The European debt crisis has again hit the headlines. This is not surprising for anyone who actually understands the situation. You can’t fix anything by kicking the can down the road. You can’t fix debt by borrowing more money.

The economy in Greece has been deteriorating rapidly in recent years. The GDP is shrinking rapidly each year, citizens essentially outright refuse to pay taxes, and meanwhile the citizens still expect outsized pensions and government services. It’s quite a mess.

So what causes the debt crisis to re-enter our headlines? Well, some elections in Europe where people voted in “anti-austerity” leaders meant that the Greeks were potentially voting to exit the Euro.

What the Greeks don’t understand is that whether they choose Euro-enforced-austerity or inflation by going back to the Drachma, either way, their standard of living goes down dramatically. They will arrive at the same destination either way.

By getting off the Euro, the Greeks will be able to essentially print their own money and thus “solving” their debt crisis. Of course this will unleash big time inflation and hamper their economy even more. Their best course would be to stay with the Euro but make dramatic cuts to the welfare state.

Interestingly, the Greece situation is peanuts compared to Spain and Italy who have much larger economies and thus, economies that will impact the global economy. It’s yet to be determined how this will shake out, but it will undoubtedly bring volatility.

What does this mean for the US markets and the domestic economy? It means volatility in the markets and a potentially Euro-led global recession this year or next. While we’ve enjoyed a cyclical bounce in the markets and the economy due to unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, the effectiveness of these measures is indeed running out, and does nothing to strengthen the long-term viability of the US economy.

My guess is that the US economy enters back into a recession in 2013, the response will be more government intervention, and we’ll get some significant inflation. With gold taking a hit in 2012 thus far, it’s a good time to add to your stash if possible.

One of the first priorities for emergency preparedness is having an emergency water supply. I hope I don’t have to go into too much detail here about the importance of water. The body can lose all of its carbohydrate and fat stores, as well as half of its protein stores, and still survive. Just a 10-20% loss of body weight in water would prove fatal.

The effects of dehydration can be severe, including labored breathing, dizziness, and delirium, potentially turning a difficult situation into a dire one. Natural water sources, such as streams, wells, lakes, etc. cannot be relied upon as they may be contaminated with diseases or toxins and purification methods may not remove them all. After a stable supply of fresh air, a clean water supply is the next most important priority.

How much water to prepare is a personal choice. The bare minimum, as recommended by FEMA, is 1L/person/day or a minimum of 3 days. Other government websites recommend up to 2-3L/person/day. And honestly, considering how cheap (essentially free) water is, and how incredibly important it is, I say err on the side of having too much as opposed to too little.

With more long term water storage, you’ll want more water/person. You can survive on a bit of a deficit for a few days, but don’t want to push it after that. You’ll also need water for washing, hygiene, etc. I suggest 4L/person/day. A 2 week supply would be 53L/person; a month’s supply would be 120L; and a year’s supply, if you’re so inclined and have extra space, would be 1460L/person.

Bottled water is an option, as it’s easier, and can be safe and reliable. It will usually have the shelf life printed on the bottles as well. The plastic used is permeable to hydrocarbon vapours though, so you don’t want to store it near gasoline or pesticides. There are also water storage containers for sale designed for long term storage of water.

You can also use old containers to store your water. You’ll want to avoid anything that’s had milk or juice in it, as the sugars and fats are difficult to fully remove, and bacteria can form that will ruin the water. 2L pop bottles work well for storage. To clean them out, first rinse with soap and water. Then add 1L water and 1 teaspoon of unscented household chlorine beach. Swish around, touching all the inner surface of the bottle. Empty, and rinse thoroughly with water. Fill bottles with tap water. If the city treats the water with chlorine, that should be enough to kill any bacteria remaining. If not, add 2 drops of chlorine bleach. Tightly close the cap, and tada, you have 2L of water stored!

The shelf life of water can vary depending on quality of water, temperature and light exposure. To increase the shelf life, cover the bottles with dark plastic bags in a dark, cool area. Again, keep away from gasoline/kerosene/pesticides to avoid contamination.

Inspect your water every 6 months, for leaks/changes in color, and look to rotate this water as its shelf life will often not last much longer than a year.

Should you find yourself unprepared, or find your emergency water supply runs out, you will need to learn about emergency water filtration and purification.

Good luck and stay prepared!

Article contributed by RamboMoe – read more from him at prepardforthat.com

Fewer areas of investment are as politically charged as energy. This is especially true of the recent years due to the oil spike, new natural gas technologies and headlines like the Keystone Pipeline recently.

Interestingly, natural gas is approaching some serious low levels and the ratio of the price of oil to natural gas is at levels not seen in decades. What is driving this widening spread?

First, the investment community and political community is going on and on about the glut of natural gas supplies being discovered mainly due to new “fracking” technology which enables retrieving gas from rocks that was previously unrecoverable. The problem is that every party involved now seems to be touting this supply with more hype than actual numbers. There seems to be a mini-bubble in the gas exploration and production world, whether it is the producers, the investment bankers or the politicians. All anyone can talk about is how we have 100 years of natural gas now.

I’m not denying the increase in supply or the new technological breakthroughs, but it seems like the hysteria has pushed natural gas prices to unsustainable lows. If the supply discoveries aren’t what people are claiming them to be, and I would guess they aren’t, we should see an increase in natural gas prices over time from current levels.

This is the type of environment that can cause distortions in the market. A politically charged industry. A new technology with some great breakthroughs. Politicians using the “100 year supply” almost as a political talking point. I think buying investments that will be exposed to an increase in the price of natural gas could be a nice play.

Of course, timing is always an issue. The price of natural gas could remain suppressed for some time and could even go lower. I’m not too concerned with that. I prefer these types of investments and am willing to remain patient and let them play out as I expect. We’ll monitor the natural gas thing here and update you from time to time…

One of the themes of this site is idea that “survivalism” is going mainstream. A recent Reuters article talks about this growing movement:

(Reuters) – When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.

“In an instant, anything can happen,” she told Reuters. “And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared.”

Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as “preppers.” Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.

They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.

Preppers, though are, worried about no government.

Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a “survival center,” complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.

“I think this economy is about to fall apart,” she said.

A wide range of vendors market products to preppers, mainly online. They sell everything from water tanks to guns to survival skills.

Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck seems to preach preppers’ message when he tells listeners: “It’s never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.”

“Unfortunately, given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse are increasing year after year,” said author James Wesley Rawles, whose Survival Blog is considered the guiding light of the prepper movement.

A former Army intelligence officer, Rawles has written fiction and non-fiction books on end-of-civilization topics, including “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It,” which is also known as the preppers’ Bible.

“We could see a cascade of higher interest rates, margin calls, stock market collapses, bank runs, currency revaluations, mass street protests, and riots,” he told Reuters. “The worst-case end result would be a Third World War, mass inflation, currency collapses, and long term power grid failures.”

A sense of “suffering and being afraid” is usually at the root of this kind of thinking, according to Cathy Gutierrez, an expert on end-times beliefs at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. Such feelings are not unnatural in a time of economic recession and concerns about a growing national debt, she said.

“With our current dependence on things from the electric grid to the Internet, things that people have absolutely no control over, there is a feeling that a collapse scenario can easily emerge, with a belief that the end is coming, and it is all out of the individual’s control,” she told Reuters.

She compared the major technological developments of the past decade to the Industrial Revolution of the 1830s and 1840s, which led to the growth of the Millerites, the 19th-Century equivalent of the preppers. Followers of charismatic preacher Joseph Miller, many sold everything and gathered in 1844 for what they believed would be the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Many of today’s preppers receive inspiration from the Internet, devouring information posted on websites like that run by attorney Michael T. Snider, who writes The Economic Collapse blog out of his home in northern Idaho.

“Modern preppers are much different from the survivalists of the old days,” he said. “You could be living next door to a prepper and never even know it. Many suburbanites are turning spare rooms into food pantries and are going for survival training on the weekends.”

Like other preppers, Snider is worried about the end of a functioning U.S. economy. He points out that tens of millions of Americans are on food stamps and that many U.S. children are living in poverty.

“Most people have a gut feeling that something has gone terribly wrong, but that doesn’t mean that they understand what is happening,” he said. “A lot of Americans sense that a massive economic storm is coming and they want to be prepared for it.”

So, assuming there is no collapse of society — which the preppers call “uncivilization” — what is the future of the preppers?

Gutierrez said that unlike the Millerites — or followers of radio preacher Harold Camping, who predicted the world would end last year — preppers are not setting a date for the coming destruction. The Mayan Calendar predicts doom this December.

“The minute you set a date, you are courting disconfirmation,” she said.

Tegeler, who recalls being hit by tornadoes and floods in her southwestern Virginia home, said that none of her “survival center” products will go to waste.

“I think it’s silly not to be prepared,” she said. “After all, anything can happen.”

Solar energy has become very popular in recent years. It’s an environmentally friendly option, producing energy without releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It allows for energy independence, producing energy on your own without connecting to the grid and being subject to the price shocks that come with that. And as prices continue to fall, a solar power system becomes a more attractive investment, paying for itself in increasingly smaller time frames.

In a solar power system (also known as a photovoltaic system), power is produced for your home using a 3-part system. Solar panels, usually placed on your roof and facing south in the northern hemisphere, absorb sunlight and convert it into direct current. Mounting systems adjust the angle of your solar panels, to optimize energy absorption. Then an inverter converts the power from direct current to alternating current, making it usable for household appliances.

TYPES OF SYSTEMS

There are two options for the surplus energy produced- a grid connect system, and a standalone system.

A grid connect system works like this- during the day, solar panels produce electricity, supplying all of your energy needs. All surplus energy is fed back into the grid, for which your energy provider pays you. This is commonly known as a Feed in Tariff. During the evening, the grid supplies your household’s energy needs. In this manner households can greatly reduce their energy bills, sometimes even turning a profit when the energy they feed to the grid exceeds the energy they take from it.

A standalone system is designed to be independent of the gird. The surplus electricity generated during the day is fed into storage batteries. The system should be designed so that enough energy is collected during the day to supply the energy needed for the evening. A backup generator is an extremely good idea for such a system, to supply power in periods of very high demand or extended cloudy weather/winter months. Where overall performance is the focus of a grid connect system, in a standalone system daily energy generation to meet your needs is critical.

Check out this article if you’re interested in solar water heaters for your home.

EQUIPMENT DETAILS

Solar Panels

The solar panels (or solar module) are where the energy is produced. The panels are made of silicon, and when they absorb the light from the sun they give off electrons. These electrons are then harnessed and turned into the kind of electricity used in the home.

There are 4 kinds of solar panels available commercially.

Single crystal modules have been around the longest and are the most effective. They are the most efficient (10-17%) but also the most expensive. They are the dotted or octagon shaped panels you would often see on satellites.

Poly/Multicrystalline modules are second in line. They are cheaper than single crystal, but run at 9-14% efficiency. They are the blue colored panels you sometimes see.

String ribbon modules are fairly cheap and are 7-8% efficient.

Thin Film (Amorphous) modules are a thin layer of silicon deposited on top of steel or glass. They are cheap to make, but their efficiency is very low (5-7%). This is what they use in solar powered calculators.

Solar modules are rated by wattage output, more accurately peak watts (STC). These are based on laboratory conditions, and real life results will tend to fall short of these. Plan for an output of 80-90% of the STC.

While summer has longer days and therefore more hours of direct sunlight, PV systems perform more efficiently at lower temperatures. A clear winter day with sun reflecting off of the snow may potentially produce more energy output than a hot summer day.

The best situation is to have your panels face south (In the northern Hemisphere). They can face East/West, but that will lose 10-20% efficiency. Facing north is basically useless.

Mounting System

These adjust the angle of your panels to optimize energy production. You’ll generally want the angle of your panels to be equal the distance you are from the equator is degrees of latitude. For example, New York City is at 40 degrees latitude, so you’d want your panels to face south at a 40 degree angle in NYC.

Inverter

Amplifies one voltage to another, and converts direct current to alternating current, which our homes use. 6-13% of energy is lost. The cooler it is, the more efficiently it operates, so a fan or a heat sink a good idea.

COSTS

A PV system tends to cost a lot up front, and pay for itself over the years. Costs are always changing, and there are a ton of factors involved- how much direct sunlight you receive, the cost of the system, the efficiency of the system, how much energy your household uses, installation costs, etc. It would be silly to give any specific figures, but as a general range systems tend to cost in the $7500-$25,000+ range depending on various factors. An average household would probably be looking at just over $10,000 for having a system installed, as of the time of this writing.

Off-grid systems tend to cost significantly more, because they’re required to produce more power, and have battery systems/back up generators that must be included as well.

There are various incentive programs to make solar energy cheaper. In the US there is a federal tax credit that will rebate 30% of your overall system and installation costs. There are also various programs at the state level (check out this site to see what your state offers: DSIRE: DSIRE Home).

All in all, in most cases it will take 10-20 years for the solar panels to pay for themselves. But considering some are guaranteed for 30+ years, it’s not a bad investment at all.

Good luck and stay prepared!

Thanks to RamboMoe for his contribution. You can read more from RamboMoe at his site, preparedforthat.com

Today, some major websites are protesting the SOPA legislation, intended to regulate the internet in an effort to stop online piracy. It’s yet another example of government placing more burdens on business. This time on internet businesses. For example, should such legislation pass, search engines would have to put checks in place to make sure that any site they link to could not itself have copyrighted information. This is nearly impossible and would result in insane costs for search engines. Remember, not all search engines have Google’s cash.

Regulations are a joke. Every time a financial crisis hits, politicians from both parties respond with regulations “to prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again.” Of course it doesn’t prevent anything. It just increases the cost of doing business of everyone still in business.

Even more screwed up is the fact that the regulations are basically written by the industries they are intended to regulate! Dodd-Frank, the regulation for Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis was basically written by the “experts” of the industry – or, the banks themselves. The politicians can then claim victory in achieving a win for the American people. Complete nonsense.

Regulation doesn’t work. What works is allowing failure in the free market. Couple allowing companies to fail with strict contract laws and fraud laws (which are handled in the courts) and that is all the regulation you need. Allow individuals to regulate companies by voting with their dollars.

Legislation intended to “protect” us from businesses doesn’t end up protecting us and just makes the cost of doing business that much more. Corporations now have armies of attorneys and accountants to make sure they comply with the latest regulations from our genius politicians.

Imagine the boom in the economy if the excess costs of doing business because of politicians’ regulations were taken out of the system. Instead of spending money on compliance, companies could spend money on new equipment, new factories, new people, NEW JOBS.

But, no you won’t see that. Because the politicians don’t want a free economy. They want a controlled economy where the benefits go to themselves and their lobbyist friends.

A new series here at NeoSurvivalist, we’re going to talk about a set of strategies regular Americans like you and me can implement that can help us get our families to a point where we are better prepared for uncertain times and volatility in the financial market, the job market and the overall way of life in this country.

For the first in this series, we’re going to look at a financial strategy. A strategy to cut our expenses in half.

Objectives

1. By cutting your expenses in half, you will be able to allocate a much larger chunk of money into savings, paying down debt, purchasing supplies, etc.
2. By cutting your lifestyle, you better prepare you and your family for uncertain times. Getting used to living on less might be one of the best survival strategies out there!

How To Do It

There’s no easy answer to cutting your expenses in half. For some of you who are barely living on any sort of income, 50% might not be possible. Find a realistic but aggressive target and use that. For the rest of us working decent jobs, there is plenty of room to cut and likely many of us (including myself) can cut expenses in half.

Let’s start with the easiest area to cut. Automobile expenses. It’s crazy how much money Americans spend on cars. Interestingly, almost every family in America, no matter how well off or how broke they are, have two cars. You can easily cut your expenses hugely by simply getting rid of one car. While many object to this as impossible, just think of a scenario where you were forced to live with only one car for a couple months. You’d get creative in how you schedule errands, you would car pool and you would maybe ride with friends and neighbors to various places. In other words, you could make it happen. There you go. Think of how much money you’d save in auto loans, maintenance, insurance, gas, etc. Getting rid of one car is low hanging fruit.

If you’re unwilling to ditch a car completely, consider downsizing dramatically. If you have any auto loans then this is a no brainer. Auto loans are a huge burden to your financial picture. You’re essentially borrowing money to own a rapidly depreciating asset. Get the cheapest, most reliable cars you can own and have no debt on them.

Let’s turn to housing. This isn’t as easy, but can yield even more results. If you own a house, selling your house and moving isn’t a quick and easy task. If you own your house outright, then you’re in good shape. If you are like most Americans and you’re paying a heavy mortgage (over 20% of your take home income) and maybe even owe more than the house is worth, then you might consider getting out from the burden. Find a reasonable, modest apartment or house to rent in a safe part of town. By moving further out, you can likely lower your housing expenses dramatically.

Most of this exercise can be accomplished by looking at the big ticket items like housing and automobiles. You can also make headway by looking at your discretionary items or your lifestyle spending. Going out to eat, spending money on high end brand name clothes, and paying for lots of entertainment can really eat into your income and add up the expenses of every day life. Here are some tips to help you:

• Get rid of cable television – it can be a huge waste of time and most of the programming can be retrieved via the internet.
• Go out to eat once a month – Don’t eliminate this completely as you want to have special times with your friends and family, but limit it. Eat at home and cook large portions that you can eat for multiple meals.
• Borrow books from neighbors and friends rather than purchase the latest hardcover book when it comes out.
• Buy used clothing and shoes from online auction sites or other sites. I know several people who have purchased $200 brand name work shoes off of sites like eBay for a mere $30 in great condition. There are deals out there for everything, you just have to find them.

What To Do With The Extra Money

It’s amazing what options will open up if you implement this strategy and reduce your expenses by 50%. What should you then do with the extra cash?

Clean up your finances – First, clean up your financial picture. Pay off your debt. Work on paying down your mortgage. Have enough cash in the bank to live off of for at least a year. Have enough cash hidden in your home to live off of for at least 3 months. Cash liquidity is a huge asset. Don’t overlook this in light of all the “dollar is dead” talk.

Beef up your investments – Now, there are issues with the dollar, but it’s not going away overnight. I’m very bullish on gold and once you accomplish the tasks above, you should start acquiring some precious metals. I’m much more bullish on gold, but physical silver is good to own as well. Once you have a sufficient stash of precious metals – maybe the equivalent of value of metals as you have cash liquidity (described above), consider building up a stock portfolio. For further suggestions in this area, read the other articles on this site.

Beef up your supplies – Now you can also beef up your supplies as you beef up your investments. Food storage, tools, water storage, etc are great places to allocate money. Consider also investing in some alternative energy sources, but this is a very expensive area that may or may not yield huge returns. Do plenty of research on this first.

In last night’s Republican Presidential debate, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) actually was a topic. While I thought many of the questions sucked last night, kudos to Fox News for at least bringing up the NDAA which I’m sure the majority of Americans have never heard of before. If you didn’t know, the NDAA allows the military and the government to detain Americans who are suspected of being a terrorist.

While I’m very much anti-terrorist, I’m not anti-Constitution and this frankly scares the crap out of me. What happens when a future President changes the definition of terrorist? This is a terrible precedent. Like any legislation, it often starts off in a weak or mild form. Consider the income tax which was something like 5% only on a select few Americans. Of course many years later, its well above that and the income tax has become a bit of a monster. What’s to say the same thing doesn’t happen with the NDAA? Will it be expanded in the years ahead to fit a specific politician’s agenda?

On another note, the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is in the news today because tomorrow (Jan 18th) a number of websites are protesting this legislation. Wikipedia for instance is going dark for the entire day. The issue with the SOPA legislation is that it aims to penalize websites that link out to other websites that may have information or files that infringe on someone’s copyright. If you’re a regular internet user, you know how insane this is. Websites like Google, Facebook and Twitter would have to essentially shut down under such penalties.

I’m not in favor of piracy, but this is a ridiculous burden on internet companies which are pretty important to the business world and the information world.

The Republican Presidential primary races give us a great look into the (sad) reality of the state of America. Currently, the front runner, Mitt Romney is being assaulted by fellow “conservatives” for his previous role as the head of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm. As all venture capital firms typically do, they invest in companies and try to grow them and possibly sell them for a profit.

As any sane businessman knows, profit doesn’t come without risk. When you risk capital to turn a company around, you risk losing it. You risk the company going under.

Since so many Americans fail to grasp these simple economic principles, you can expect that Barack Obama will use these talking points to attack Romney in the upcoming general election – assuming Romney is the Republican candidate.

What many of us didn’t realize is that even the Republican opponents of Romney are using these socialist talking points. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are both attacking Romney for laying off people and shutting companies down while a venture capitalist. Not surprising, Ron Paul is the only willing to defend Romney on these issues (Paul disagrees with Romney on other issues and so do I).

But there’s even a bigger issue here we haven’t mentioned and it goes deeper than even this rhetoric. That issue is that the idea of going into business to make money is frowned upon in today’s world. The media and even a good chunk of society would have you think that people should go into business in order to provide jobs to people and meet the greater good in some other fashion. The idea of going into business to make money or, gasp, get rich, is not something we’re supposed to say anymore.

Indeed, true capitalism is frowned upon. It’s no longer good enough to be an entrepreneur. you have to be a socially conscious entrepreneur now unless you’re just greedy.

Sadly, both political parties embrace this anti-capitalist rhetoric when it suits their political purposes. Only Ron Paul stands alone as someone who goes by principle and avoids the easy hit on his opponent Mitt Romney.

To see how far our mainstream political thought has drafted, look no further than Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his comments on what he calls “radical individualism”.

They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down, keep our regulations low, and that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. That is not how traditional conservatives view the world.

It’s pretty unbelievable that this guy is considered “conservative” these days. Unfortunately, the combination of ignorance and apathy in this country has made this mainstream political thought – where even the “small government” politicians want big government.