Continue reading“Recipe of the Week: All-Purpose Barbecue Sauce, by B.T.”
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 American retail giant Walmart.
Kitco News Gold Survey: Dollar’s Pain To Mean Gold’s Gain
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Rich Dad Author Says The Next Financial Crash Will be Like an “Avalanche”. Kiyosaki is predicting huge losses and a “half off sale” for stocks. For many years he has suggested gold as a safe haven.
Next, over at MarketWatch: This epic stock-market rally will get a second wind from stellar earnings
“The structure of the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights proves that the right to bear arms is an individual right, rather than a collective one. The collective rights’ idea that the Second Amendment can only be viewed in terms of state or federal power “ignores the implication that might be drawn from the Second, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments: the citizenry itself can be viewed as an important third component of republican governance as far as it stands ready to defend republican liberty against the depredations of the other two structures, however futile that might appear as a practical matter.” – Sanford Levinson, The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 651 (1989).
On January 14th, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Second Treaty of Paris, ending the War for Independence. In the document, which was known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America.
2018 has just begun. What will a new year bring for the gold market?
The current economic expansion is surprisingly durable, as it has already lasted more than 100 months. It worries many investors who are afraid of the upcoming recessions. Surely, there are many reasons to worry, and the recession will eventually come. But we are not at this point yet. The current expansion is unusually long, but it is exceptionally sluggish. This year we expect that the global economic growth will continue. Actually, it may even accelerate and become more synchronized among countries. Moreover, with relatively strong business momentum, the labor markets in advanced economies should strengthen further. And although inflation is likely to rise, it will remain low. Hence, the macroeconomic outlook will remain unpleasant for the gold market, as the yellow metal prefers periods of economic turmoil or stagnation.
The Fed will continue its gradual tightening. In 2017, the U.S. central bank lifted interest rates three times. We expect similar number of hikes this year. The unwind of the Fed’s enormous balance sheet would withdraw some liquidity from the market, exerting an additional tightening effect for the financial conditions. Moreover, Jerome Powell will replace Janet Yellen as the Fed’s Chair. And we will also see a few other significant personal changes at the U.S. central bank. We predict, thus, that the FOMC will be more hawkish in 2018 than in 2017. The Committee will include more hawks (due to the normal rotation among the regional Fed Presidents, Trump’s nomination to the Board of Governors), but also all the members could vote in a more hawkish way, given the strong economic momentum. A lot will depend on inflationary dynamics, but we believe that a modest hawkish shift is likely this year. Gold reacts more to the real interest rates, not to the federal funds rate, but the Fed’s hawkish rhetoric should be a headwind for the yellow metal.
Continue reading“Guest Article: Gold Market Themes for 2018, by Arkadiusz Sieroń”
You have a profile and Amazon has been getting more aggressive of late. I noted an old pic from before they linked every social media organization and gave facebook-level creepy info so I deleted everything and reduced my name to something unrelatable.
Use the Amazon Link from SurvivalBlog, but make sure your profile isn’t leaking too much info. (please do review with a stripped profile since it helps everyone to know which products work) – T.Z.
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 Black Death plague continues in Africa with a new variant.
Several SurvivalBlog readers sent in this huge mistake: A Civil Defense employee in Hawaii accidentally triggered a ballistic missile warning. The alert was issued by cell phone test yesterday morning and sparked terror as thousands fled to bomb shelters. The employee wasn’t even aware that he has issued the alert til his own phone notified him. It took 38 minutes for a correction to be issued by the same alert system. While many are upset by the alert, considering the world events in the Pacific region right now, this was probably a good thing. At least people now know how poorly prepared they are. Will they pay attention?
Reader P.S. sent in this article from the New York Times on how even liberal, left-leaning countries have limits on what they will tolerate in terms of illegal immigration. There is a loophole in the U.S. – Canadian treaty that allows people who entered the U.S. illegally to claim refugee status in Canada. Many who have learned that their U.S. status is about to be rescinded have attempted to take advantage of this. However, immigration officials in Canada are warning them, stating that it is stretching the immigration system to a breaking point and risks stoking a potential backlash.
“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Romans 9:14-18 (KJV)
This is the birthday of actor and shooter Robert Stack (1919 -2003.)
I have generally side-stepped the issue of immigration in SurvivalBlog, from the outset. Back in 2006, I explained why. But recent events have pushed this issue to the forefront of the national debate. At this juncture, I’d like to make my position clear, even at the risk of perturbing some of my readers. I can now see that immigration is not just a political issue or a policy issue. Rather, it is a matter of national survival.
Even before Donald J. Trump (DJT) was seated as U.S. president, there was huge disagreement on his planned immigration and border security policies. There are deep differences in the world views of American liberals and conservatives. Liberals tend to favor open borders and almost unlimited immigration. In contrast, conservatives favor secure borders and quite limited immigration. The failing of most liberals is that they don’t look at the illegal immigration problem from a multi-generational viewpoint, and they fail to see the full implications of the macro scale changes to our demographics.
To fully understand this complex issue, it is apropos to step back and look at the historical context of our nation’s immigration policies, starting in the 18th century.
Continue reading“A Great Wall: On Border Controls, Immigration, and National Survival”
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!
Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,
We’ve had another quiet week, here at the Rawles Ranch. Most of our energy has been directed at homeschooling and Bible study. Our #1 Daughter also got some more experience with baking. The incremental firewood and hay hauling is continuing, per our winter routine. Ditto for stock tank filling and stock tank heater rotation. It is a mundane routine, but a welcome opportunity to get outdoors and check on our livestock. Avalanche Lily took advantage of one break in the weather to clean out our poultry shed. She also made a Costco run, to top off our supplies of pet food and fresh vegetables.
Our winter greenhouse crop has survived, but sprouting and growth has been slow. We are hoping the produce from these beds will give a “jump start” on our garden, this year.
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 Puerto Rico update gives us an idea of what most urban areas will be like during the beginning phases of a societal collapse.
A project Veritas video shows former Twitter employees discussing “Shadow Banning” users. This is the policy where the platform allows those who are in control to arbitrarily apply censorship to the platform. Those users who have ideals contrary to the censors get their accounts locked and/or banned or have tweets removed. Conservative concepts regularly get flagged yet left-leaning content sails through unchecked. Thanks to D.B. for the link.
While we are on the subject of social media, it’s worth noting that Facebook is getting in on the act. The Portal is a 15 inch screen with a wide angle camera that has facial recognition and microphones to allow voice control. It’s being pitched as a way for family and friends to stay in contact with each other through video chatting and other social features. The units are planned to ship later this year and I’m wondering how many who purchase one will have read George Orwell’s 1984 (where telescreens were used to closely monitor and repress citizens.) Thanks to DSV for the link.
“If those who wrote and ratified the 14th Amendment had imagined laws restricting immigration – and had anticipated huge waves of illegal immigration – is it reasonable to presume they would have wanted to provide the reward of citizenship to the children of the violators of those laws? Surely not.” – George Will
On January 12, 1888, the “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” killed 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours. There were many instances of teachers keeping or rescuing children who would have been caught in the storm while walking home.
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Any reader in Eastern Washington, northern Idaho, or northwest Montana who is looking for a loyal watchdog, take note: John Adrain (of BedBunker fame) has a three year old male German Shepherd that is in need of a new home. This dog is very loyal and protective. He really needs a home on acreage in the country, to match his disposition. If you can provide such a home, you can contact John at: (214) 551-9483. This dog is available free of charge, but only to the right home. – JWR
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This has been another entry for Round 74 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
Round 74 ends on January 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.
In part one of this article series, we looked at the reason for the three skills– planning, training, and exercising– for bugging out. This process is based on tried and true emergency management principles that are currently being used by both public and private institutions all across the nation. The benefit of this plan, train, exercise process is that it allows you and your group to take an all-hazards approach to preparing for a plethora of disasters and emergencies.
Yesterday, we completed the planning portion and just barely began the training portion of the process with “training everyone to use your bug out supplies/equipment”. Let’s continue with the various parts of training.
Radios can be the make or break component in your bug out process, and so like other pieces of equipment your group must be well versed in how to use them. Simple two-way radios are easy to use because they only rely on several channels; however, they are severely limited in their operating distances. Ham radio on the other hand can be setup to talk with individuals from all over the world, but this requires a much more in-depth understanding of their proper use as well as a license in order to legally operate.
Continue reading“Planning, Training, and Exercising for “Bug Out”- Part 2, by Mr. E”
