Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, 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 the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I was so very busy writing this week that I scarcely stepped outdoors. I don’t enjoy being under a contracted manuscript deadline, but it does keep me focused. And, of course, it helps pays the bills.

I did get away one day to attend a birthday party for one of our grandkids. That was a two hour drive, which is considered “fairly close by” by local standards, here in The American Redoubt.

I also had to make a trip to town, to mail another pile of Priority Mail flat rate boxes. This was fulfilling orders that I had received in my HK Magazines and Parts Extravaganza, over at The FALFiles. All 540 magazines and all of the parts kits have sold out. There are now just a few HK91/93 parts and accessories left: Several A.R.M.S. Swan scope mounts, one Namibian contact handguard, one 1,200-meter rear sight, one complete “Sanitized” G3 full auto Bolt Carrier Assembly, and a few odds & ends. I have these all priced right, to sell quickly. Oh, and I’m covering the cost of postage.

Avalanche Lily Reports:

Hello Everyone,
This week has been incredibly busy and so will be this weekend.  So a few quick words for you…  We enjoyed seeing our grandchildren very much this past weekend. This week I was able to mow the orchard before the rains came. The grass had grown to two feet tall!  Weeding the main garden beds was the big chore of the week. I made a trip to town for food stock up. I also needed to buy graduation party stuff for Eloise’s celebration. We are are celebrating along with a few other home schooled graduating friends. Our young lady has grown up, and a very fine young lady she turned out to be!  Lots of emotions in that department.

I will give a more detailed report next week.

May you all have a very blessed and safe week.

– Jim and Avalanche Lily, Rawles

o o o

As always, please share your own successes and hard-earned wisdom in the Comments.

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.

A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.

They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things.

Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.

Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father.

He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.

He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.

The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.

When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.

As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.

The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.

A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.

Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.

He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.

Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.

He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.” – Proverbs 28 (KJV)

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”.  Today, we look at some recent Chinese Saber-Rattling.

More Pesticides = More Mosquitos

Reader G.P. spotted this at the National Geographic web site: How pesticides can actually increase mosquito numbers

Digital Flashbangs?

Another from G.P.: Spec ops technology: Could a digital flashbang make the difference in close-quarters combat?

Name The Nine Contest

Hi-Point Firearms Announces Name The Nine Contest. JWR’s Comment: I would suggest the catchy H4 (HHHH) moniker, which would stand for “Hopelessly Hideous Hi-Point Handgun.” Or perhaps they could dub it “The Beholder”, with an logo of a large eye engraved on the slide, next to the name.

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

Preparedness Notes for Friday — June 7, 2019

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On June 7th, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.

June 7th, 1967 was the day of the city of Jerusalem’s redemption from foreign governments in the Six Day War, placing it back under Israeli sovereign control after having been occupied for over 2,500 years.

—

Seed for Security, LLC is having a great sale. Their Colossal Security Pack is now being offered at 15% off. This pack is a total of seven pounds of vegetable, herb, and grain seeds. All of this seed is open-pollinated and non-GMO. Included are their three most popular collections: the Super Survival Pack, the 4 Grain Collection, and their Heirloom Herb Collection. Each Colossal Pack comes with a five-page Seed Saving Guide. This offer is for a limited time, so don’t delay in ordering.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 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.

A Gravity-Fed Rainwater System, by Tractorguy

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(Standard Disclaimer: Use the information given below AT YOUR OWN RISK. The author accepts no responsibility for any negative outcomes of the application of the following information.)

We are all familiar with the axiom that we can live thirty days without food, but only three without water. We are indeed fortunate that, in most locations the Good Lord rains it down on us once or twice a week — all we have to do is catch it in something. Much has been written and many ideas forwarded about rain water collection. However, most of these fall short after the water has been collected, when we need to move it to where we use it, especially in a grid-down or off-grid situation where there is no electrical power.

The typical rain catchment system is a barrel or cistern which stores the water at or below ground level. Water is heavy, and requires a great deal of energy to lift and transport it to a higher level to a sink, toilet, or shower where it can be used. Since rainwater originates many hundreds of feet above the earth, it behooves us to take advantage of the ‘head’ or natural pressure that it is delivered in and not perform our collection efforts on the ground where the ‘head’ is zero.Continue reading“A Gravity-Fed Rainwater System, by Tractorguy”

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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at a potential corn crop failure, due to flooding. (See the Commodities section and the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

A bell just rang. Did you hear it?  The ratio of the spot price of silver to the spot price of gold just hit another  high point. As of June 4th, 2019, one Troy Ounce of silver cost $14.76 and meanwhile one Troy Ounce of gold cost $1,323.10. That equates to a ratio of 89.64-to-1. So this is a great opportunity to ratio trade out of gold into silver!

o  o  o

Gold Prices Explode Higher

Economy & Finance:

Markets Are Screaming Rate Cuts. It’s Fed’s Turn to Respond

o  o  o

I’ve never been a chartist, but Mike C. wrote to mention this interesting analysis of the S&P 500, by Clive Maund:  BLOODBATH LOOKS IMMINENT – FULL DEFENSIVE MODE…

o  o  o

How Top Gamers Earn Up to $15,000 an Hour

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — June 6, 2019

2

The 70th anniversary of 1984 won’t be in 2054. It is today. On June 6th, 1949, George Orwell’s novel of a dystopian future, Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” became a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy.

The 6th of June is of course also remembered for both D-Day and for the birth of Dieudonné Joseph Saive (born 1899.) He was the designer of many well-known firearms including the Browning Hi-Power, the FN49 and co-designer (along with Ernest Vervier) of the very popular FN-FAL, which was issued to the militaries of more than 90 countries.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 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.

Perennial Vegetables: A Must Have, by D.P.

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In this article, I’ll explain why I consider perennial vegetables a “must have” for my self-sufficiency garden.

It was during the time I lived in Kamakura, Japan, a once short-lived capital of Japan about an hour southwest of Tokyo, the place where both of my sons were born, that I learned to garden. Fell in love with it really. At that time my wife and I lived in a small duplex. All rooms were floored in tatami mats (straw mats). You couldn’t wear shoes on them, one of the few customs which the Japanese wouldn’t allow under any circumstances. The smell of straw filled the air and it just felt right walking barefoot on the dried grass mats.

Behind our apartment was an empty lot owned by our landlady, Suzuki-san. It was empty except for bamboo and weeds of all kinds. We were very close with our landlady and it turned out over time that she would let me use the entire lot, about half a soccer field, as a garden on the condition that she could get some of the veggies. It turned out great and there were many weekends we were all out there picking weeds or picking vegetables together.

At the time I grew different vegetables with varying amounts of success. Corn, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, arugula, lettuce, spinach, peanuts, taro, soybeans, peppers, carrots. All of it was grown organically without fertilizer. I’d compost what I could, used cow manure (not sure if could be considered organic or not) and used Neem oil as a pesticide with moderate success (and lots of picking off insects by hand).

Some of my happiest memories of that time were going out to the garden with my then 2 year old son and eating cherry tomatoes off the vine; digging under the peanut plants thinking they were dead just to find a buried treasure trove of peanuts to my surprise; digging up large numbers of huge potatoes and making my own French fries; and laughing my butt off at how pitiful my tiny, twisted corn cobs looked.Continue reading“Perennial Vegetables: A Must Have, by D.P.”

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”.  Today, we focus on LAPD Officers Contracting Typhoid.

Twitter Bans Analyst Who Exposed Antifa Ties

Some commentary by Vincent James: Twitter Bans Analyst Who Exposed Ties Between Media and Antifa. JWR’s Comment: Since I’ve personally been libeled by the SPLC, I am not surprised to read the allegation that they were a party to this manipulation.

YouTube Demonetizes Hundreds of Conservative Vloggers

This news coming from Vincent James does not bode well: YouTube DEMONETIZES EVERYBODY! Meanwhile, they are “mass deleting” thousands of videos, and completely removing a few channels. James references YouTube’s “Four Pillars” policy (recently re-stated in YouTube’s official blog), to wit:

“Over the past few years, we’ve been investing in the policies, resources and products needed to live up to our responsibility and protect the YouTube community from harmful content. This work has focused on four pillars: removing violative content, raising up authoritative content, reducing the spread of borderline content and rewarding trusted creators. Thanks to these investments, videos that violate our policies are removed faster than ever and users are seeing less borderline content and harmful misinformation. As we do this, we’re partnering closely with lawmakers and civil society around the globe to limit the spread of violent extremist content online.”

Read between the lines, folks. Wake up! This is a horrendous form of censorship and hive mind style manipulation and agenda pushing. This reminds me of Communist China’s Social Credit scoring. But in this case it doesn’t just harm individuals. By blacklisting content creators, they are also harming their hundreds of thousands of content viewers.

This purge is the 21st Century equivalent of Book Burning.

The Burger King Brexit Analogy

Here is British stand-up comedian Alastair Williams with a brief, brilliant analogy of Brexit. I laughed. A lot.Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — June 5, 2019

On June 5, 1851, novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe published the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National Era. She was the sister of firebrand abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 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.

Garden Lessons – Part 2, by R.R.

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(Continued from Part 1. This installment concludes the article.)

There are numerous videos on the web about this process in building your seed-starting set up. It’s simple and again a one-time effort and expense. I’ve never even had to change a bulb after three years. I also have a surge protector that the three lights and three seed mats are plugged into. I then plug that surge protector into a timer so the lights and mats turn on/off automatically for around 10-12 hours each day.

The next thing you have to plan is: when to start what  seeds or seedlings. I’m just going to offer up what I do and what I’ve seen and what I plan to do going forward, based on what my family eats. I mentioned tomatoes  and peppers. Peppers take much longer to get going and I suggest starting those around six weeks earlier than your tomatoes. Tomatoes take around six to eight weeks for me, and they are quite bushy and healthy (6-8” and up) and ready to transplant to their final maturing place. Planning a calendar around when to do what will help immensely. I can fill up all my three shelves with starts of just different types of tomatoes and peppers (hot, sweet, etc…).

Containers: We use lots of containers for placing our starts in. Again, you can control the soil easier but they do dry out quicker than garden beds. If you plant tomatoes in containers, be sure to put the stakes in when you plant so you don’t disturb the root system later. I’ve also decided that I will only plant determinate type tomatoes in containers going forward. Look at your seed packets and find ones that are determinate as they grow bushier and less tall and leggy than indeterminate tomatoes.
Continue reading“Garden Lessons – Part 2, by R.R.”

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. This week the focus is on wilderness medicine. (See the Book section, Instructional Videos and Vlogs section, and the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

Wilderness and Rescue Medicine

o  o  o

NOLS Wilderness Medicine (NOLS Library)

o  o  o

Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine E-Book

o  o  o

MEDICINE FOR THE BACK COUNTRY, 2nd Edition

o  o  o

Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine, 2-Volume Set

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

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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in  scarce variants of the Ruger Mini-14 carbine. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold Prices Holding Near 2-Month Highs After U.S. ISM Manufacturing Survey Falls In May. JWR’s Comments: Gold and silver are not for timorous investors. The price swings can be large, and they can test the patience of many folks who are not willing to commit for the long haul. Remember: Precious metals are not “money-making” investments. Rather, they represent a store of wealth, as insurance against the inevitable decline of the U.S. Dollar and other fiat currencies.

o  o  o

Funds Increase Bullish Gold Positioning, Pessimistic Toward Silver

Economy & Finance:

10-year yield continues collapse on slowing growth fears, falls as low as 2.07%

o  o  o

Here’s the value of $1 in each state, according to new data. Not surprisingly, the five American Redoubt States fared quite well. (It is only in Washington–and I suspect that is just western part of Washington–where a Dollar presently buys less than a Dollar’s worth.) The high cost of business overhead is difficult to escape, on the coasts.

o  o  o

Steven Pearlstein: A new credit bubble gets ready to burstContinue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”