Economics & Investing For Preppers

8

Here are the latest 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 private mints.

 

Precious Metals (Private Mints):

One aspect of the thin precious metals market is often overlooked: The small number of private mints in the U.S. and Canada. There are only a handful of mints, and the volume of coins and bars that they can produce is limited. The huge coin presses that they use are specialized pieces of equipment. And not many manufacturers have experience pressing medallions. So if there is ever a spike in demand, other makers can’t jump into the market overnight. If and when we do witness a big spike in silver, it is safe to assume that the private mints will not be able to keep up with market demand. At that stage, the premium for coins of any type will go up. But presently, with silver just now emerging from the doldrums, you can still get silver coins at a very low markup over the spot price of silver.

Mints that have a low debt burden seem to do best, as they are usually able to ride out the highs and lows of the market. Silver Towne Mint and Sunshine Minting are two good examples of low-debt mints that have been in business for decades.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the profit margin for private mints is small, yet their capital equipment costs are high. So small mints going bankrupt is a fairly common occurrence, especially in bear market phases. (See for example, the sad demise Mulligan Mint and Northwest Territorial Mint, in 2013 and 2016, respectively.) Inevitably, it seems that their specialized minting equipment and assorted tooling gets sold through bankruptcy liquidation sales or auctions. Then another firm opens up or expands an existing mint using part or all of that same equipment. To clarify: The 1-ounce .999 silver round is essentially generic. Most mints use .999 fine silver planchets (blanks) produced by larger companies. The only thing unique seems to be the dies for the coins. But their quality varies. Highly-polished dies can produce proof quality coins.

There are not many mints that actually have the equipment to melt raw .999 silver, roll it to an exacting thickness, and then punch out their own planchets for minting bullion coins. Just a few mints have that flexibility. The majority of private “mints” are not really mints per se. Rather, they are low-temperature pressing operations that lack high temperature planchet production capability. Hence they are at the mercy of the market. In times of high demand, a chronic shortage of silver planchets develops. So the mints that don’t produce their own planchets find themselves unable to produce many coins when demand is at a peak.

Keep all of the foregoing in mind. I generally recommend buying coins from coin dealers rather than from mints. But even coin dealers can go out of business. (Like the Tulving debacle in 2014, for example.) So do your due diligence before you buy. Buy only from well-established dealers or mints with good reputations.

o o o

The 30-day chart for spot silver is looking promising.   But remember: Silver is more of a long term hedge.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.” – President William Howard Taft

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – April 22, 2018

1

Today is also the birthday of the late Charles Rankin Bond, Jr, who was born in Dallas on April 22, 1915. He was one of the last of the AVG Flying Tiger pilots.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. 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 transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

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, 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).

Round 76 ends on May 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.

Creating Your Own Secure Messages – Part 2, by DaytonPrepper1

7

Yesterday we talked about how to create and use a One Time Pad. Today we will talk about another way of encoding messages. I am sure I am not creating anything new with this method, but I have not seen it before nor do I have a name for it. My working name is Word Grid Substitution.

Description of the Method

The heart of this method is a 25,000 word grid. The current word grid is 10×2500. I take the message to be encoded and search for the first word from a random spot in the list. When the word is found, the coordinates are then recorded. The encoded message is then a simple list of grid coordinates. Your contact would need to have the exact word grid and spreadsheet to decode the message.

Building the Word Grid

I used a lot of public sources to gather this list of words for the word grid. I pulled in several open source books. Then, there was some work to do word frequency counts to help determine two things– determine what words appear frequently in the English language and in what ratio they appeared. For example, the word “the” appears in the word grid 63 times, the letter “a” 28 times, the letter “I” 30 times, and the word “one” five times. This allows the messages to contain the same words but show different encodings, so that word patterns are harder to spot. I also used word lists on different topics as well as a lot of abbreviations, acronyms, country names, capitals, states, books of the Bible, body parts, food names, plants, trees, et cetera.

Continue reading“Creating Your Own Secure Messages – Part 2, by DaytonPrepper1”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

6

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”.

Sent in by JMC: Putin Warns Russian Students Living In Britain: “Come Home Immediately”

Following in London’s footsteps: Knife Control Movement Crosses Atlantic – DSV

CDC, in Surveys It Never Bothered Making Public, Provides More Evidence that Plenty of Americans Innocently Defend Themselves with Guns – G.G.

o o o

An interesting take on Newsweek’s article on South Africa: Newsweek Says White South Africans Should Just “Stop Panicking”. Thanks to S.M. for the link.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” – Romans 10:8-11 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – April 21, 2018

April 21st is Aggie Muster Day, for all Texas A&M Corps of Cadets graduates. Aggie Muster celebrations/meetings are held as far away as Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan. I should mention that Jim’s grandfather (a U.S. Army Cavalry LTC) was an Aggie– something mentioned so often that everyone in his family felt like de facto Aggies, too. Other than the officers that matriculate though West Point, the four institutions that seem to have the greatest ongoing esprit de corps for graduates are Texas A&M, The Citadel, Norwich University, NMMI, and VMI. Jim felt almost obliged to include an Aggie character in his novels Survivors and Founders, even though his connection to Texas A&M is two generations removed.

The photo above was taken on Muster Day at the command bunker at Correigidor Island, Philippines. Lt. Col. William A. Hamilton, Jr., the last of the survivors of the 1942 Correigidor Muster passed away in January of this year.

o o o

Some Sad News: Humorist outdoors writer Patrick McManus passed away on April 11th. He was 84 years old. He was born in Sandpoint, Idaho on August 25th, 1933. His books are much beloved by many Redoubters. Our condolences to his family.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. 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 transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

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, 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).

Round 76 ends on May 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.

Creating Your Own Secure Messages– Part 1, by DaytonPrepper1

11

I am an experienced programmer with a lot of time spent in Excel everyday for my paying job. East Sierra Sage’s article on Cipher Security got me thinking again about One Time Pads and other secure message techniques. I really enjoy automating things with Excel’s powerful formulas and macros. So I set off to create a tool for a One Time Pad spreadsheet that would create the One Time Pads and also encode and decode the messages being sent.

How to Use a One Time Pad (OTP)

You will need a Shift Chart and an OTP Chart as the basic components for this type of message security. The Shift Chart is used to look up a character in your message and then offset or shift to a position in the Shift Chart using another character found in the OTP Chart. Your message will be encoded one character at a time.

To Encode Your Message

To encode your message, you take the first letter of your message and go down the left most column of your Shift Chart. When you find that letter in your Shift Chart, you will then find the next character available in your OTP Chart. To do that, go to the row of your OTP Chart and find the next unused character. If you have already used all of a row, just go down to the next available row. With your OTP character you find it by going across the top row of the Shift Chart. Use the character where the column and row intersect as your encoded letter. Cross off your OTP character in the OTP Chart, so that you will not ever use it again. Continue with that process until you have your entire message encoded.

Continue reading“Creating Your Own Secure Messages– Part 1, by DaytonPrepper1”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

5

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,

It finally feels like spring!  We had three days of nice sunny weather this week. Our order of baby chicks arrived in the mail from Murray McMurray.

With all this good weather, I was able to finish scraping and hauling manure from the barnyard. There are still two large corrals to be mucked out, but at least the barnyard now looks presentable.

I was also able to get out and cut some firewood. I should mention that I plan to cut one additional cord this year, since last year I hadn’t cut quite enough for a hard winter, and we had to use a bit of our reserve pile.

Avalanche Lily Reports:

This week I did some more work in the garden by spreading some fertilizer to boost the soil’s nutrition. Maybe more on that later. Our nights are at the freezing mark. But the forecast is for warmer temperatures for the end of April. So I’m thinking about planting our main garden plots in the first two weeks of May. Hooray!

I did move cucumber seedlings, broccoli and some tomatoes out to the Greenhouse last week.  The tomatoes and broccoli and cucumbers were all put under the hoops in the “greenhouse within a greenhouse”, but the temps got too low out there and the cucumbers died.  The broccoli and tomatoes have survived it.  Thus I will be again, planting cucumber seeds in the bedroom greenhouse, this coming week.

I brushed our horses, again, to help rid them of their winter coats.  They adore me for giving them this kind of attention.  One of our horses in particular, is a hairy monster.  This horse sheds boxes and boxes of hair every spring.  It takes me a month and a half of regular brushings every year to get it’s hair level to it’s summer coat.  It’s amazing.  The others are just about to their summer coats by this time.

Picking up the baby chicks at the post office, setting up their enclosures (we use old “leaker” low sheep stock tanks), setting up heat lamps, and training them all to drink (dipping their beaks in electrolyte water) took half a day.

With the recent good weather and upcoming fishing season, I’ve decided to learn a new skill: fly fishing for trout in our local streams and rivers.  I bought a basic fly rod  this week and spent a few hours watching a group of YouTube Beginner Fly Fishing tutorials (produced by Orvis) and personal trout fishing expeditions in the Northwest. Then I went outside to practice my dry fly casting in one of our pastures. It didn’t take me too long to get the gist of it. Now to perfect it and to study up more on flies and baits.  I can’t wait for the opening of the 2018 stream and river fishing season!

The children are still working on schooling, but took some time out this week to practice their shooting aim with their bows and arrows and slingshots.

Please continue to post comments about your own preps.

Thanks, – Jim Rawles and Avalanche Lily, Rawles

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

10

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”.

Not a joke: Fortune names David Hogg and cohorts the world’s greatest leaders of 2018 – Reader H.L. notes: “This is surreal – had I a subscription to Fortune, I would be canceling it with a letter to the editor!”

The City of Vancouver just moved to let permanent residents vote in civic elections – No need to be a citizen. Thanks to AnotherGal.

o o o

From G.P.: Will the World Cup 2018 create a Russian Ammo Shortage?

There’s an Epidemic of Low-IQ Arguments Against Guns. Thanks to H.L.

Defiant Op-Ed Author Refuses To Comply With City’s Proposed Assault Weapon Ban

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” – Ezekiel 20:19-20 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday – April 20, 2018

2

On April 20th, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months, creating the worst known offshore oil spill.

April 20th is also the day that we remember the victims of the Columbine High School tragedy, where two students stormed into a suburban high school in Littleton, Colorado in 1999, at lunch time with guns and explosives, killing 13 and wounding dozens more in what was, at the time, the nation’s deadliest school shooting.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. 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 transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

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, 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).

Round 76 ends on May 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.

The Four Things I Missed Most In Urban Survival Mode, by J.C.

14

Did you ever picture putting all your survival know-how to the test in an urban environment, in a giant city? Did you think about all the piles of rubble you’d have to work around to “put rubber to the road”?

Mexico City Earthquake, September 19th, 2017

I know I didn’t, until I found myself in Mexico City on September 19th of last year, that is. This was the day a 7.2 earthquake shook Central Mexico, toppled buildings, and killed nearly 400 people. This also happened to be the anniversary, to the day, of the hugely destructive 1985 Guerrero Earthquake that shook the city to its knees and claimed an untold number of lives. (Estimates range from 10,000 to 45,000 people.)

First Alarm- Just a Drill and Reminder of 1985 Earthquake

September 19, 2017 didn’t exactly have an auspicious start when the seismic alarm sounded throughout the city in the late morning. But, this first alarm was just a drill– a reminder of 1985 and the shaky soil on which the city sits. It’s a drill that’s sounded every September 19th. Schools, offices, and hospitals throughout the city practice a mock evacuation, so it was nothing to worry about.

Second Alarm, Not a Drill

However, just after 2 PM there was plenty to worry about, as the alarm sounded once more. I knew that this time it was definitely not a drill, as I observed my environs swaying from side to side. I was at the mercy of nature.

Buildings mere blocks from me had crumbled to dust. Critical infrastructure was knocked out or overloaded, as thousands desperately tried to make their ways home. I felt like I was in the beginning scene of a SHTF scenario, and I was kicking myself for not being prepared.

Sure, I had the beginnings of a bug-out bag, but prepping had been a neglected hobby to this point. It had not been a priority.

Continue reading“The Four Things I Missed Most In Urban Survival Mode, by J.C.”

Letter: A Good Word About One of SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Sponsors

7

Mr. Rawles,

Recently I was pleased to hear that I had won second place in round 75 of your writing contest for my Inevitable American Gun Ban article. As part of that prize, Emergency Essentials promised to provide a 3 day deluxe emergency kit. Thought grateful for the prize, I didn’t really want the kit because I have multiples of every item in that kit already. What to do?

Hesitantly, I contacted them and asked if I might order something else from the website and pay the cost difference between the items I chose and the 3 day kit. I didn’t expect that they would honor my request and I fully understood that the actual cost of the kit was their financial liability – not the MSRP of the kit. I expected and offered to pay any difference and selected a rocket stove and a grain mill – both of which I needed. Together the items were $220 plus shipping and I expected to pay AT LEAST $150 but left the amount up to them entirely. Truly, any amount would have been fine with me.

Continue reading“Letter: A Good Word About One of SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Sponsors”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

6

Here are the latest 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 recent Bitcoin price rally. (See the Cryptos section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold Down Slightly After April Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Rises To 23.2

o  o  o

Silver Breaking Out; Gold Finds Higher Low

Stocks:

In a discussion about the likelihood of a recession, I had a friend ask me: “What stocks do you think will be recession proof?”  My reply: “Precious few are recession proof. And virtually none are Depression proof.”  I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. To paraphrase: Interest rates are rising, and we are long over-due for a recession. Be ready for a bear market in equities and a long, deep recession or full scale depression. Sell some of your stocks and diversify into tangibles. For a point of reference, my net worth is presently divided (approximately): 60% in ranch land, 25% in precious metals, 14% in guns and ammunition and 1% in cryptocurrencies. I now own no stocks or mutual funds.  If you do hold any stocks, I recommend that you either put in stop loss orders or reduce your stock holdings to no more than 15% of your net worth, until the end of the upcoming recession. Furthermore, you should hedge by shifting your stock portfolio into some hopefully recession-proof stocks. Two time-proven winners seem to be Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Clorox (CLX).

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”