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. 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 USD to Euro Ratio. (See the Forex & Cryptos section.)

Public and Private Debt:

U.S. on a Course to Spend More on Debt Than Defense

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And all-time high: Average Credit Card Debt in the U.S. in 2018. JWR’s Comments: When interest rates inevitably rise, installment debt will come back to haunt many Americans. And anyone who has a copious credit card debt who becomes unemployed will be devastated. Get out of debt, folks!

 

Stocks & Global Economy:

After four days of rallying, there was another bear day on Wall Street on Friday (November 9, 2018) –down .77% in one day. JWR’s Comments: Combined with other recent losses, that brought the Dow Jones Index down to the point that ALL of the market gains for 2018 have been wiped out. I hope that my readers had stop loss orders in place! Don’t try to “buy on the dip” on this one, folks. There is a strong smell of bear in the air.

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The “Nightmare Scenario” For Beijing: 50 Million Chinese Apartments Are Empty

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“We would not be able to ignore the greatest threat western nations have faced in modern times – Radical Islamic Fundamentalism. It’s a different world, today. The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction almost look like the good old days. The enemy we face today will not go away, metamorphose or quit. We are in a fight to the death.” – The late Jerry Ahern, when asked if he and his wife were to write The Survivalist series today, what changes he would make. (From an interview in 2010.)



Preparedness Notes for Sunday – November 11, 2018

Today is a very special Veterans Day/Poppy Day. This is the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. (Then known as The Great War or quite naively as The War to End All Wars.) The armistice became effective at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Today, I’m thinking especially of my Great Uncle, Gus Wallach. He was very quiet about his service in World War I. He was a Stanford graduate who became a U.S. Army Lieutenant and fought in the trenches of France. Whenever I asked him about his service, he would start by saying: “War is a terrible thing.” How right he was. – JWR

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 79 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  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 gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  6. 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).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 79 ends on November 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.



The Beginning of the End, by Todd

An event occurred last week that I want, or more accurately need, to share with others. For me, this feels like a five-alarm warning bell on steroids going off. To my wife and the few friends that I shared this with, it is not a big deal; they just gave me another one of those “Yup, that wouldn’t have happened in the ‘90s” type of reactions. Maybe I’m an alarmist; maybe I’m not. I am just reporting, however, the facts and will let you decide for yourself if there is any revelation in my experience.

About Myself

Before I go into the details, let me briefly tell you about myself so you can understand my context, worldview, and perspective. I am a forty-something Bible-believing Christian, a libertarian conservative, and a prepper. Additionally, I have too many letters after my name to be of much practical help in the event of TEOTWAWKI. While I wish and fantasize about moving back to a small rural community in the heart of the Redoubt, amongst like-minded people, and being able to live self-sufficiently, that is not my calling. Rather I spend approximately 60 percent of the year overseas, am easily found on the Internet and in government and commercial databases, and look, at least on paper, very much like those who would not survive TEOTWAWKI.

Because of work and extensive travel, I have credit cards. The primary card I use was issued by a major U.S.-based bank. I also have this same bank’s credit card issued in Canada and the UK. There is a small checking account attached to the U.S. card where I keep less than $5,000 in case of an emergency while traveling.

Continue reading“The Beginning of the End, by Todd”



The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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”. The world’s public schools are at it yet again.

A Surprising Poll

Like many others, I have always assumed that conservative strongholds like Texas have suffered from the migration of leftist/progressive loonies from California or the east coast. The thinking was that these people moving in from the coasts were bringing their liberal values with them as they sought employment opportunities. It was quite surprising to me to learn that that assumption may very well be wrong. I was listening to Ben Shapiro when he profiled a recent poll that measured if a person had been born in Texas or not and if they voted for Cruz or O’Rourke in this election. It would appear that the people moving into Texas are fleeing the liberal/progressive coasts and are actually skewing the results in favor of conservatism. It is the young, new voters that are most liberal. I suspect that has alot to do with the indoctrination centers we call public school. The interesting part of the video starts at about 14:00.

Scotland Public Schools

Scotland is one of the latest countries to openly subvert Christian values through the public schools. According to this article send in by DSV, schools in Scotland will soon be required to teach students LGBT history to prevent “homophobia and transphobia” and to encourage exploration of their own gender identity. The move comes after lawmakers accepted the full recommendations of a working group led by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign. There will be no exemptions or opt-outs to the policy. As we’ve said before, get your kids out of these indoctrination centers while you can.

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





Preparedness Notes for Saturday – November 10, 2018

November 10th is remembered in the United States as the “birthday” of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coincidentally, the 10th is also the birthday of the late Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, born in 1919, died December 23, 2013. He didn’t design a lot of different guns, but one of his few designs was the prototype for what turned out to be the world’s most widely produced assault rifles. Once an iconic symbol of international communism, the AK’s curved magazine profile has in more recent years become just a symbol of citizens being well-armed.



Guest Post: Silver, The S&P and Sanity, by Gary Christenson

Silver prices peaked in 2011. The descent has been long and tedious. Perhaps silver prices made an important low on September 11, 2018, like they did on November 21, 2001 at $4.01. That long-term low was twenty cents below the price on September 11, 2001, the day the twin towers fell at free-fall acceleration, which marked the beginning of the silver bull market that launched prices upward by factor of 12.

The S&P 500 Index has risen for over 9 years, from a low of 666 to a high of 2,940. It sits in late October at about 2,641. Massive debt increases, central bank created low interest rates, fiat currency devaluations, stock buybacks and debt based optimism fueled the rally. A correction is occurring.

Sanity: I know of no metric to measure the absence of sanity in the financial world, but if such a metric existed, it would register HIGH! Consider:

  • Official U.S. national debt has increased an average of 8.8% per year since 1971 when President Nixon defaulted on the U.S. promise to exchange dollars for gold. It is not sane to expect the economy to grow a few percent per year while debt grows 8.8% per year. Debt rising faster than economic growth for decades creates dire consequences.
  • Finite World: The world and its resources are finite. Yet we demand expansion and more extraction of resources every year. How sane is exponentially increasing use of commodities in a finite world? How sane is creating exponentially larger quantities of fiat currency and debt in a finite world?
  • Negative Interest Rates: Several European countries promise, in ten years, to repay a smaller number of devalued euros than the amount borrowed. If you want fewer euros than you loaned, and will wait ten years, and understand the repaid euros in ten years will be worth far less than current euros… step forward. Crazy!
  • Nuclear War: Mutually Assured Destruction—MAD. Building bigger and more deadly nuclear bombs at huge expense accomplishes what? Encouraging guaranteed global destruction is not sane.

Continue reading“Guest Post: Silver, The S&P and Sanity, by Gary Christenson”



Editors’ Prepping Progress

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!

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers:

This past week was fairly quiet at the Rawles Ranch. As expected, rain transitioned to snow showers.  I went ahead and attached our Western brand snow plow to our pickup, as usual. Also per my seasonal SOP, I loaded 350 pounds of sand (in long cylindrical bags) into the back of the pickup bed, to provide counterbalance and some extra traction, for plowing. To keep those tube sand bags from shifting, I use a 2×10 plank that is cut to the width of the pickup bed. The plank sits at an angle, braced up against the back of the protruding wheel wells. With the sand bags in place, that plank doesn’t budge and the sand bags all stay back near the tailgate, where they belong. Courtesy of the good folks at the local Les Schwab tire store, the pickup is already wearing studded snow tires. (I keep a complete set, on rims, for the seasonal swap.)

It feels good to be ready to plow snow.  I’ve only been faked out a couple of years out of the past 12 here at the ranch. In those two years the snows were so light that I didn’t have to plow at all. But such years are the exception rather than the rule.

Such is life, north of the 45th Parallel.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”



The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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”. There is an interesting video today on disguises.

AGI

From one of our advertisers:

Banned on YouTube?! Yes! AGI just received notice from YouTube that our Reloading A-Z Course sampler video has been Banned! Can you believe it?! This video was just excerpts from the actual course. Apparently because it teaches how-to reloading, they decided that it could no longer be posted on YouTube. Again, this wasn’t the whole course it was just sample sections and they still banned it! This is where the internet is going, Censorship by leftist fascists like YouTube, Google and Facebook. they have decided that they will control what information is available to you.

What you can see and what you can not! This is a blatant attack on your personal freedom and your access to information.Reloading has been around since the start of Metallic Cartridges in the mid-1800’s. While it does require care and attention, reloading is not some new evil underground form of terrorism. But they apparently think so. Look, I have been warning everyone, they are working to restrict your freedoms and I am Not going to put up with it and you shouldn’t either.

Pelosi’s Planned “Gun Control”

Just as regular as clockwork, here it comes again: Pelosi: Gun control ‘will be a priority’ in next House.

JWR’s Comment: We’ve had 14 years to stock up since the 1994-2004 ban expired. In the most recent two years of that, we have seen remarkably low prices on battle rifles and magazines. I trust that you didn’t miss the opportunity. But if you are now feeling under-armed, then I MOST STRONGLY recommend that you stock up, while prices are still low. Look for low cost AR parts suppliers like Palmetto State Armory. (One of our affiliate advertisers.) Stack your full capacity magazines deep, as well. Shortages and much higher prices may come in just few months or even weeks.

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



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” – Genesis 25:29-34 (KJV)



Preparedness Notes for Friday – November 09, 2018

November 9th/10th, 1938 was the night of the “Kristallnacht” arson and mass vandalism attacks in Germany. Be forewarned, folks: Once a group in any society has been singled out, they can be systematically attacked. Someday it may be “Constitutionalists” who are targeted.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 79 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  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 gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  6. 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).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 79 ends on November 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.



States’ Rights Versus Federalism, by F.B.

I don’t want civil war (CW). I’m no expert on what CW2 would look like. It won’t look like CW1 with a fairly clean bifurcation of states. It could be as ugly as Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Civil war is ugly, filled with death, hardship, and loss.

Civil War 2 is Coming

In CW2, I will suffer greatly. My family will suffer greatly, and the values and beliefs that I hold will suffer greatly. Have no illusions, we will all lose in this war. But it is still coming.

Why do I believe this? Civil wars is coming because I’m not willing to submit to the suffocating cultural marxism (PC culture) that has dropped all pretense of “diversity and tolerance” and replaced it with a holy war to suppress heretical ideas. I am a heretic, and I represent millions.

Not Going To Apologize

I am a Christian. I will not apologize ever for my Christian ancestors, for a rejection of homosexuality, for the idea that the Ten Commandments should be put back up on the school walls in America, nor the idea that each nation/culture/blood line ought naturally to have a home country. I am not going to apologize for that, not ever.

Wars at Home

Neither should Japan, China, Russia, Israel, Mexico, the Palestinians, nor the vast majority of non-European nations ever apologize for seeking the best interest of their nation, which is a word that comes from the same root word as natal or birth. Ironically, most European states (including the U.S.) seem to think the mixing of cultures is somehow a noble thing. It is not. Instead of wars overseas, it leads to wars at home if not completely checked by absolute tyranny. Ancient Persia, Rome, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia under Tito are examples for this. And now we’ve joined that club.

On the other side, my opponents on the Left are not going to apologize for calling folks like me “little hitlers” that ought to be exterminated. To allow me to exist and to allow my ideas to be shared would be a denial of their own faith and values. So, where to we go from here?

A Union of States

In my opinion, there is a best case scenario. Each state ought to reconstitute itself as a sovereign state.

The United States used to be a Union. In CW1, Lincoln, by force, eliminated the ability of states to have a diversity of options in how they ought to live. Before CW1, southern states “opted out” of federal law in ways not dissimilar to sanctuary states and cities that reject federal immigration and drug laws or, like California, actively seek to make agreements for foreign sovereign states (which is forbidden in our current Constitution of 1789). Many states, such as Washington State, may consider dividing (as Virginia did, ceding West Virginia) in order to more closely support the interests of their people.

Let’s Go Our Own Way

Yes, this is a right leaning perspective. (I used to be a Conservative and I used to be a Libertarian. But I don’t know what those things mean any more.) I’m completely okay with California pursing its own Left wing agenda, nothwithstanding they will either end up like Venezuela or Mexico. I’m okay with another country embracing drugs, unlimited immigration, unlimited welfare, and socialism. I’m not so parochial that I would impose my beliefs on that. The fact is, we have become separate already. Let’s recognize it and go our own way.

Will the Left allow this? Or is the Left more like Lincoln in the demand for complete uniformity and submission to “the one right way of thinking?”

An Alternative Future with States Supreme

In an alternative future, federal law would be deprecated and state laws would become supreme for each state. (It used to be this way!) The scale of federal activities would be trimmed immensely. Health insurance would be a state matter, as would education, welfare, farm subsidies, roads, community programs, and a thousand other federal projects, including NASA, foreign wars, USAID, and the budget for the UN. States may even prefer to create their own money supply. The bottom line is that each state would have the ability to choose which federal laws to follow and not follow. Is this workable?

Dis-Union and Union

This would be Dis-Union the states. Should there be a Union after that, I cannot imagine that all the states would possibly agree upon a single Constitution, a single set of ground rules. This should not be considered strange. Western Europe is composed of many small states in size similar to single American states, and that has functioned for them.

The impetus toward Union of the states is always a drive toward totalitarianism and tyranny. In this week’s election, we draw near to deciding this issue once again in North America. Dis-Union is better that total war with neighbor on neighbor, community on community, county on county, family on family, and person on person.

Time to Step Back and Re-Think How This Union Works

Clearly both sides already hate each other. Clearly neither side is willing to surrender. Divorce or legal separation is better than the murder, death, and loss that will come from civil war. It’s time to take a step back from the abyss and fundamentally re-think how this Union works.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 79 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  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 gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  6. 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).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 79 ends on November 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.



Letter: Carpenter Bees and Boring Beetles

Hugh,

My husband and I have purchased a log cabin, which we are moving into in a few months. This cabin is located in SW North Carolina, and the property is surrounded by a national forest. We are dealing with carpenter bees and boring beetles. My husband has been looking into all sorts of ways to deal with these wood-damaging insects. He just bought hypodermic syringes from the local farm store to put liquid borate in them for injecting into the holes we can see. We need a permanent solution, if there is such a thing, to keep them at bay. My husband is convinced for our first winter here we will have to go around the building injecting the holes we can see.

There seems to be a major shortage of good workers up here who can help us out, so for now we will take steps and hopefully by spring there will be some better suggestions on how to deal with the outside of our cabin. He has read up on stripping the paint off the logs by a method using corn cobs, then spraying those raw logs with bug deterrent to soak into the wood, followed by finishing clear coat. This of course, is pricey. $64,000.00 was a recent quote for the size cabin we have.

Continue reading“Letter: Carpenter Bees and Boring Beetles”



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. 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 investing in Semi-Numismatic Gold Coins. (See the Precious Metals section.)

 

Precious Metals (Semi-Numismatic Gold Coins):

There is an opportunity that presently exists, while spot prices are low and numismatic prices are also low: buying semi-numismatic pre-1933 U.S. gold coins. These are generally coins that range from AU58 to MS60 on the Sheldon scale. When the markets dip, they can be bought for as little as 10% over the spot metal value. As I’ve mentioned before: If you aren’t an expert at coin grading then by professionally graded encapsulated (slabbed) coins.

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Here is a good primer on the subject: Bullion? Semi-Numismatic? Numismatic?

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And I found that one dealer has a good background piece: A Guide to Collecting Pre-1933 Gold Coins

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Gold, Silver See Slight Gains On Weaker Greenback

 

Economy & Finance:

I was asked by a consulting client about the economic repercussions of the midterm elections. In a nutshell: I still believe that President Trump’s policies have the Federal Reserve banking cartel’s leadership perturbed. Especially when he talks about possibly Federalizing the Federal Reserve. They will continue to raise interest rates in the next two years. They don’t mind torpedoing the economy if that will assure them that Trump will serve just one term. With dreaded Nancy Pelosi in control of the House of Representatives, we will witness both a circus of endless congressional investigations and gridlock on most policy issues. Gridlock will mean: No repeal of Obamacare, very little progress on border fence construction, and mostly unsuccessful attempts at “gun control” (civilian disarmament ) legislation. My biggest fear is that President Trump will attempt to negotiate “deals” with the Democrats, in order to see some of his policies continue to advance. When our liberty is as stake, “compromise” and “common sense legislation’  are dangerous prospects! Continue to pray for our nation, and watch your legislators like a hawk!

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The Economy Does Not Care Who Won The Midterm Elections

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Goldman Sachs: The economy needs to slow down to avoid a ‘dangerous overheating’

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”