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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the volatile global silver market. (See the Precious Metals section.)

Precious Metals:

In modern times, silver has been known for more volatile price swings than gold. This week was no exception. From Friday, August 1st to Thursday, August 7, spot silver climbed from $36.63 to $38.53 per Troy ounce. In my estimation, as of 2025, silver still holds the potential for greater gain than gold. But brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride. While gold may gradually gain 10% versus the US Dollar before December of 2026, I expect silver to gain as much as 25%. But be prepared to witness 10% silver price swings in some months.  The reason is simple: Silver is a much smaller, “thinner” market, and it is heavily manipulated by short sellers.  If you’ve watched the weekly price action in silver for the past 18 months, you’ve noticed that in many weeks, the Asian Longs are consistent buyers, driving up silver on Mondays and Tuesdays, but then American Shorts push it down on most Thursdays and Fridays. The silver market arbitrageurs (“arbs”) are not blind to this weekly cycle, and they almost surely have been profiting from it, repeatedly. But, again, the long-term prospects for silver are quite solid. Mark my words: A big silver short squeeze is inevitable. When that happens, the Shorts will lose control, and their wicked price manipulation game will end abruptly. – JWR

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Some market commentary from Keith Weiner: Gold Doesn’t Need a Black Swan to Work.Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — August 7, 2025

August 7, 1588: English sailors set alight eight fireships, with pitch, brimstone, gunpowder, and tar, and cast them downwind towards the closely anchored vessels of the Spanish Armada, scattering the armada. Pictured: English and Spanish fleets clash in the 1558 Battle of Gravelines in a painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg.

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August 7th, 1933 was the birthday of the late Jerry Pournelle. He, along with Larry Niven, authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer.

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As part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for SurvivalBlog, we’ve launched our biggest sale ever on all of our percussion gun inventory at Elk Creek Company.  (Elk Creek Company is a spin-off venture that helps pay the bills for SurvivalBlog.)  Take note that most of our percussion revolver inventory is hand-selected for the availability of cartridge conversion cylinders. This is particularly important for folks who live in any of the 23 states that have de facto registration on the sales of private party modern (post-1898) cartridge guns.  The sale pricing on our percussion guns will end on Friday, August 15, 2025. Oh, and by the way, if you’d like to pay in pre-1965 “junk” U.S. 90% coins, you can divide your order total by 29.7.

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Today’s feature article is by SurvivalBlog staffer Tom Christianson.

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We are in need of entries for Round 120 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 120 ends on September 30th, 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Zastava ZPAP M70 Underfolder, by Thomas Christianson

AK platform firearms have a well-deserved reputation for rugged reliability. This is due (among other factors) to their simple design, sturdy construction, generally loose tolerances, and over-gassing. As a result, AK platform rifles have been a long-time favorite of mine for potential use in situations in which normal care and maintenance may be difficult.

The Zastava ZPAP M70 Underfolder is a credit to its AK family lineage. It is compact (just 26.25 inches long when folded), reasonably accurate for an AK (those loose tolerances don’t make for an ideal sniper rifle), with above-average fit and finish for an AK, and a better-than-average trigger for an AK. In good AK fashion, it is chambered in 7.62X39.

The rifle is made in Serbia. It was priced at about $1,200 at a number of online vendors at the time of this writing.Continue reading“Zastava ZPAP M70 Underfolder, by Thomas Christianson”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, more news of nuclear war brinksmanship.

Russia’s Terrifying ‘Dead Hand’ Threat

Over at The UK Daily Mail: Russia’s terrifying ‘DEAD HAND’ threat as spiraling nuclear rhetoric leaves world on the brink.

And in related news: Trump moves nuclear subs closer to Russia after Kremlin threat.

Poland Readies Itself Against a Possible Russian Invasion

Poland prepares to defend itself against potential Russian invasion — ABC NEWS (Australia).

Taiwanese Civilians Training for a Chinese Invasion

Meanwhile, in Taiwan: The Taiwanese civilians training for a Chinese invasion.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.” – Mark Twain

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 6, 2025

We are now celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of SurvivalBlog. My first blog post was on August 5, 2005. That was just three weeks before the first report that Hurricane Katrina had formed. There are now 40,836 archived SurvivalBlog posts. That includes 7,296 quotes, with Bible verses on every Saturday and Sunday. All of the blog archives will remain freely available. Thanks for spreading the word and making the blog such a great success. Our special thanks to the 2% of readers who voluntarily subscribe. I hope that more folks will recognize the usefulness of SurvivalBlog as a reference. I also hope that folks appreciate that we’ve posted daily, almost without fail, for all these years. Today, when more than half of what you see on the Internet is A.I. and bot-generated schlock, SurvivalBlog abides as one of the last of the old school human-written daily blogs, with integrity and a consistent editorial voice. Lord willing, I hope to continue the blog for another 20 years. Thanks again, and I wish you and your families God’s Providential Blessings, – JWR

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On August 6, 1819: Norwich University was founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.

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On August 6, 2011, a U.S. CH-47D Chinook military helicopter operating with the call sign Extortion 17 (spoken “one-seven”) was shot down while transporting an Immediate Reaction Force attempting to reinforce a Joint Special Operations Command unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Tangi Valley in Maidan Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board.

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Today’s short feature article is a guest post by Mrs. Alaska.

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We are now in need of entries for Round 120 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 120 ends on September 30th, 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Meat and Vegetable Broths, by Mrs. Alaska

Almost any savory dish you cook with water will be tastier if cooked with a vegetable broth or meat broth.  So throughout a week of cooking (and harvesting), I set aside less desirable parts of vegetables and bones to make broth when I have accumulated enough to make a pot or two.  I often time the cooking in advance of making rice, or beans so I can cook those carbohydrates in the broth.

Making Vegetable Broth

The vegetables for broths can be any and all.  For example, this week, I harvested broccoli heads.  For the broth, I cut up the leaves and part of the tough stalk.  I tossed in the tops and bottoms of onions, zucchini, and tomatoes from prior meals, as well as celery that I grow.I flavored the broth with salt, pepper, garlic, and thyme and let it boil gently for an hour.

Then, I strained it into a pot and cooked the pasta in that broth, after which I saved the broth to re-use to flavor rice in a few days.

I pureed the soft vegetables with parmesan cheese, butter, and more garlic for a sauce for the pasta. I love repurposing!!!
Continue reading“Meat and Vegetable Broths, by Mrs. Alaska”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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I found this great documentary linked over at my buddy Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker blog: Exploring the Paranoid Country with 374,142 Bunkers to Hide Everyone (how is this possible?)  Pictured above is a fortified Swiss artillery emplacement, camouflaged to look like a house.

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Reader C.B. sent this news from across the pond: UK Police Arrest Gardener in His Own Garden For Carrying Trowel, Sickle.

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U.K. Moves to Legally De-suppress Suppressors. The NRA-ILA article begins:

“On July 4th, President Donald Trump signed into law his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which included a provision that eliminated the tax stamp fee of $200, but did not deregulate suppressors under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). The fee elimination will not take effect until January 1, 2026, and suppressors will still have to be registered under the NFA, with the standard government overreach of forms, fingerprinting and government approval. In the meantime, the NRA and other gun rights advocates have announced plans to file “a new strategic lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the NFA in Federal Court.”

Gun control groups like Everytown and Giffords, however, maintain that the “NFA has kept silencers out of criminal hands for over eighty years,” and that suppressors “are inherently dangerous devices” that “present a serious public safety concern” and “should not be widely available to civilians.” Suppressors, they allege, do not protect a shooter’s hearing, and the “real reason the gun lobby wants to deregulate silencers is so that the industry can profit off their sale.”

Such claims would lead one to expect that the United Kingdom, as rabidly weapon-adverse and anti-gun as Giffords and Everytown and their supporters could ever wish, would likewise maintain draconian legislative controls on these “inherently dangerous devices that criminals may use to suppress the sound of gunfire and mask muzzle flash.”

Yet, in fact, the opposite appears to be happening.

In 2024, the U.K. government published a public consultation paper seeking input regarding its proposal to remove “sound moderators” from firearm licensing laws. Sound moderators, a.k.a. suppressors or silencers, are controlled under section 57(1)(d) of the Firearms Act 1968, which (much like the U.S. Gun Control Act and NFA) defines “firearm” to include “an accessory to a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon where the accessory is designed or adapted to diminish the noise or flash caused by firing the weapon.”

The consultation document explained the background.”

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Sam Altman’s doomsday ‘bunker’ confession as OpenAI CEO fears ‘bombs dropping’.

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Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can’t understand it, don’t like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That’s why the Second Amendment is America’s first freedom.” – Charlton Heston

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — August 5, 2025

August 5, 1716: Battle of Petrovaradin [aka Peterwardein]: The Habsburgs under Eugene of Savoy defeated the Ottomans in a decisive victory.

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On this day in 1763: Battle of Bushy Run, Pontiac’s War. Forces led by Swiss mercenary Henry Bouquet defeated Chief Pontiac’s Indians at Bushy Run.

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August 5, 1917: The entire US National Guard is taken into national service, subject to presidential rather than state control.

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August 5th is also the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan.

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Today’s feature article is a guest post.

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We are in need of entries for Round 120 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 120 ends on September 30th, 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced — Round 119

We’ve announced the winners of Round 119 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

Note to the top three prize winners: Please contact me and let me know your UPS and USPS address(es), for your prizes. Thanks. – JWR

The top three prize winners will each receive some great prize packages. The winners for Round 119 are…

First Prize Winner:

First Prize goes to A.F. for Preps Starter Kits for Reluctant Families. See: Part 1 and Part 2. It was posted July 8-9, 2025. He will receive as prizes:

  1. 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),
  2. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  3. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  4. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
Second Prize Winner:

Second Prize goes to N.C. for Preparing To Go To Gunsite.  See: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. It was posted July 1-3, 2025.  He will receive:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. A $269 retail value survival-ready power package from Solar Power Lifestyle. This includes two Solar Power Lifestyle 25W Portable Solar Panels, plus a $150 gift card to use for any purchase at solarpowerlifestyle.com.
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  4. 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 gun purchasing privacy!
Third Prize Winner:

Third Prize goes to R.H. for A Primer on Backup Power. See: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. It was posted June 18-20, 2025. He will receive:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.
Honorable Mention Prizes

The writers of the Round 119 Honorable Mention articles will each receive a transferable $100 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 in most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

There were 10 Honorable Mention prize-winning articles in Round 119. They are:

Get Busy Writing!

Round 120 began on August 1st and runs for two months, so please get busy writing and e-mail us your entry soon. More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. 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. Thanks, – JWR

Commonality Across Your Preps, by A.C.

Let’s face it, the world we live in is defined by the staggering variety of choices we have. A that is why the simple concept of standardization (the deliberate choice to use common platforms and equipment) might seem like a limitation. However, as large government organizations and individual preppers alike have learned a strategic commitment to commonality offers immeasurable benefits in efficiency, cost, and safety.

By examining the lessons from military programs I have been personally involved with and applying them to our own lives, we can see how thinking about standardization is a powerful way to enhance our readiness, whether for daily routines or for unforeseen events. As a defense contractor, I’ve worked on many programs and have seen governments all over the world waste money with reckless abandon, but I’ve also witnessed some simple, pragmatic tools the military has used as a true force multiplier; one of those is standardization and I want to show you how to apply that to your path through preparedness.Continue reading“Commonality Across Your Preps, by A.C.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies located in the American Redoubt region that are of interest to preppers and survivalists. Today, news about the manhunt for an Anaconda, Montana quadruple murder suspect. (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

Throwing Away The Key: Bryan Kohberger transferred to long-term isolation in ‘restrictive housing block’.

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Sun Valley Tour de Force survivors heal and inspire. “What started as a charity car race in Sun Valley turned into a fight for survival for two Idaho friends, Ron Martinez and Zach Alder.”

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Emergency road closures in place for wildfire near Hope, Idaho.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”