Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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, I’ll describe the risk of a fourth major crisis for 2020: A banking and derivatives market collapse. (See the Derivatives section.)

Precious Metals:

First off, the latest from South African metals analyst Hub Moolman: Gold New All-Time Highs and Beyond

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83 Tons Of Fake Gold Bars: Gold Market Rocked By Massive China Counterfeiting Scandal. JWR’s Comment:  Which is worse, morally? The Chinese stacking fake gold, or the U.S. Treasury claiming a fake tally for hundreds of tons of gold that no longer resides in the Fort Knox vaults?

Economy & Finance:

Economist Nouriel Roubini: ‘My Prediction for a Great Depression Is Not About 2020, but the Decade of the 2020s’

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US Bankruptcies Busting Out to Match 2009 Peak Mean Trouble for Stock Market

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Fed Reveals Bond Purchases Including AT&T, UnitedHealth, Walmart. JWR’s Comment:  On the macro scale of the markets, these are quite trivial bond purchases. (Millions, rather than Billions.) What is troubling is that the mechanism is now in place for much larger purchases, in some future crisis.

Commodities:

H.L. sent us this: USDA Crop Report Shocker Sends Corn Futures Surging

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COVID Impact – 1.5 Billion Pound Potato Mountain Trapped In Supply Chain

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Visualizing Thirty Years of Crude Oil Prices

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Huge Debt Payments at Worst Time for Canadian Oil DrillersContinue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 9, 2020

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July 9, 1956 was the birthday of actor/director/producer Tom Hanks. His acting in the movie Saving Private Ryan is riveting.

And July 9, 1938 was the birthday of actor Brian Dennehy. He is most often remembered for his role as the alien leader in Coccoon and as Sheriff Teasel in Rambo: First Blood, but he was also in the cast of in many other movies and in hundreds of television show episodes.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. 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).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 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!

Round 89 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.

How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 3, by T.Y.

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(Continued from Part 2.)

In part two of this series, I listed age-appropriate ideas for introducing situational awareness and preparedness concepts to children. In Part 3 and 4 of this series, I’ll share actual games you can play with your children, including objectives, instructions, and assessment criteria.

Since we don’t want to alarm our children, it can be difficult to talk with them about what to do if there is an emergency. After all, children need to know they are safe, and we parents want more than anything to make sure they both feel safe and are safe. But we need to prepare our children for when they encounter something awful, such as a fire, natural disaster, or a mass shooting. A way to do that is to make it fun and non-threatening for a child to learn disaster preparedness skills.

One of the most awful realizations for a parent is that we cannot always be there to protect our children. Therefore, the best we can do is to calmly but consistently teach them the skills they need to stay safe, and I firmly believe this topic has a place for all parents, whether you consider yourself to be a “prepper” or not.

Of course, not all conversations need to be formal. An open dialogue about safe versus dangerous situations should happen continually.

Something I do with my very young daughter is to discuss this while she watches a favorite animated movie. For instance, there are a few dangerous scenes in the movie Finding Nemo, such as when a predator fish attacks and eats all eggs other than Nemo in the opening scene, or when Nemo disobeys his father and swims in the open sea to a boat.

My young daughter has an adorable habit of putting her hands over her ears while keeping her eyes open anytime she witnesses something that alarms her, and this visual cue tells me when I can reassure and educate her at the same time. As needed, I explain that any creature can be a predator, whether it’s a fish, chicken, fox, or human. We’re never too young to learn the difference between good guys and bad guys. Look for situations that are right for you and your children.Continue reading“How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 3, by T.Y.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— 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. Today, we look at a new rabbit virus.

Are Protests Unsafe? It Depends on Who’s Protesting

Over at Yahoo News, a surprising admission of hypocrisy: Are Protests Unsafe? What Experts Say May Depend on Who’s Protesting What. (A hat tip to Cheri S. for the link.)

Beware: Blumenthal’s Background Check Bill

Just introduced in congress by Senator Richard Blumenthal: S. 4068: A bill to prohibit firearms dealers from selling a firearm prior to the completion of a background check. The full text of the bill has not yet been released. Beware. This is surely a very bad piece of legislation that will expand the terms of the Gun Control Act of 1968. Under this law, once enacted, if the highly automated NICS check cannot be completed for any reason, then it will leave you in legal limbo — unable to take delivery of a gun purchase–possibly even indefinitely. The NICS system is horribly flawed and very poorly executed. This legislation makes the assumption that NICS is some sort of well-oiled machine. It is far from it! A right delayed is a right denied.

LoRa Mesh Communication Gets Practical: Meshtastic

Video from a Swiss communications expert: LoRa Mesh Communication without Infrastructure: The Meshtastic Project (ESP32, BLE, GPS)Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 8, 2020

3

Today marks the birth of actor Kevin Bacon (born 1958.) Preppers usually associate him with the campy movie Tremors.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. 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).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 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!

Round 89 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.

How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 2, by T.Y.

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(Continued from Part 1.)

In Part 1 of this series, I covered why it’s critical that we teach situational awareness preparedness skills to children. The way I like to do that is with age-appropriate games, and I’m excited to share some of those games with you.

But before I cover the actual preparedness games, I’d like to share some suggested survival skills appropriate for various age groups. However, you know your child, so it’s up to you to decide what skills you want him or her to know and how you want to teach those skills. I hope this list is helpful to both you and your children.

Ages 3-5

  • Climb a Tree: In addition to being fun, climbing a tree is effective at evading threats. It can also give children a bird’s-eye view of their environment so they can assess danger and navigate to safety. And in foliage, they can hide.
  • Start a Fire: Teach about gathering kindling, firewood and fire safety. Start at three years old and add instructions as the child matures. Progress to starting supervised fires with wet materials as children age.
  • Stay in Place…Until: If lost in public or in the woods, teach children to stay in place so adults can find them—IF they are in a safe area and not in immediate danger. However, if they’re in public and mom or dad do not find them, teach them to ask an adult with children for help.
  • Know Mommy’s Name: Teach your child to call your real name, rather than shouting “mommy” or “daddy” if they’re lost, since it’s difficult to distinguish children’s voices in public. Repeat this over and over to young children until they understand.
  • Take Their Shoes Off: Since it is difficult for young children to remember key contact information, consider writing your name and phone number inside your preschooler’s shoe. Then teach your child that if you get separated to take his shoe off and show it to a grown-up with children.
  • Emergency Help: It’s appropriate at a very young age to teach children how to call 9-1-1 and seek emergency help. But it may not be so easy on locked smartphones. Teach them how to call 9-1-1 on your devices.
  • Swim: Swimming is fun, sure, but learning to swim could one day save your child’s life. Teach them early.

Continue reading“How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 2, by T.Y.”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on components for mobile photovoltaic power systems. (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

The new coin Red Book has been released: A Guide Book of United States Coins 2021.

o  o  o

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, 2nd Edition

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The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Drying Food, Plus 398 Recipes, Including Making Jerky, Fruit Leather & Just-Add-Water Meals

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Reader Ben S. suggested this book: The Self-Sufficient Backyard

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The Thomas Sowell Reader

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The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 7, 2020

2

I just heard that Charlie Daniels died, at age 83.  He will be missed.

—

July 7th, 1907 was the birthday of science fiction novelist Robert A. Heinlein. He passed away on May 8, 1988, at age 80.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. 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).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 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!

Round 89 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.

How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 1, by T.Y.

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(Part 1 of 5)

Until I was four years old my family lived in the “old house.” It was a wooden, four-room cabin overlooking a mountain stream. My grandfather built the cabin in the 1940s. When we wanted a drink of water we walked to our spring, filled a bucket and toted it home. If grandma needed hot water she had to start a fire first.

While my sister and I played outside in the dirt, grandma cleaned clothes on a washboard in the creek and wrung them dry. She let us “help” when she churned butter or shucked corn, then taught us to start a fire for the wood stove while she killed a chicken for dinner. After dinner we “got to” feed the pigs, harvest the garden and stack the jars of food on the shelf that grandma canned. For fun, I would sit on the porch and practice knife skills by whittling away on a piece of hickory.

As it turns out, my childhood was the original “prep school”—the one that prepared me for life.

By contrast, most of today’s parents (and even their parents) didn’t grow up learning those skills. Instead, they were born into a life of dependence on modern conveniences. As a result, today’s children are only taught modern survival skills—such as flipping a switch that turns on lights and turning on a faucet to get drinking water.

Today’s children can navigate with technology, but not with a paper road map. They can find Wi-Fi in any city, but ask them to purify water from any source and they can’t. They can use a microwave, but they can’t build a fire.

But, what skills do today’s children have to prepare them to face the all-too-common threats of violence and disasters we see on the news? For that matter, what skills and resources do their parents have?

Beyond the basic survival skills that today’s society is failing to pass down to our children, our world has many more violent threats than it did a few generations ago. In addition to common natural disasters, our society is becoming increasingly and indiscriminately violent. Unspeakable tragedies include abductions, sexual assaults, and deadly shootings at schools, from kindergartens to universities.Continue reading“How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 1, by T.Y.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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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 of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on a possible deal in Wyoming, where Occidental Petroleum is selling land and mineral rights covering 7,800 square miles. This is an area larger than Connecticut. (See the Wyoming section.)

Idaho

Authorities working today to recover two more victims following deadly airplane collision over Lake Coeur d’Alene

o  o  o

Rock slide on US-95 between Riggins and Pollock forces second closure

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The Good Simple Living vlogging family is making great strides in building a “Barndominium” tiny house in the back of their shop. They now have 105,000 subscribers, and I recommend subscribing to their channel.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The cause of economic despair, however, is human nature’s propensity to sway from fear to euphoria and back, a condition that no economic paradigm has proved capable of suppressing without severe hardship. Regulation, the alleged effective solution to today’s crisis, has never been able to eliminate history’s crises.” Alan Greenspan – Financial Times, 2008

Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 6, 2020

1

July 6th is the anniversary of the 1994 Storm King Mountain wildfire that took the lives of 14 firefighters. Weather changes, resulting in 45 mph wind gusts, caused a modest wildfire to erupt into a blazing inferno, which threatened homes in and around the town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Firefighters from around the country were called to assist in fighting this wildfire. We will never forget the young men and women who lost their lives battling this fire:

Prineville (Oregon) Hotshots: Kathi Beck, Tamera Bickett, Scott Blecha, Levi Brinkley, Douglas Dunbar, Terri Hagen, Bonnie Holtby, Rob Johnson, Jon Kelso

Missoula Smokejumper: Don Mackey

McCall Smokejumpers: Roger Roth, Jim Thrash

Helitack firefighters: Robert Browning, Jr., Richard Tyler

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Today we present another product review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.