Hurricane Sandy: 5 Family Survival Lessons Learned

Published: Fri, 11/16/12

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In This Issue:

Hurricane Sandy: 5 Family Survival Lessons Learned The Editors
Obamacare is Still Vulnerable By Richard C. Young
How Your Family Survives Obama’s Big Government By E.J. Smith
David Axelrod: “Obama reelected in a significant way.” The Editors
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) The Editors
What I learned at Cato Club Naples 14 November By Richard C. Young

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To improve diversification and better cover the global equity landscape, we are expanding the number of stocks in RCs portfolios. Since the correlation among stocks continues to fluctuate, we have decided to move away from a fixed number of positions and instead buy no fewer than 40 stocks. To find out the names of some of the new stocks in the program, click here for the October 2012 client letter.

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Hurricane Sandy: 5 Family Survival Lessons Learned

The devastation along the New Jersey, New York and Connecticut coastlines is terrifying. Sandy targeted the nation’s most densely populated area and ravaged its infrastructure. And yet it could have been even worse if Sandy had been a category 5 hurricane.

So what did survivalists learn from Sandy? Here are our top five takeaways from the storm. If you had hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst, this may be just reinforcement for you. But if you haven’t been thinking about preparation, don’t end up like those in Sandy’s wake. Read these five lessons and get your family prepared.

1) Be armed. After Hurricane Katrina created mass looting and pillaging in New Orleans, this should have been a no brainer for people in densely populated areas. When the power goes out, phone service goes dead, and the mobs let loose, it’s just you and your family to fight for what’s yours. If you’re not armed, you’re a victim. Ask those who have had their doors bashed in during the night and their homes looted after Sandy hit. How about those who got mugged travelling down darkened stairwells because the electrically powered locks that normally prevent outsiders from coming into high-rises failed? You are the only one who can protect your family. The Wall Street Journal reports that employees from FTI Consulting had to walk up 32 flights of stairs to retrieve valuable computer equipment from their powerless office. Stairweel bandits could have met them at any turn. Many buildings are still out of power because they can’t legally pump the contaminated water from their basements.

2) Gasoline. A lot of stories in the news about Sandy have mentioned that those who were smart enough to have a generator on hand were standing in line waiting with the helpless masses for gasoline. Survival is much like a chess game. You have to think multiple steps ahead. Buying a generator is pushing out the first pawn. Remembering to have enough gasoline to run it is your next move. To win the game, you’ll need to have extra spark plugs, air filters, extension cords and oil. And do yourself a favor. Make sure your portable generator has a wheel kit so you’re not breaking your back by dragging it around on the ground. And chain up your generator if you’re in a populated area. You don’t want someone walking away with it in the middle of the night. Refer back to number 1 here.

3) Water. Another no brainer. Yet for New Yorkers filling water pails from fire hydrants and then lugging them up ten stories in the dark, this is a sad lesson learned. Get a plastic 55 gallon drum. Put it in your basement or a closet and fill it with water. Get a simple pump so you can get your water out to drink, flush your toilet, or cook some food. WARNING: Don’t drink flood water! There are many reports of bacteria-laden floodwater in Sandy’s path. Giardia and dysentery are no fun, especially when you’re facing them alone and cold.

4) Clothing. Officials are putting out a call for underwear because Staten Island residents have been forced to wear the same pair for over a week. Many of the island’s residents lost everything but the clothes on their backs. Even if you neglect to make a bug-out bag, at least put a spare change of clothes in your car for each of your family members. This can come in handy even in smaller disasters, like an unexpected snowstorm that forces you to stay away from home for the night. Make sure these are rugged outdoor clothes, not dainty black-tie garb.

5) Escape plan. Perhaps the most important disaster preparation you can complete is having an escape plan. Those in New York and New Jersey who took the brunt of the storm were warned to evacuate. Many ignored the warning because they had nowhere to go, no way to get there, or were not smart enough to leave. Find an evacuation point. Make sure you have transportation, possibly with a friend or family member if you don’t have a car. Then map out the route on paper. Your 4G LTE i-whatever isn’t going to be worth much if its battery is dead, if it’s soaked with water, or if the cell towers are down. A paper map in an airtight plastic bag will always be right where you left it in your car’s glove compartment. Businesses need a plan too. The Wall Street Journal reports that Jason Richelson of ShopKeep is considering a second location outside of New York City in North Carolina or Florida. At the very least you should consider offsite backups of your company’s data.

If you’re asking if we are trying to scare you, the answer is an emphatic yes. We don’t want you or your family to suffer through the cold, fear, pain and hunger that face victims of Sandy tonight. Simple preparations will help ensure that you never face that situation. Get started today.

Click here for information about donating supplies and money to Sandy’s victims, or volunteering your time to help them.

>> read more

Obamacare is Still Vulnerable

States have until November 16 to decide if they will create an Obamacare health exchange. The correct answer, of course, is no. Read on for all the Obamacare details from America’s expert.

“President Obama has won reelection, and his administration has asked state officials to decide by Friday, November 16, whether their state will create one of Obamacare’s health-insurance “exchanges.” States also have to decide whether to implement the law’s massive expansion of Medicaid. The correct answer to both questions remains a resounding no.

State-created exchanges mean higher taxes, fewer jobs, and less protection of religious freedom. States are better off defaulting to a federal exchange. The Medicaid expansion is likewise too costly and risky a proposition. Republican Governors Association chairman Bob McDonnell (R.,Va.) agrees, and has announced that Virginia will implement neither provision.”-Michael F. Cannon

Read the full article here: Obamacare is Still Vulnerable, Michael F. Cannon, National Review

Self-reliance is alive and well. That’s the silver lining in last Tuesday’s election.

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute writes, “Asked if government does too much or should do more, exit polls showed that voters said ‘too much’ by a margin of 51 percent to 44. Voters certainly seem receptive to a small-government message, at least in some respects, even when what appears to be somewhat more liberal and Democratic electorate is being polled,” (full disclosure: Becky and I are Cato Institute benefactors). If anything, self-reliance was reawakened last Tuesday.

Self-reliance is what my kids’ teachers stress at parent-teacher conferences. They tell Becky and me to let them struggle through their homework on their own. The gift they receive is personal achievement. The gift to us is tears and frustration and a lot of pushback for being mean and not helping. But they need to learn to rely on themselves for the answers to their problems.

Because sometimes there won’t be any help. Where was all the help so many needed after Hurricane Sandy?

I was speaking with a client in the midst of the storm. After the storm, she left her apartment building because she could not handle 15 flights of stairs in the dark with her two dogs—one of whom is afraid of the dark. She had no running water, couldn’t flush the toilets, and couldn’t find a hotel that would take her dogs.

What do you do with your pets in a crisis in a city? When she finally found a hotel that allowed dogs, she struggled with the anxiety of being displaced again. Her room was already reserved for the marathoners coming to New York, and she would have been evicted if the race had gone on. No one was helping her. It was self-reliance that got her through a most difficult situation, both emotionally and physically. Finally, Mayor Bloomberg realized it was madness to hold the race.

The message is loud and clear. You need to be self-reliant. Government is incapable of caring for everyone. That’s why the spirit of smaller government lives on. Personal achievement and self-preservation are not dead.

Obama adviser David Axelrod is out there reminding Americans that Obama was reelected on a pledge to raise taxes on households earning over $250,000/year. Yep, President Obama was indeed reelected, but by no means was he reelected in any significant way. About 58 million Americans voted no on a second Obama term, while 60 million Americans voted yes. I don’t call that mini-gap significant. The Obama administration has spent the better part of four years spending, borrowing and debt boosting and now wants America’s small business owners (you know, the guys who create the jobs) to pick up the tab.

My two charts tell the sad story of Obama recklessness.

Obama did not inherit this spending and borrowing from George Bush. Nope the mess is Obama’s mess. And now the president has the audacity to inform successful Americans that they should fund the madness. House and Senate Republicans need to show some backbone here. The answer to the president with a tin cup in hand is no compromises, no deal—period. The way to slash spending and cut debt is to shrink government, and by a lot. That includes the nation building military. We do not have a Defense Department we have an Offense Department driven by the military/industrial complex. How many M1 tanks ever have been used to defend American soil? Zero. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, at any point, presented a security risk to America. We should not have spent a dime or lost an American life in either, with the exception of the short-lived and botched attempt to kill bin Laden in the Hindu Kush Mountains over a decade ago. Since then we have been involved in nation building. The military and politicians call it counterinsurgency.

Perhaps the Obama administration and the House and Senate could do a little homework and learn from Canada. Chris Edwards, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, at the Cato Institute (Debbie and I are benefactors) wrote in the May/June Cato Policy Report.: “Two decades ago Canada suffered a deep recession and teetered on the brink of a debt crisis caused by rising government spending…. But Canada reversed course and cut spending, balanced its budget, and enacted various pro-market reforms. The economy boomed, unemployment plunged and the formerly weak Canadian dollar soared.” Sound like the Obama plan to you?

As Chris points out, Canada is expecting to collect 1.9 percent of GDP in federal corporate income taxes in 2012 with a 15 percent corporate tax rate. The U.S. is expecting to collect 1.6 percent of GDP at a 35 percent corporate tax rate. Are you getting any of this President Obama? How about you Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Boehner?

Mr. Edwards drives in the final stake. Even with no federal department of education, Canadian school kids routinely score higher on international comparison tests than do U.S. kids. Among Canada’s strengths is that it is a decentralized federation. Our Founders intended just such a course for America. President Obama has taken America in just the opposite direction following a Marxist script that somehow has gone over the heads of 60 million Americans.

Bringing Order to Chaos

MDA successfully conducts first-ever integrated live-fire test of Aegis, THAAD and PAC 3 missile defense systems.

In the heat of battle, the ability to bring order to that chaos often means the difference between winning and losing, and that’s what the Missile Defense Agency was able to do during a recent complex, live-fire test featuring Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System , Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile systems.

During the first-ever test of the three systems conducted by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Oct. 24, the three systems worked together to detect, track, engage and defeat two ballistic missile targets and one cruise missile-like targets.

Watch the video here.

“Today’s success demonstrates the strides that have been made in missile defense technologies and the maturity and reliability of these systems,” said Dennis Cavin, vice president of Army and Missile Defense Programs for Lockheed Martin. “This test demonstrates the benefits of a layered, interoperable approach that can help protect the U.S. and allies from increasing security concerns around the world.”

Known as Flight Test Integrated-01, these different sensors and weapons systems were integrated through the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system, also developed by Lockheed Martin. The C2BMC is the integrating element for the Ballistic Missile Defense System and links the various sensors and weapon systems.

Conducted at the Regan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, the test successfully demonstrated the integration capabilities of the U.S.’s missile defense systems. During the test:

• The THAAD system detected, tracked and destroyed an Extended Long Range Air Launch Target missile.

• The Patriot system detected and tracked another short-range ballistic missile target and ripple fired two Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 missiles to destroy it.

• The Aegis BMD equipped USS Fitzgerald successfully engaged a low flying cruise missile over water.

A world leader in systems integration and the development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, Lockheed Martin makes significant contributions to major U.S. missile defense systems and participates in several global missile defense partnerships.

Source: Lockheed Martin

The second term for any president is almost always a disaster, crashing hard in the pivotal year six. The party in the White House can expect a thrashing in the House as well as losses in the Senate. No one I spoke with expects a divergence in course this time around.

Cato is a policy firm, not a politically driven group. Given that, there was near unanimous opinion at the conclave that those favoring small government have just been delivered a nasty, if temporary, body blow by the Marxist-oriented, big government crowd. There remains less than two years until the mid-term elections, but expected losses in the House will be projected much earlier. The general consensus of the Cato crowd is that the party of small government needs to lay off the social issues (as is Cato’s practice), get younger, and become more inclusive with Latinos. Hard-working, religious, family-oriented Latinos are a natural fit for assimilation into the small government sphere. It was also felt that a much younger, more focused candidate would have done small government Americans well.

There seemed to a majority view that a sizeable contingent of evangelicals, Ron Paulists and anti-neocons stayed home. This clearly needs not be the case in future elections. Looking ahead, the names Jindal, Paul (Rand), Rubio, Cruz and Martinez were mentioned positively.

Debbie, Matt and I sat with Cato Chairman Bob Levy, Cato co-founder Ed Crane, and incoming president and CEO John Allison. I wish you could have the opportunity to meet each. The next two Naples Cato events are December 14 and January 30 (the big East Coast annual event). You will be astounded at the commaradie and excitement of this sizable crowd of like minds. Debbie and I schedule our year to try not to miss any big Cato conclave. I hope you can join us.

John Allison shares the following: “I used to believe that the Federal Reserve was second only to Congress in destroying wealth and well being. However, it now appears that the Fed is committed to moving into first place as Bernanke has decided to implement fiscal policy as well as monetary policy. The purpose of money is to provide a standard of value, analogous to a yardstick in engineering…. The question is when someone (like the Chinese) will decide that the ‘emperor has no clothes’ and the U.S. dollar will crash along with our economy…. At the minimum, the Fed must be controlled by a gold standard. At the optimum, we should return to a true private banking system as the United States successfully experienced in the late 1800s.”