapons (Information, Skills) and defined response procedures (Plans).

These are just some basic examples of what many people tend to consider when doing preparedness planning, and all of these are perfectly valid ways to help you prepare. However, based on my experience over the years of trying out many new activities I’ve found that a simple linear checklist approach tends to fall short when reality hits you over the head. Take hunting for example – I wanted to get into deer hunting about 15 years ago, so I went out and found a ‘hunting checklist’ on a well-respected hunting web site, then purchased or acquired everything I thought I’d need based on that list (e.g. a hunting rifle, some ammo, appropriate hunting clothes, game processing gear, license, etc.). I also watched a few videos online, read a few books, spent some time at the range with my new rifle and talked to some locals about the best hunting spots.Continue reading“Task-Driven Preparedness Planning, by J.M.”

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. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at some investing and hedging alternatives for beating inflation. (See the Precious Metals, Inflation Watch, and Tangibles Investing sections.)

Precious Metals:

USN&WR: How to Invest in Silver as an Inflation Hedge.

o  o  o

How to Increase Portfolio Performance With Precious Metals During Inflation.

Economy & Finance:

An aggressive Fed has global ramifications. Here are three ways the world could be hit.

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Even the leftists at CNN admit: America is on edge, and that’s bad news for the White House.

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US Recession This Year Is Now More Likely Than Not: Nomura.

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A new video market analysis segment, at Wolf Street: What’s Behind the Collapse of so Many Stocks since February 2021?

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”