Monthly Archives: July 2008

Episode-17- A Libertarian View of our Current Government and Economy

Posted on July 18, 2008 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments
A Libertarian View of our Current Government and Economy [ 24:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Note – The date I used in the podcast for “Tax Freedom Day” was April 18th, 2008 the correct date is April 23rd, 2008, that of course just makes it all worse.

Today’s podcast was going to be about how to select a good financial adviser that doesn’t just “follow the herd” but some how I ended up on a rant about taxation, the constitution and the heavy hand of government.  We also discuss

  • How McCain supporters are not really happy with their guy
  • How Obama supporters are in the same boat
  • The real reason for America’s lead in the world and how we are losing it
  • The cost today of past racism and slavery from a new angle
  • How dangerous The Constitution
  • The Bill of Rights doesn’t give you rights it protects them
  • The Bill of Rights doesn’t just apply to Americans
  • It taxation like being sent to a work camp for 5 months a year, would that actually be better
  • Social security checks that show up but buy nothing
  • The continued effects of false inflation of the M3 Money Supply
  • The Government is nothing but a “spoiled brat”
  • The “Constitution Test”
  • The continued effect of utilizing class warfare by the elected elite

Remember this show is a discussion not a lecture.  Comment, question and make suggestions.

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Episode-16- Banks Collapse, More on Nuclear Power and Jim Cramer Get’s One Right

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Modern Survival| 5 Comments
Banks Collapse, More on Nuclear Power and Jim Cramer Gets One Right [ 32:17 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s show is another free for all with quite a few subjects, today we discuss..

  • The continued drop in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock
  • Steve Forbes Suggestion to break up and privatize Fannie and Freddie
  • Jim Cramer is right for a change, kill ethanol and mandate natural gas?
  • My personal ways I conserve energy in the home
  • The greed of modern cities and oppressive property taxation
  • Your gas is being subsidized by over charging the airlines
  • The survival podcast grows to 100 plus listeners in less then 25 days!

Remember to comment on episodes, ask questions or suggest topics.

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Episode-15- The Lies of Ethanol and Biofuel

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Modern Survival| 6 Comments
The Lies of Ethanol and Biofuel [ 30:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Note - There is an error in today’s podcast. When I stated that it took 400 pounds of corn to make a gallon of ethanol that was a mistake. What I meant to say was 400 pounds of corn to produce 25 gallons or one tank of gas.

Today we will start off with a quick look at two financial stories that are being spun as “positive”.

First we will look at the decision by the Federal Reserve to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and how once again the M3 Money supply will be inflated further devaluing the dollar.

Second a few quick comments on the decision by InBev (a Belgium company) to buy Anheuser-Busch for 52 Billion Dollars. Let’s ask if this is just one of the first examples of the weak dollar resulting in foreign take overs of profitable American companies.

Moving on to the main topic of todays show we will cover a major hot topic in the energy sector, the production of Corn Based ethanol. We will discuss some of the chief problems with ethanol such as..

  • Ethanol can’t be pumped in pipelines
  • You loose energy in ethanol production
  • It would take 97% of U.S. land to fully provide for our annual fuel consumption
  • Corn is resource intensive
  • The escalation pricing in the global food market
  • It takes 11 acres of land to produce enough corn for one average American vehicle

Resources for this Podcast

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Episode-14- Troubled Times and a Troubled Economy

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Modern Survival| 1 Comment
Troubled Times and a Troubled Economy [ 31:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This podcast is kind of a recap of a lot of what we have discussed already. Hear my thoughts on Toyota and GM shutting down plants and some other things. We will discuss..

  • Fuel Efficiency and Mopeds
  • Should we listen to “stay the course” when it comes to investing
  • Adjusting to a new lifestyle without “sacrifice”
  • A new form of “Transportation Taxation”
  • Time based and lane based toll charges are coming
  • The real movement toward self sufficiency
  • Small scale farming coming to suburbia
  • The Texas “Natural Gas Boom”
  • The nervous laughter of reporters discussing “growing your own food”
  • In 1929 it was a run on the banks, today it could be a run on the market
  • The effect of Baby Boomers moving money from stock to “safer investments”

Resources for this Podcast

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Episode-13- The Individual Benifits of Green Energy

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Modern Survival| 3 Comments
The Individual Benifits of Green Energy [ 36:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Honestly I think that people who believe that buying a hybrid car and some carbon offsets, is “saving the planet” are deluding themselves. The way to get people to use alternative energy (such as solar) and conserve electricity is to champion the benifits to the individual. Rather then complex and expensive alternatives individuals can take some simple energy independence steps that put real money back into the family budget and reduce dependence at the same time.

The side effect is a benefit to environmentalism but we need to stay in touch with reality. People in general do what directly is beneficial to them when they understand the benefit. Contrairy to the Al Gore speal the oceans won’t be covering the city of New York any time in the next 1000 years unless there is a tsunami (which may occur).

Still just because many on the fringe of environmentalism are alarmists doesn’t mean that we should not be trying to minimize pollution, resource consumption, energy dependence and the personal expense of energy use. This podcast covers some practical and economical things people can do to make more efficient use of electricity and incorporate things like solar energy in an economically beneficial way.

Also is my first “2008 One Minute Presidential Race Rant” at the end. Discussing McCain’s double stance on Social Security and Obama’s plea that he bail Hillary out of the consequences of her stupid decision to continue to spend money like water even when her campaign was clearly lost. Are these two really the best we could come up with?

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Episode-12- What is the M3 Money Supply and What Does it Mean to You?

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Modern Survival| 3 Comments
What is the M3 Money Supply and What Does it Mean to You? [ 33:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So just what is the M3 Money Supply? It is the value of all U.S. Dollars in Circulation. The M Factors of US currency are broken down as follows,

  • M0: M0 (M-zero) is the most liquid measure of the money supply. It only includes cash or assets that could quickly be converted into currency. This measure is known as narrow money because it is the smallest measure of the money supply.
  • M1: M1 is M0 + checking accounts. This is used as a measurement for economists trying to quantify the amount of money in circulation.
  • M2: M2 is M1 + small time deposits (less than $100,000), savings deposits, and non-institutional money-market funds.
  • M3: M3 is M2 + all large scale deposits (over $100,000), institutional money-market funds, short-term repurchase agreements, along with other larger liquid assets. The broadest measure of money; it is used by economists to estimate the entire supply of money within an economy.

Now it just so happens that the Federal Reserve stopped publishing the U.S. M3 numbers back in 2006, to, “save money and because the M3 number doesn’t really tell you anything that the M2 number doesn’t.”

I am sorry but this is a huge cop out.

  1. You can bet that the Fed knows the M3 number, publishing it is releasing a number, not much can be saved by not publishing it, the work to calculate the M3 Supply is still being done.
  2. Large scale deposits (over $100,000) and institutional money-market funds are exactly where money pumped into the system by the Federal Reserve actually go! Not publishing this number has freed the Fed to pump in money at will and keep the average person ignorant to what is going on.

Listen to this edition of The Survival Podcast and learn

  1. How pumping in money to our economy is like splitting a stock with out giving new shares to those who own it. Effectively cutting the value of the dollar by 32% in the last 27 months that M3 has not been published.
  2. How the consumer price index has been replaced with “core inflation” so that our current inflation rates ignore two of your biggest expenses, ENERGY and FOOD!
  3. How the Fed’s Solution to loan and print even more money is sending us on a road to disaster most people can’t even fathom.
  4. Why the cost of everything that people need to survive and work in the U.S. is going up but we are being told that inflation is “flat”.

In short the rate of inflation is ignoring the decline of the dollar, the increase in the cost of food and the increase in the cost of gas and other energy products to falsely and temporally prop up the declining U.S. and Global Economies.

Here are some of the resources I used for data for this podcast

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Episode-11- Can Socialism and Liberty Coexist?

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Modern Survival| 14 Comments
Can Socialism and Liberty Coexist? - Understanding Socialist Tendencies [ 27:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How could something like liberty coexist with socialism?  Personally I believe if enforced and mandated by the state it can’t.  Yet a recent commenter on one of my podcasts who is an admitted socialist from Canada got me asking the question…

If socialism is so bad, why do billions of people across the globe choose it?

The answer is something I think we need to consider as we unfortunately watch the U.S. slip further into the socialist world.

  • Is it possible that humans are socialist at heart?
  • Is socialism is useful and even good on some levels?
  • Can any form of liberty coexist with any form of socialism?
  • Where Native Americans socialists and did it work well for them?
  • Is there such a thing as “private sector socialism?
  • Are Amish, Mennonite and similar societies micro socialist societies?
  • What can a kindergarten classroom teach us about socialism?

Don’t worry I am still a Libertarian and I am totally opposed to Socialism yet these questions provoke some very interesting thoughts.

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Episode-10- 15 No Risk Survival Tactics

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Modern Survival| 1 Comment
15 No Risk Survival Tactics Anyone Can Impliment [ 28:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I believe many people shy away from becoming more self sufficient and prepared for uncertain times because they are under the impression that survivalism and survivalists are by nature radical and part of a fringe movement. They tend to see any planning for disaster or emergency preparedness as something best left to militia members or members of the “tin foil hat brigade”. Nothing could be further from the truth, modern survivalism and tactics such as survival gardening are mostly just a set of smart ways to live your live, save and invest your money and stay informed about risks.

This podcast evaluates 15 common survival tactics that

  • Are positive ways to live even if nothing ever goes wrong
  • Will provide you insurance against uncertain times
  • Will improve your lifestyle and possibly your retirement
  • Are easy to implement
  • Can be done by anyone
  • And most importantly have no downside or risk regardless of what does or does not occur

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Episode-9- The Three Sisters Garden – The Orginal Survival Garden

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments
The Three Sisters Garden - The Orginal Survival Garden [ 31:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The “three sisters garden” was originally developed by the native people of North America.  This garden may indeed be “The Original Survival Garden” because it was the main means of substinance for the majority of native North American People.

A Three Sisters Garden is a fairly simple proposition to plant.  Basically the three sisters garden is laid out as follows,

  • Build a round bed slightly hilled about 4-8 feet in diameter
  • For the first year make sure to add some high nitrogen fertilizer for the corn
  • Plant 6-8 corn plants in a circle about 6-8 inches apart
  • Give the corn plants about 2-3 weeks to begin growing
  • Now plant 12-14 pole bean plants about 6 inches outside of your corn plants
  • Now after the beans get started plant about 6-7 squash plants about 12-15 inches out side of your beans.
  • As the plants grow encourage the pole beans to climb up the corn stalks and the squash vines to cover the ground between your corn and beans

The result is a highly productive symbiotic garden.  The beans produce nitrogen for the corn and the corn allows the beans a natural trellis and the squash shades the ground and conserves water.

In this podcast we go beyond the basics with ideas for more variety, staging harvests and unique varieties of corn, squash and beans.

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Episode-8- 15 Misconceptions About Surviving Disasters and Understanding Disaster Threats

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Modern Survival| Comments Off
15 Misconceptions About Surviving and Survival Threats [ 30:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This edition of the survival podcast covers 15 commonly held misconceptions that many survivalists have about how they will be able to survive in a post crash economy or post global disaster situation along with some common misconceptions about what the actual threats really are. Such as…

  • Do you think you will just hunt, fish and forage for all your food needs?
  • Do you think gardening alone will be enough to provide for your needs?
  • Do you think you will be able to make it completely alone?
  • Do you think the “disaster” will be a quick occurrence or a slow spiral?
  • Do you think oil needs to completely “run out” before a complete and total financial collapse results?

These and other misconceptions are broken down and explored during this edition of the Survival Podcast

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