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 JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on the FOMC meeting. (See the Stocks section.)

Precious Metals:

Signals Show Great Upside For Gold In 2019 – Bloomberg Intelligence

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Clive Maund: Gold Price Market Update

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Second Chances: Silver To Finally Shine In 2019

Stocks (FOMC Meeting)

All eyes are on the upcoming two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, December 18-19. If they bump rates up another .25% then we will probably see even deeper declines in American stocks. Some market analysts have opined that the recent stock drops are already building this planned rate hike in to the market, as a fait accompli. (Or as they say on Wall Street: “Already baked in the cake.”) But I’m not certain that will happen. If the FOMC decides to pause their rate hikes at this next meeting, then there could be a brief rally in stocks.  (Hint: That would be a good time to eject!)

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Not Enough Lifeboats: Markets Far More Dangerous Than Generally Believed

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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 food dehydrators. (See the Books and Gear sections.)

Books (Dehydrators):

The Beginner’s Guide to Dehydrating Food, 2nd Edition: How to Preserve All Your Favorite Vegetables, Fruits, Meats, and Herbs

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The Complete Dog Breed Book: Choose the Perfect Dog for You

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The Making of the Atomic Bomb

 

Movies:

On DVD and also now available via Amazon Prime: Exodus

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The Bridge On The River Kwai

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An often overlooked John Milius film: Farewell to the King

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” – William Butler Yeats

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – December 18, 2018

December 18th is the birthday of Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788). He wrote more that 1,700 hymns. Today is also the birthday of Jørgen Haagen Schmith (born December 18, 1910, died October 15, 1944). He was better known under the codename Citron and was a famous Danish resistance fighter in occupied Denmark. His biographical sketch at Wikipedia describes his death, after he was tracked down by the Nazis: “German soldiers arrived at the house to arrest or kill Schmith. He fought for hours against an overwhelming force of enemy troops killing 11 and wounded scores of others before the house was set on fire and he was shot attempting to escape the flames.” His exploits were dramatized in the movie Flame and Citron.

Family Preparations for Nuclear War

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Today, I’m addressing a subject that I suppose should have had more emphasis earlier in SurvivalBlog: The risk of nuclear war, and how families can plan and prepare to survive it.

The Risk

The risk of nuclear war is now actually greater than during the bad old Cold War. Back then, there were just a handful of nuclear powers that were divided into two or three camps. But today, there are umpteen factions and even terrorist groups with potential access to nukes. Face the facts: We live in a dangerous world. Someday, one or more of hose nukes is going to go boom.

If at all possible, i recommend relocating to a lightly-populated region, soon. Ideally, that would be one that is not down-wind of major nuclear targets. But at least move out beyond the expected  blast, thermal, and overpressure radii!

It makes sense for every family to have a shelter. A lot of your preps to survive fallout will also double for being prepared for the ash fall from a major volcanic eruption. And the storage food in your shelter can of course be used in other disasters–or even just surviving an extended period of unemployment. The general advice that I’ve given my consulting clients is:  For an existing house: Buy a house with a full dry basement and then retrofit half or all of it into a walk-in gun vault/fallout shelter with a vault door that opens inward. If you are going to the expense of adding a walk-in vault, then it it worth spending a bit more to have it double as a fallout shelter!  For new construction, I suggest that you have a cased well drilled in one corner of the planned footprint of your shelter, before you excavate your basement.

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on Bend, Oregon news. (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

Region-Wide

SPLC vs the American Redoubt

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Apparently, one gent considers my novels cruise-worthy reading.

Idaho

Man who stabbed stranger doing yardwork at Boise home found unfit to stand trial

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US to shut down Idaho nuclear waste processing project

Montana

Big Sky Country Bitmining: Questions, no answers from CryptoWatt

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Butte man gets 15 years in prison after squatting in deployed service member’s home

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I just noticed that Shield Arms (in Bigfork, Montana) has expanded their line of machined aluminum pistol magazine extensions. They’ve added new models and new colors. Nice!

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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 “HJL”. More information on NJ’s plan for Gun Mags this week as they refuse to rule out house-to-house searches in their enforcement.

NJ’s Plan for Gun Mags

New Jersey has now declared war on hundreds of thousands of previous law-abiding citizens. With the stroke of a pen, the state has transitioned them from citizens to felons. The New Jersey State Police have told Breitbart News that they will not rule out house-to-house checks in the enforcement of this unconstitutional law, instead referring to the generalized statement that “We do not discuss enforcement strategies.” This whole episode proves yet once again that registration always leads to confiscation. Ammoland.com has a simple reminder list of what you can do if they show up at your door. They have advice for four scenarious: Police raid, police investigation, police wanting to talk to you, and intimidation letters. If you live in New Jersey and can’t vote with your feet, this is a must-read. Thanks to DSV for the links.

Licensing Private Security

Aparently, a private security contractor falsified firearms qualifications of his armed guards who provided security to an IRS office in central California. For three years, the Fresno IRS building was guarded by people who were unqualified according to federal standards but who potentially had the authority to shoot you. Apparently, since they part being falsified was their shooting scores, that technically meant that they were authorizing people who were likely to shoot innocent bystanders. Multiple people were involved in the fraud and several will now be facing jail time. Thanks to S.B. for the link.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs. Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their family.” – Self-described “Democratic Socialist” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in an interview on PBS Firing Line, July 13th, 2018

Gerber Gator Machete, by Pat Cascio

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It’s often forgotten, but a machete can come in handy in many wilderness situations. Under review today is the Gerber Gator Machete.

Machetes

I own several machetes of different sizes and from different companies. Some came without a package, so I have no idea who made them, other than to guess that they were made in China, as is this Gerber Gator Machete. All of my machetes are rusted. They are all manufactured out of carbon steel, and all were fairly inexpensive. However, they all work.

Gerber

I’ve been a fan of Gerber products for a lot of years, and it wasn’t all that many years ago that all of their products were made in the good ol’ USA! Such is not the case these days. In order to compete with other knife companies, some of Gerber’s products are made in China. This machete is no exception, and it was difficult to find the tiny print on the package that stated it was made in China.

Specs on the Gator Machete

Some of the specs on the Gator Machete are that it is made out of forged carbon steel and has an 18-inch blade. The blade itself is 18 inches long and is 2.4 inches at its widest point. Also, it weighs in at slightly more than a pound. The saw back portion of the blade is about 15 inches. I love the Gator Grip rubberized handle; it’s outstanding. There is also a lanyard hole with a lanyard attached. A heavy duty nylon sheath that is riveted is included as well. There is also a limited lifetime warranty on this product.

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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 JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on full capacity magazines (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold In 2019: Fed Pausing Could Mean Everything For Gold

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This Market Will Drive Gold Price In 2019

Economy & Finance:

Debt Worldwide Hits Record $184 Trillion, or $86,000 Per Person. JWR’s Summary: Bankers and government collude to create debt-based funny money–out of thin air. Consumers then go on a low-interest rate buying spree. They become deeply indebted to the bankers, who rake in billions in interest, fees, float, and stock profits. When banks do fail, taxpayers bail them out. When will people wake up an get out of their debt slavery, and demand honest money? Oh, and as a correction to that headline, reader Mark in New York points out: “$184 Trillion divided by 7 billion souls is more like $26,285. per person, not $86K.”

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Mark Zuckerberg Lost $15 Billion This Year, More Than Any of the 500 Richest Billionaires in the World

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Preparedness Notes for Sunday – December 16, 2018

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December 16th, 1928, was the birthday of Philip K. Dick, who died March 2, 1982. He penned a remarkable number of sci-fi novels and novellas that have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Impostor, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Next, and The Adjustment Bureau. Though he had a troubled personal life (with drug use and several failed marriages), his captivating books certainly had a knack for envisioning potential futures.

Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets – A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police – Part 2

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This article was originally published on Ammo.com.

The Role of Civil Asset Forfeiture

Civil asset forfeiture (CAF) is a major driver in the militarization of the police force. Put simply, CAF is a legal principle that allows police to seize money and property from “suspected” criminals, which they can do without a warrant because the suspect’s property doesn’t have the presumption of innocence. Note that police do not have to convict or even indict. Indeed, indictments are not even filed in over 80 percent of all cases. Police can simply seize property, more or less at will, with some property harder to seize than others. Seizure of anything under $20,000 will almost certainly stand because that’s about what it’s going to cost you to fight CAF in court.

Most of the money raised through civil asset forfeiture is filed under “other.” This can be anything from a $600 coffee maker to a tank. Because the burden of proof is so low and the benefits are so high, CAF is effectively a legally allowed form of theft by police officers, allowing them to purchase military-grade hardware with stolen property. Here is a short list of military hardware purchased with civil asset forfeiture funds:

  • $5 million helicopter for the Los Angeles Police Department
  • $1 million mobile command bus for Prince George County, Maryland
  • $227,000 for a Lenco brand armored vehicle in Douglasville, GA, a town with a population of 32,000
  • $54,000 for 27 M-4 assault rifles in Braselton, GA, a town with a population of 9,476

While not the sole, nor even the primary, means by which the police are becoming militarized, this is a significant method for police departments to bankroll their own militarization.

Continue reading“Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets – A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police – Part 2”