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Black Blade
17th April 2010, 09:29 AM
Ammo for Barter - Ammo vs. Money

by Terence Gillespie

The belief that everything is available for the right price is a Hollywood myth that really must go. The Beatles sang better with, "Money Can't Buy Me Love."

For some reason, our fiat tokens are still being mistaken for real money. And yet, I haven't seen .357 Magnum on the shelves in the last 12 months. Maybe that's why it's already happening: Ammunition is being used for barter.

Blame who you will. The green shoots of barter have appeared in anticipation of nobody knows what. Ivory tower questions of if and should (ammunition be used in barter) have been answered by the not so "invisible hand" of the market. That leaves questions of efficiency, demand, supply, resource allocation, liquidity and legality. In particular:

How does ammo compare with money?
How does ammo compare with other barter items?
What supply and demand Factors are unique to ammunition?
Which cartridges are best?
How much is enough?
What about reloading?
Is it legal?

For all its flaws, hassles and lack of precision, barter is a wonderful thing. It gets people talking, needs are fulfilled, the exchange is personal and everyone leaves the table with real goods.

Lately, it appears the real good people want to leave the table with is ammunition.

Ammo vs. Money

We barter when money is not available, money is worthless or when goods are not available regardless of money. Ammo is currently being used in barter because it's not available regardless of money. However, it's not hard to foresee a time when all three conditions would exist.

Gold and silver are the best money on earth for reasons listed in, "Why is Gold Money?" They have all the key attributes of money and they have them in spades: They score excellent within each category. For instance, gold and silver are not only transportable, they are very transportable. They are not only storable, they are very storable. . .and on down the line with each attribute. Going one by one comparing the attributes of money with ammunition, ammo is:

Transportable: Yes, if kept away from water and shipped within legal restrictions.

Divisible: Only within the same cartridge. Safety would dictate that divisibility be further limited to manufactured lots. Mixing different size cartridges is possible, but seldom done.

Storable: Yes, for about 50 years though with much less tolerances than gold or silver. Ammo can be destroyed or unpredictable if wet. Performance can also vary with ambient humidity. Storability is on a par with wheat.

Fungible: No. It has divisibility by cartridge but no fungibility.

Resilient: Yes, though with much less tolerances than gold or silver. Ammo in water can not be trusted: Brass rusts while primers decay unpredictably. Ammo is about as resilient as a large can of beans: Once it's dented, less people trust it.

Measurable: Yes, within the same cartridge where components are consistent.

High Unit Value: Yes, with values just above copper and lead though far below silver and gold.

Desirable: Yes, but not universally. Desirability is limited to those in charge of security, hunting or those aware of a gun's wide range of utility. If the need for security grows the desire for each family to have some amount of ammunition will increase.

Rare: More and more each day.

Hard to Counterfeit: No. But non-functional copies that pass muster are almost as expensive to make as a functional round.

So, ammunition is transportable, storable, resilient, measurable, has a High Unit Value, and is increasingly Desirable and Rare. However, Divisibility is limited to cartridge and there is no Fungibility. Counterfeiting is possible, but, non-functional copies that pass muster are expensive to make.

Ammunition has 7 out of the 10 attributes of money. However, it does not perform nearly as well in those 7 attributes as does gold and silver. If we hold ammunition to the same standards as gold and silver then it would be used as money only on a supplemental or transitional basis.

The most acceptable forms of tradable ammo would be cartridges in wide demand, manufactured with consistent and trusted components and transported and stored in a manner to keep it from coming into contact with water. The end result being a half-dollar (Or .45 ACP round, in this case) that you could use to buy a pack of gum with in the morning or shoot a rattlesnake with in the afternoon!

If that's how Ammunition measures up against gold and silver how do Federal Reserve Tokens (dollars) measure up?

Dollars vs. Money

Dollars are transportable, measurable and storable on a par with paper cut into uniform pieces. They are not divisible, fungible, resilient, desirable or hard to counterfeit. They do not have a high unit value and are rare on a par with the stars in the sky or the sand at the beach.

Dollars have 3 out of the 10 attributes of money, performing poorly within those attributes. If we hold dollars to the same standards as gold and silver the dollars would be used as money only if a government forced their acceptance at the point of a gun.

The ammo in that gun would be a far superior form of money than the dollars they enforce.

Reverse Ammo Multipliers

A disastrous economy combined with an increasing awareness of the need for security is causing ammo to fly off the shelves. The inability of manufactures to keep up with demand is making the lack of supply visible. And California's recent ban on the importation of ammunition and our growing distrust of the victim disarmament gang is not exactly quelling demand.

All these factors are ricocheting off one another and imparting to ammunition two of the key ingredients of money: Desirability and Rarity.

Another reverse multiplier is the falling dollar amidst surging commodity prices. This dynamic duo is imparting to ammunition a third key ingredient of money: High Unit Value.

Ammunition Deflation

If ammo were being used as money, today, we'd be in a deflationary period.

The ammo presses are not physically able to "print" enough. What ammo is being printed is quickly purchased and shot off or saved for the future. The only banking system is in personal physical storage where owners do not loan it back into the money supply. That takes it completely out of circulation.

To make matters worse the ammo that is shot off is only partially recycled to bring it back into the money supply. And more and more new gun owners are buying their first 200 rounds to practice with their favorite new security tool.

The net effect is that one unit of ammo can now purchase more goods and services. If you had been using ammunition as money and savings you would have tripled the return you received on the equivalent amount of dollar savings over the last year.

In fact, if you substitute ammo for dollars it turns out the deflationists were right!

October 23, 2009

Terence Gillespie [send him mail] has worked at IBM, played jazz piano on cruise ships, is an instrument-rated pilot, songwriter, and is attempting to optimize every aspect of life one article at a time on his blog at YourOptimal.com.

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/gillespie5.1.1.html



Black Blade: I periodically add more ammo to my stores. The reason is largely that I have mostly "cheap" ComBloc firearms that use "cheap" ComBloc Milsurp ammo. The lower costs allow me to stock up on bulk supplies for about half (or less) than for common western guns and ammo. I figure that someday guns and ammo will either become illegal or severely restricted and hopefully those of us who prepare will have a lifetime supply stashed away (hopefully "grandfathered" in like the old Assualt Weapons Ban). That said,there much to be said for caching guns and ammo. As for trade and barter? That's a possibility in some scenarios, however, I also add to my 5-10 year supply of nonperishable food and basic necessities as well as my silver and gold "portfolio insurance".

Book
17th April 2010, 09:36 AM
As for trade and barter? That's a possibility in some scenarios...


http://www.wftv.com/news/16840576/detail.html

I think bartering guns or ammo is a very dangerous idea wtshtf. There is a reason why most clerks at gun shops wear a firearm on their hip.

:oo-->

Black Blade
19th May 2010, 03:41 AM
The Ammo Shortage Continues

Why are manufacturers still unable to meet demand?

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/SheridanGuns/Arg7651a.jpg

May 15, 2010- by Bob OwensShare | Scan the ammunition shelves at sporting goods stores, your local gun store, or even Walmart and odds are that you won’t find what you are looking for. The most common cartridges are in short supply, and many stores ration ammunition a box or two at a time to spread their meager stock among their customers.

This isn’t new. But why is this nationwide ammunition shortage still happening?

The shortage began no later than 2007, when law enforcement agencies began having problems placing massive bulk orders, their typical purchasing strategy. The Associated Press tried to blame the shortages on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a falsehood that was easily debunked by pointing out that the military has its own dedicated small arms ammunition plant that — running at peak efficiency — was producing a half-billion rounds per year more than the military was using at that time.

Instead, the primary reason for that shortage turned out to be law enforcement agencies themselves, because of a horrifying incident that shook law enforcement nationwide to its core. On February 28, 1997, in North Hollywood, CA, Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu, two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, engaged in a 44-minute shootout with an outgunned Los Angeles Police Department. The two suspects fired more than 1,300 rounds of ammunition, and each was shot multiple times with police handguns. The 9mm police pistol bullets bounced off their homemade body armor. Phillips eventually died after being shot 11 times; Matasareanu died after being hit 29 times.

In response, law enforcement agencies nationwide embraced civilian versions of the military M4 selective-fire carbine as a long arm suitable for engaging heavily armed and armored felons beyond pistol range with greater precision and stopping power. This focus on deploying carbines only intensified after the 9/11 terror attacks, as agencies began preparing to deal with potential terrorist threats as well as criminal acts. SWAT and ERT teams first used these weapons, but they quickly spread to supervisors, and within a few years, officers and deputies. They are now euphemistically known as a “patrol rifles” and carried as a standard-issue long arm in patrol cars around the nation (even on some university campuses).

The widespread use of patrol rifles among law enforcement and the possibility of terrorism meant an increase in range time for many officers using their duty sidearms, and an almost entirely new law enforcement market for 9mm, 40 S&W, and 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington caliber carbines. When combined with China gobbling up core ammunition components such as brass, copper, and lead for their exploding industry, the shortage was simply explained by a massive increase in demand that has yet to let up.

That demand only escalated as a result of the recession and the 2008 election. President Obama is no friend of the Second Amendment, which caused gun owners to stock up on firearms and ammunition in fear that the administration would push for a restoration of failed gun control laws that expired during the Bush administration. The economic instability of the recession and a resurgent acceptance of shooting sports also created many first-time gun buyers, many of whom developed into avid shooters who use significant amounts of ammunition.

As I concluded last February:

Shortages of ammunition and firearms can be expected to continue for as long as it appears our overreaching federal government is a threat to our individual liberties, our economy continues to falter, and our police agencies keep militarizing. It’s going to be a long ride.

Indeed, nearly a year and a half later, ammunition is still in short supply.

Remington, which had not tapped all of their manufacturing capacity a year ago, is now “operating at over 100% capacity at our munitions plant and turning out millions of rounds per day.” A national sporting goods chain is still able to stock Remington ammunition in several popular calibers, but restricts customers to two boxes of ammunition at a time.

Jackie Stenton at Fiocchi USA notes an “unprecedented demand” for centerfire pistol ammunition, which has “impacted sourcing components for all centerfire product, and rimfire products.” From this view, it appears that demand for pistol ammunition is so high that the core components are being pulled into manufacturing pistol rounds, instead of rifle and rimfire ammunition — a claim that empty shelves in all three categories would seem to confirm. Jonathan Harling, a spokesperson for Winchester, confirms that the massive demand is widespread and that they are also “still working 24-7 to meet the demand.”

But by far the most interesting comments about the current shortage come from a pair of less widely known but very respected manufacturers, DoubleTap Ammunition and Silver State Armory. DoubleTap is perhaps best known for their high-velocity defensive pistol ammunition, which has a hefty reputation — and elite prices. They are still “ahead of the curve” and have been able to keep their performance-minded customers supplied. Other manufacturers in the niche market of high-velocity, high-performance ammunition are also able to keep up with demand, no doubt due to the fact that customers will fire hundreds or thousands of rounds of practice ammunition, or “regular” production defensive ammo, for every box of premium defensive ammunition.

But premium rifle ammunition manufacturer Silver State Armory’s Mark Thibodeau had perhaps the most interesting comment, noting that according to their research, the shortage isn’t isolated inside America’s shores.

Our information and research tells us that the increased demand is global, not just domestic, and the demand is still increasing further. The demand for the end product, loaded ammunition, further impacts the availability of raw materials: brass, powder, primers, projectiles. Certain calibers are going to be harder to find than others by virtue of popularity and priority. While the retail consumer may be “stocking up,” that pales in comparison to the consumption of product globally that is the real reason for shortages.

Thibodeau’s insight may very well be dead-on, as supplies of ammunition by foreign manufacturers are also in very short supply.

There is no doubt the demand for key ammunition components such as brass, copper, and lead in the global industrial market may be a large part of the current component shortage, but that still leaves us with millions of rounds being manufactured domestically every day that are snapped up the moment they hit the marketplace.

Where is it all going? Are these hundreds of millions of rounds of domestically manufactured ammunition being stockpiled, or are they being shot as fast as they are purchased? I’m sure someone has the answers to these questions, but they aren’t talking. They’re happy to be selling, and I can’t say that I blame them in the least.

Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-ammo-shortage-continues/?singlepage=true