Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 U.S. public and private debt.  (See the Troubling Trends section.)

Precious Metals

First off, here is a headline from Monday: Surging US Dollar Sinks Gold And Silver Prices

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Gold Could Face ‘Further Punishment’ – FXTM.  JWR Says: “Buy on the dips.”

Stocks:

Morningstar reported on Tuesday: “Political troubles in Spain, after the weekend saw violent clashes over the Catalonia referendum, took a dent out of the main Ibex index, which was down over 1% at 10.527.”

Commodities:

The price of crude oil seems to have stabilized around $50 per barrel.  This is bad news for OPEC.  And it is not reassuring to the Bakken shale oil producers. (Since $50 is right around break-even for them.)

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After a year in the doldrums, the price of nickel ore is back up to where it was in October of 2016. Though only half of where it was at the odd 2014 price spike, nickel is still attracting plenty of investors.  Small investors can of course hedge by stockpiling U.S. 5 Cent Pieces–still available at face value.

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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 alternatives to CARB-Complaint Gas Cans. (See the Gear section. below.)

Books:

Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel, by William Koenig

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Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide: Food, Shelter, Security, Off-the-Grid Power and More Life-Saving Strategies for Self-Sufficient Living

 

Movies and Television:

The Man in the High Castle. Two full seasons are now available free for Amazon Prime members. Some scenes of totalitarian cruelty are disturbing, so this series is definitely not for kids!  Not available on DVD

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Life Off Grid — A 2016 Canadian documentary film.  Available on DVD or via free download for Amazon Prime members.

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Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – October 03, 2017

October, 3, 2014 is the 21st anniversary of the Mogadishu, Somalia raid. The 18 Americans killed were: MSG Gary Gordon, 1st SFOD-D SFC Randy Shughart, 1st SFOD-D SSG Daniel Busch, 1st SFOD-D SFC Earl Fillmore, 1st SFOD-D MSG Timothy Martin, 1st SFOD-D CPL Jamie Smith, 3/75 Ranger SPC James Cavaco, 3/75 Ranger SGT Casey Joyce, 3/75 Ranger PFC Richard Kowaleski, 3/75 Ranger SGT Dominic Pilla, 3/75 Ranger SGT Lorenzo Ruis, 3/75 Ranger SSG William Cleveland, Jr. 160th SOAR SSG Thomas Field, 160th SOAR CW4 Raymond Frank, 160th SOARD CW3 Clifton Wolcott, 160th SOAR CW2 Donovan Briley, 160th SOAR SGT Cornell Houston, 10th MTN DIV PFC James Martin, 10th MTN DIV

The Somalis killed were unnamed and un-numbered, but estimates range from 315 to 2,000 KIAs.

The events of October 3, 1993 were memorialized in the movie Black Hawk Down.

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The Sunday night tragedy in Las Vegas (with at least 59 dead and more than 525 wounded and injured in the panic to escape) is already being used as justification by the Democrats, in calling for additional civilian disarmament laws. But the sad truth is that the law against murder didn’t stop the killer. Nor did laws severely restricting machine-guns. (Those restrictions—including a $200 Federal transfer tax and background checks–have been in the Federal code since1934.) Less than 1/100th of 1% of firearms in the 50 states are registered machineguns. I really doubt that the gun(s) used in this horrific terror incident were Federally registered. No, odds are that at least one was an illegally converted gun. The mass murderer’s motives are not yet clear. But it has been reported that there was Antifa literature found in his hotel room. Please pray for the families of those killed and for the many who were injured and traumatized. – JWR

[UPDATE: Photos just released show an AR-10 and a M4gery equipped with a Slidefire (‘bump-firing”) stock and with a 60-round Surefire magazine inserted. But that doesn’t  match the audio that was released earlier–that has a perfectly-spaced cyclic rate of fire in long strings in excess of 70 rounds. It would take a lot of practice to get a perfect cyclic strings of fire of such extended length when using a Slidefire stock. (Their strings of fire tend to be sporadic.) I still suspect that at least one of the rifles used was illegally converted to full auto. And for strings of that length, there was probably one or more Surefire 100-round or Beta 100-round C-MAG magazines used–or clones thereof.]

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Sweet Spot For the 21st Century With Calibers Beating .308- Part 1, by Alpine Evader

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This week I finished my five-year analysis on five intermediate range cartridges. I did an overview of semi-auto rifle logistics in six calibers. Scope of operations must support mounted vehicle extraction (Getting Out of Dodge/Bugout). Hostage recovery (Close Quarter Combat) and  a more typical three to four-person Fire Team foot patrol/maneuver element 6,000 feet above sea level must also be supported. We train for pain. But we are smart, hairless apes/intelligently designed, free-thinking primates, so we plan-do-check-act (or use the OODA Loop) wisely.

“Amateurs study tactics,” goes an old saying, “armchair generals study strategy, but professionals study logistics.”

The Sweet Spot That Wins Wars

If you add physiology and endurance athleticism to those fields, you get the fusion of high altitude light infantry– the sweet spot that wins wars.

Have you heard of this saying?

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

I would hope you’ve heard of this saying. It’s from Luke 12:48 (NIV). It’s why we integrated into a (mountain) community in our philosophy, rather than hunkering down in the virtual middle of nowhere. Our strategy is one of interlocking Mutual Assistance Group arrangements.

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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 the remoteness of the Redoubt. (See the The American Redoubt in the News section.)

Idaho

Elderly woman trapped when house catches fire after police shoot at intruder

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Quality of Idaho wheat crop ‘superb’ this year

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2A Armament is a company worthy of mention. Located in Boise, Idaho, they are best known for their precision Regulated AR bolt carriers. But they also make a wide range of other fine parts for ARs. Be sure to check out their web site.

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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”. Our Hearts and prayers go out to the victims of Las Vegas, Nevada Shooting.

Nevada Shooting

In the deadliest mass shooting incident in modern U.S. history, a gunman has killed at least 59 people and injured 500+ others. The shooter obtained a 32nd floor room facing an outdoor venue at a concert and continued firing until police entered the room and killed him. No official motive has been released yet. Our thoughts and prayers go with the victims, but this also stands as a warning as to the dangers of large congregations of people.

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Never one to let a good emergency go to waste, Hillary Clinton (among others) jumped right on the anti-gun bandwagon claiming a suppressor would have made things much worse and blaming the NRA. Of course, simple physics dictates that a “suppressor” would not have helped the shooter at all. But why let facts get in the way?

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Beretta APX 9mm Handgun, by Pat Cascio

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The new Beretta APX 9mm handgun is a hot seller, and it’s the subject of our review in this article. No other handgun has fit my hand better than the grand old Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol, and I’m not alone in this feeling, either. I’ve heard the same thing over and over again from folks who own a Hi-Power. Well, all of that changed the moment I picked-up the new Beretta APX 9mm handgun. I have never, and I mean never, had a handgun feel so good in my hand, no exceptions! I just had to get that out of the way at the onset of this review.

SurvivalBlog First to Review U.S. Military Adopted SIG Sauer P320 9mm

As many readers know, the U.S. Army, and now all the other military services, have adopted the SIG Sauer P320 9mm handgun. SurvivalBlog was the first to review this outstanding handgun. We often get the jump on others with new product reviews. I own the SIG P320 Compact model and love it. The competition for a new U.S. military service handgun had many competitors. However, in the end, the SIG was the winner. Needless to say, there were sour grapes from some other competitors, and the usual lawsuits were filed, though they have been dismissed. Beretta modified their outstanding current military issue handgun and called it the Model 93A3. I don’t understand Beretta’s thinking. It really wasn’t a “modular” handgun, and that is what the U.S. Army was looking for. Though there’s nothing wrong with the new Model 93A3.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 re-emergence of synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) derivatives. (See the Derivatives section.)

Precious Metals

First off,  there is this at Zero Hedge: Gold Demand Surges As Price Suffers Worst Month Since November. JWR’s Comment: But keep in mind that Gold is still up 12% for the year to date.

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For those of you who like to track metals prices measured in grams and quoted in Euros, I recommend the Legor web site.  Andf if you want to toggle between Troy ounces and gramsa nd toggle between different currencies, I recommend the GoldPrice.org site, based in Switzerland.

Stocks:

Stock Market And Economic Outlook For Q4 2017. JWR’s Comment: I concur. Loose credit is the driver of this boom. It can definitely continue, but not indefinitely.

Commodities:

What’s next for industrial metals after a third-quarter rally?

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Essential Survival Tips From A Hurricane Irma Survivor, by C.S.

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At the time I began writing this, Hurricane Irma had hit only eight days earlier. From it and other hurricane experiences, I have learned some valuable lessons. The first is, use your head. No, do not use it to hammer the shutters down. What I mean is, use some common sense.

Demonstrating a Lack of Reasoning

Here are some things that happened here in South Florida that demonstrated a lack of reasoning:

  • A guy burned down his house because he wasn’t careful while pouring gas in his generator that was running. The spillage later caught on fire, torching his entire hacienda.
  • My girlfriend forgot to take a shower right before the hurricane hit. On the fifth day without water or a bath, she sprayed Febreze all over her body. She’s now waiting for recovery from the repercussions of that move.
  • A guy waited until the last minute to put his hurricane shutters up on the second floor. The wind gusts blew over the ladder, and he died.
  • People spent lots of money on huge amounts of bottled water and then discovered they had no food.
  • Many people stayed in the Keys. They stayed even after they were ordered to evacuate.
  • I saw this guy on the news looking for shells in the Tampa Bay, where the water had just been sucked out to sea.

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