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Thursday, February 19, 2026

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THE EMERGING MARKET ROUT


Emerging markets are now big enough to drag down the global economy. As Indonesia, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, South Africa, Russia, Thailand and Kazakhstan try to shore up their currencies, the effect is ricocheting back into the advanced world in higher borrowing costs.

Even China felt compelled to sell $20 billion of US Treasuries in July. "They are running down reserves by selling US and European bonds, leading to a self-reinforcing feedback loop," said Simon Derrick from BNY Mellon.

We are told that emerging markets are more resilient than in past crises because they have $9 trillion of reserves. But any use of that treasure to defend the exchange rate entails monetary tightening, and therefore inflicts a contractionary shock on countries already in trouble.

We are also told that they borrow in their own currencies these days, immune to the sort of dollar squeeze that caused such havoc in the early 1980s and the mid-1990s. This is true, but double-edged. India, Brazil and others will surely be tempted to stop fighting markets, let their currencies slide and inflict the pain on foreigners - that is to say, on your pension fund.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 02/15/13


We start by celebrating the death of two pieces of human garbage.

On Tuesday (2/12), leftie psycho cop-killer Chris Dorner was turned into a crispy critter when the LAPD burned down the mountain cabin he was holed up in.  Nine days earlier (2/03), this monster murdered a young woman, and her fiancé, in cold blood.

Her name was Monica Quan.  Dorner shot her to death in revenge for her father, a retired police captain turned lawyer, failing to get his badge back after being fired from the LAPD.  In his maniacal "manifesto," he tells Monica's father Randal Quan:  "I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own.  I'm terminating yours."

This would be just another case of individual criminal lunacy, but it has instead created enormous educational value.  It has exposed the hideous evil residing in the souls of those on the Left.  Believe it or not, Dorner has become a "folk hero of the left."  There are tens of thousands of Dorner fans on Facebook pages like "We Stand with Christopher Dorner," and "We Are All Chris Dorner."

Now we know for sure:  Libtards are indeed Chris Dorners with murderous evil in the hearts.  Liberalism really is a form of criminal insanity.

And the other trashing of human garbage?  That would be Iranian General Hassan Shateri.  Also on Tuesday (2/12) while the LAPD was barbequing Dorner, Syrian rebels were gunning down Shateri outside of Damascus.  He was a terrorist of the highest order.

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WHY ARE JOURNALISTS VOTING TO LOSE THEIR JOBS?


Many in the mainstream media appear to be in the bag for the re-election of President Obama. They also appear to not have thought through the consequences of their wishes, both to the nation and their own careers.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and many leading economic forecasters have predicted that we are likely to go into another recession by the first quarter of 2013 if the administration and Congress allow the economy to go off the "fiscal cliff" at the end of this year.

Unfortunately, it now seems to be almost a certainty that this will happen if President Obama is re-elected. Here is why:

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THE MEETING THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD


Gobsmacked.  It's the word Brits use when they are stunned by something ridiculously astounding.  Late Tuesday night (1/03), I was beyond gobsmacked when I heard the results of the Iowa Caucuses.  Now it is Thursday (1/05), and I remain profoundly shaken by the stupefying stupidity of the Iowa caucus voters.

It tells me that Zero's election in 2008 was no fluke, no spasm of temporary masochistic insanity.  That voters are into reality-denial up to their ears.  That whatever part of their brain they are using to vote with, it is most assuredly not their ratiocinative part.

Iowans have no idea what they did to their country Tuesday: they substantially increased the odds that Zero will win re-election in November.  It wasn't Romney or Santorum who won in Iowa.  It was Zero who won, hands down.

So let me tell you about a meeting that could change the world.

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AMERICANS ARE MORE COURAGEOUS THAN THEIR PRESIDENT


Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democrat minions' arguments have descended from straw men to bogeymen in their attempts to scare Americans.  

Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped.  Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon. 

But we Americans are more courageous than the president and Democrats credit us. Thus, we must tell President Obama and his minions to stop; join with Republicans to seize this moment to cut, cap and balance the federal budget; and start restructuring Washington Big Government into Main Street self-government.

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THE TWO ROBIN HOODS


In our new post-11/7 world, it's important to understand that there are two Robin Hoods:  the legend and the myth of the legend.  The first is a conservative-libertarian.  The second is a liberal thug.

The legend was best played by Errol Flynn in the 1938 movie classic, The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, Alan Hale as Little John, Claude Rains as Prince John, Melville Cooper as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Basil Rathbone as the evil Sir Guy de Gisbourne.

The myth of the legend is currently being played by Teddy Kennedy with Nancy Pelosi as his understudy in drag.

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WORTH IT IN BAGHDAD

Major General Peter Chiarelli, head of US military’s Task Force Baghdad and commander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, spoke a few days ago at a AUSA (Association of the United States Army) meeting at the Ft. Hood (Texas) Officer’s Club. A friend of To The Point’s took notes. This is how it really is.

*Baghdad is about the same size, geographically, as Texas’ capital of Austin, with ten times the folks: 700,000 for Austin, 7 million for Baghdad.

*Baghdad’s main problem area has been a huge slum called Sadr City. Last fall, there was an average of 160 terrorist attacks per week. For the last three months, they have flatlined: five to zero a week.

*The media blared in front-page headlines about the 100 Iraqis killed in Baghdad as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. It was never reported that the next day, there were 300 lined up in the same place.

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HAND HELDS: PALM OR POCKET?

This is the first in a short series on buying the ever more popular hand held computers.

They help you keep track of information that you need, like phone numbers and expenses. They're a lot neater than scraps of paper - and a lot less likely to get lost, as well. They keep you entertained during boring meetings, plane trips and bus or rail commutes. And "beaming" your name and phone number is a lot cooler than just handing someone your business card!

But like with every other tech thing, "they" have to make it complicated by giving you a panoply of choices and possibilities - and platforms, especially since the release of Windows CE on the Pocket PC platform several years ago. WinCE/Pocket PC competes with the granddaddy of PDAs, Palm Pilots, and the vast majority of PDAs on the market are based on one of these platforms. So buying a PDA requires more consideration than buying a digital camera.

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SINKING THE CONGRESSIONAL DEMS

It wasn’t too long ago that the DNC folks were giddily predicting Democrat majorities for the House and Senate this November. The darkest gloom has replaced the giddiness. It’s dawned on them that Kerry is singlehandedly sinking their hopes.

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THE FOLLY OF STRIKING SYRIA


You might as well try to teach a snake to juggle as hope the Obama administration will think strategically.

The "peace president" is about to embark on his third military adventure, this time in Syria, without having learned the lessons of his botched efforts in Afghanistan and Libya. He hasn't even learned from the Bush administration's mistakes - which he mocked with such delight.

Before launching a single cruise missile toward Syria, Team Obama needs to be sure it has a good answer to the question, "What comes next?"

If Obama does a Clinton and churns up some sand with do-nothing cruise-missile strikes, it will only encourage the Assad regime. But if our president hits Assad hard and precipitates regime change, then what?

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HALF-FULL REPORT 02/08/13


"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's  debt  limit is a sign of leadership failure.  It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills.  It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies...  Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.'  Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.  Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."

These are the first and last lines of a speech delivered on the floor of the US Senate on March 16, 2006.   The speaker was Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama.  The full text of the speech from the Congressional Record is appended at the end of this HFR.  Feel quite free to cut and paste the full speech into an email informing your friends of the hideous hypocrisy of President Zero.

Speaking of hideousness, our next subject is The PIAPS - The Pig In A Pants Suit - Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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U.S. SHOULD AX DESTRUCTIVE TAX


Corporate levy trashing returns

It's difficult to say definitively which tax is the most destructive. The corporate income tax is a leading candidate for causing higher prices to consumers, lower wages to workers and lower returns to investors. It misallocates capital, resulting in higher levels of unemployment and lower levels of economic growth and opportunity, and it taxes income that has already been taxed as least once before.

The 2012 annual rankings of "Corporate Tax Competitiveness" was published in Canada by University of Calgary and in the United States by the Cato Institute. In the study, authors Duanjie Chen and Jack Mintz of the school of public policy at the University of Calgary present new estimates of effective tax rates on corporate investment for 90 countries.

"These tax rates take into account statutory rates plus tax-base items that affect taxes paid on new investment, such as deductions for capital depreciation, inventory costs, and interest expenses." The United States is in the "uncompetitive position of having the highest statutory tax rate in the world, with a combined federal-state tax rate of about 40 percent." Only the economic basket cases of Argentina, Chad and Uzbekistan have slightly higher effective marginal tax rates. The United States...

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THE YEAR OF NOW OR NEVER


The way I write may surprise you as much as it surprises me.  I get an idea of something I think is interesting, compile sources and references for it along with a few minimal notes, start writing with no clear picture of how this is going to turn out, then keep writing with no major edits or re-writes until I get to the end - which most often says something I had no idea I was going to say when I started.

So let's see how this what's-coming-for-the-new-year effort turns out - because I have to tell you I wish I could be Rip Van Winkle now.  Just go to sleep and wake up in 10 or 20 years when the awfulness of 2012 and the decade or two it took to recover from it is gone.

I want to shed light on the darkness descending upon us, but as an example of how hard this is, consider that...

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RESTORING SOUND MONEY


Confidence in the dollar is plummeting, confidence in the euro has been shattered by the European bond crisis, and beleaguered consumers and investors are slowly but surely awakening to the fact that government-issued currencies do not hold their value.

A government monopoly on the issuance of money is purely a method of central control over the economy. If you can be forced to accept the government's increasingly devalued dollar, there is no limit to how far the government will go to debauch the currency.

Anyone who attempts to create a market based currency-- meaning a currency with real value as determined by markets-- threatens to embarrass the federal government and expose the folly of our fiat monetary system.  So the government destroys competition through its usual tools of arrest, confiscation, and incarceration.

This is why I have taken steps to restore the constitutional monetary system envisioned and practiced by our Founding Fathers. I recently introduced HR 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act.

This bill eliminates three of the major obstacles to the circulation of sound money:

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COMMENCEMENT

Mr. Chancellor, Members of the Board of Regents, Members of the Faculty, Honored Graduates, Families and Friends:

It’s funny that they call this ceremony a Commencement, for you’ve all reached the finish line: college, goodbye, we’re outta here. Yet of course, “commencement” means a beginning, not an end.

But one is supposed to at least start - commence - a talk such as this by saying funny things. So I’ll start by talking about Clark Gable movies. If you’ve heard of Clark Gable at all, you know he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood a long time ago. His most famous movie was of course Gone With The Wind.

He made a movie in 1955 called The Tall Men with Jane Russell as his girlfriend and Robert Ryan as the heavy. It’s a pretty ordinary Western flick with outlaws and cowboys and Indians - and at the end, Ryan, the bad guy, and his henchmen get the drop on Gable, the good guy, and all seems lost. Suddenly, surprise, Gable outfoxes Ryan and triumphs. Gable makes his exit, and after he does, Ryan delivers a line that I want you to never forget.

Serendipity is funny, a very funny thing, finding something where you least expect it. Out of the blue, out of a movie awash with pedestrian dialogue, comes a line so profound it detonates inside your brain. Ryan turns to his men and says:

There goes the only man I ever respected. He’s what every boy dreams he’ll grow up to be - and wishes he had been when he’s an old man.

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