12.22.25 Legal Docket on the presidential power to fire, Moneybeat on the shaky inflation and jobs data, and History Book’s past ten years

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The World and Everything In It

Episode: 12.22.25 — Legal Docket on Presidential Power, Moneybeat, History Book Retrospective
Date: December 22, 2025
Hosts: Jenny Ruff & Nick Eicher
Key Segments: Legal Docket, Monday Money Beat, World History Book

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives into three primary areas:

• Analyzing presidential powers with a Supreme Court case on the president’s authority to fire FTC commissioners (Legal Docket).
• Assessing recent, shaky jobs and inflation data, along with economic stability over 25 years (Monday Money Beat).
• Celebrating a decade of the “World History Book” segment, reflecting on memorable stories and the changing of the guard.

The episode provides legal, economic, and historical perspectives, grounded in sound reporting and biblical insight.

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Legal Docket: Supreme Court Considers Presidential Removal Power

(Begins ~06:55)

Key Issues

• Background: Last March, President Trump fired two Federal Trade Commission (FTC) members, including Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, for aligning the agency with his administration’s agenda. Slaughter is challenging the firing.
• Central Legal Question: Does the Constitution give the president the unrestricted authority to fire commissioners of independent agencies like the FTC, or can Congress limit that power?
• Historical Precedent:
  • Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935) — Limited presidential removal of FTC commissioners to specific causes (inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance).
• Arguments:
  • Trump/Administration: The vesting clause gives the president full executive power, thus enabling unfettered removal of executive officials.
  • Slaughter/Defense: Laws restricting removal have a long, bipartisan precedent, and ensure checks and balances.

Detailed Discussion & Notable Quotes

• Rebecca Slaughter on being fired:
  “I was actually at our local elementary school when I found out I was fired. So I wasn’t in the building when it happened. But my experience was that almost immediately my devices stopped working. I was told that my access to the building would be cut off.” (07:12)

• Legal Framework:

  • FTC created by Congress (1914), intentionally limiting presidential authority by requiring cause for commissioner removal:
    “The law says a president can only fire a commissioner for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance.” (09:34)
  • Trump argues this limitation violates the President’s constitutional power as chief executive.

• Expert Input:

  • Professor Bob Pushaw frames the core issue:
    “Can Congress create people in the executive branch who are independent of the control of the president, the chief executive officer?” (10:02)
  • On the unitary executive theory:
    “Executive power of the United States shall must be vested in the President of the United States. Period.” (11:36)

• Supreme Court Exchange Highlights:

  • Justice Elena Kagan warns of unchecked power:
    “You end up with just massive, uncontrolled, unchecked power in the hands of the president, not only to do traditional execution, but to make law through legislative and adjudicative frameworks.” (13:32)
  • Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
    “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent. Where else have we so fundamentally altered the structure of government?” (14:54)

• Broader Implications & Philosophical Stakes:

  • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emphasizes Congress’s authority to design agencies for the public good.
  • Professor Pushaw endorses the unitary executive view:
    “What we have is an unaccountable blob of administrative agency bureaucrats… The president has a duty to take care of laws, be faithfully executed. And he can’t faithfully execute the laws if he can’t control people who are underneath him.” (18:13)

• Next Steps:

  • Upcoming case: Trump v. Cook—regarding firing a Federal Reserve governor—which could extend new controls to the Fed.
  • Decision expected next year, with potentially huge consequences for presidential and congressional power balance.

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Monday Money Beat: Jobs, Inflation, and Economic Instability through a Biblical Lens

(Begins ~20:10)

Economic Reports

• Two key reports under scrutiny:
  1. Jobs/unemployment: Uptick to 4.6%
  2. Consumer inflation (CPI): Data considered unreliable due to lack of October data and incomplete November stats (government shutdown disruptions).

Insights from David Bonson

On the unemployment rate:

• Reason for increase is positive:
  “The amount of people entering the labor force had gone up… It is a good thing for more people to be coming in the labor force, and we’ve seen so little of that for so long that I’ll take that as an encouraging sign.” (21:03)

On the CPI/inflation report:

• Skepticism over data reliability:
  “I cannot believe for the life of me that they even released it with essentially no data from October. A totally made up number on the shelter side because they had no data. So they plugged in a 0% number...” (22:25)
• On what numbers mean:
  “Whether people want to assume the current inflation rate is somewhere between two and a half or three is immaterial to me. It is somewhere in there.” (23:16)

On government transparency and economic reporting:

• “...the flaw here was that the way the financial media reported on it, they didn’t adequately footnote it. But the report itself did have all the right caveats.” (24:09)

Market & Cultural Stability: 25 Years in Review

• David Bonson on long-term perspective:
  “You could take any 25 year period… there’s no 25 year period that isn’t gonna have [instability].”
  “For investors and for those looking at this in the context of economics, to look at it and then say, oh, all of those major instabilities and investors are up seven and a half times over the last 25 years. It ought to give us a perspective on how markets absorb instability. I gotta say, I think markets absorb instability a lot better than governments do.” (24:57–26:44)

Memorable quote on the resilience of markets:

• “As long as we have a generally free market system, you’re exactly right. And this is also part of my theological framework... I also believe in a human person created by God with faculties for overcoming problems, with the ability to create solutions, with an innovative and productive engine behind him or her.” (27:03)

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World History Book: A Decade of Faithful Storytelling & New Beginnings

(Begins ~28:59)

Reflections and Highlights by Paul Butler

• Celebrates the past ten years crafting the segment and working with new contributors.
• Influenced by historian Larry Eskridge:
  “One of the great things about history is that it is the study of everything. Every dimension of life that you can imagine. Social, economic, military, political, religious, theological. It’s all history.” (30:06)

Memorable Segments Revisited

• Roman Persecution of Christians (303 AD):
  “Across the vast majority of the Roman Empire, the Christians experienced the harshest persecutions that they would ever face.” (31:20)
• Charles Finney and the Second Great Awakening (1831):
  “Things like preaching for a decision, things like asking people to make a commitment to Christ at the end of a meeting, had been very rarely done before Finney’s time… These have been characteristics that have been quite prominent since his time in American, especially American Protestant history.” — Mark Noll (32:06)
• The Millerites and the ‘Great Disappointment’ (1844):
  “Some of them quit their jobs in order to get ready for the end. Some people gave away their possessions... There were people who confessed to crimes, people who solved long standing disputes... But for the most part, people just prayed and gathered with their families.” (32:48–33:03)
• Pilgrims’ Atlantic Crossing (1620):
  “Though I be constrained for a while to be bodily absent from you, make account of me in the meanwhile, as of a man divided in myself with great pain, and as having my better part with you.” (34:10)

Transition and Legacy

• Butler passes the baton to a new team, celebrating the continuity of Christian historical storytelling and expressing gratitude for shaping the segment.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Legal Docket Supreme Court Case – 06:55 to 19:33
• Monday Money Beat (Jobs, Inflation, Markets) – 20:10 to 28:22
• History Book Retrospective – 28:59 to 35:37

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Tone and Takeaways

• Intellectually rigorous yet accessible; careful blend of legal, economic, and historical analysis.
• Grounded in biblical worldview and advocacy for journalistic integrity.
• The episode encourages listeners to take a long view—whether considering political power, market upsets, or the importance of learning from history.

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Notable Quotes Highlighted Above
All quotes are timestamped and attributed as per instructions.

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Ideal for listeners who want:

• Insight into a major Supreme Court debate about presidential authority
• Sharp analysis of confusing economic data and their meaning
• A thoughtful, faith-informed review of historical milestones and media legacy

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Transcript

[David Bonson]

Good morning. This is David Bonson. One of the things I've learned over time is that work is one of the ordinary ways we reflect what we believe about God. And in the years I've been working with World, I've seen that good journalism is work before it is content. Careful reporting takes discipline, restraint, and time. World depends on listeners who decide that kind of work is worth supporting. And that brings us to the December giving drive. I hope you'll consider how much you value World and and turn that into a gift that makes sense for [e-mail] donate stick around. I'll be back later for the Monday Money Beat.

[Jenny Ruff]

Good morning. Today on legal docket, the Supreme Court wrestles with the constitutional powers of the presidency and what overturning years of legal precedent might look like.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

You end up with just massive, uncontrolled, unchecked power in the hands of the president.

[Nick Eicher]

Also today, the Monday Money Beat. Economist David Bonson is standing by. And later, the world history book today, a changing of the guard.

[Jenny Ruff]

It's Monday, December 22nd. This is the world and everything in it. From listener supported World Radio, I'm Jenny Ruff.

[Nick Eicher]

And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.

[Jenny Ruff]

Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.

[Kent Covington]

The Trump administration is suspending the lottery green card program after officials say a Portuguese national who entered the US through that program carried out multiple fatal shootings. Authorities say Claudio Manuel Nevis Valente this month killed two students and injured nine others at Rhode Island's Brown University and separately shot an MIT professor. State Department deputy spokesman Thomas Bigot.

[David Bonson]

When we see something like this happen.

[Kent Covington]

We need to make sure that we react appropriately.

[David Bonson]

And part of that is examining the.

[Kent Covington]

Visa procedures in place. And, and while we're examining those procedures.

[David Bonson]

We need to pause that program.

[Kent Covington]

Police found the suspected shooter dead in a New Hampshire storage unit after a days long manhunt. The motive is still unknown. The Department of Justice is defending the partial release of the so called Epstein files. Friday was a congressionally mandated deadline for the DOJ to release case files tied to the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But so far the department has only released a fraction of. Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin told CNN's State.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Of the Union it's all about covering.

[David Bonson]

Up things that for whatever reason, Donald.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Trump doesn't want to go public.

[Kent Covington]

But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche fired back telling NBC's Meet the Press that it takes time to redact information that could identify Epstein's victims.

[David Bonson]

The reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that to protect victims.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

So the same individuals that are out.

[David Bonson]

There complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don't want us to protect victims.

[Kent Covington]

The files released so far have included photographs of famous people who spent time with Epstein in the years before he came under suspicion. The U.S. coast Guard is tracking another oil tanker in the Caribbean that officials say is helping Venezuela dodge American sanctions. A U.S. official says the ship is part of a so called shadow fleet used to move sanctioned oil and is sailing under a false flag. The pursuit comes days after the US Seized two other tankers linked to Venezuela. Authorities in South Africa report that nine people have died and at least 10 others are injured after a shooting at a pub. Provincial Police Commissioner Fred Three people were.

[David Bonson]

Shot and killed there, 10 were injured.

[Nick Eicher]

And in that process two other people.

[David Bonson]

Tried to run away, he said.

[Kent Covington]

They were also shot and killed at the scene. Kakana added that several others who were shot later succumbed to their injuries. The incident occurred early Sunday in Becker's Doll, west of Johannesburg. Police say about 12 suspects in multiple vehicles opened fire at the Quad Naxolo Tavern and continued shooting as they fled. Authorities were conducting a manhunt last night for the suspects. Meantime, in Australia, a week after 15 people were fatally shot at a Hanukkah event at Bondi beach in Sydney, thousands of people gathered for the Light Over Darkness vigil on Sunday. David Ossip is president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.

[David Bonson]

To those who are injured, some of.

[Nick Eicher]

Whom are here in the audience tonight.

[David Bonson]

And many others who are watching online.

[Bob Pushaw]

We are praying for you and for.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Your complete and swift recovery.

[Kent Covington]

Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns also addressed the survivors and the loved ones of those killed.

[David Bonson]

We grieve with you and with humility. I acknowledge that the government's highest duty is to protect its citizens and we.

[Jenny Ruff]

Did not do that.

[Kent Covington]

One week ago, a father and son are accused of carrying out the terror attack. The father was fatally shot while the son was critically wounded. They reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS prior to the attack. Federal investigators are trying to determine why a business jet carrying retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and six others crashed in North Carolina. The Cessna 550 apparently had mechanical issues after takeoff, and pilots turned the plane around and tried to land it again. NTSB investigator Michael Graham the NTSB is.

[Nick Eicher]

Aware of one brief text from a passenger on board the aircraft to a family member that read, and I quote, emergency landing.

[Kent Covington]

Graham said multiple indicators suggest the plane.

[Nick Eicher]

Was stable on approach, configured for landing with the landing lights on, but the aircraft was coming in low. That information is consistent with the debris field. Our team continues to survey.

[Kent Covington]

The jet hit light poles and trees before erupting into flames Thursday, killing everyone on board. Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, but have not yet identified the lead pilot. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, the Supreme Court wrestles with the constitutional powers of the presidency. Plus, the Monday Money beat with David Bonson. This is the World and Everything In It.

[Nick Eicher]

Today is Monday, 22nd December. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Nick Iker.

[Jenny Ruff]

And I'm Jenny Ruff. Time now for legal docket. Last March, President Trump fired two members of the Federal Trade Commission. One of them, Rebecca Slaughter, says she found out, well at a place married mothers of four often find themselves. This is what she told cnbc.

[Rebecca Slaughter]

I was actually at our local elementary school when I found out I was fired. So I wasn't in the building when it happened. But my experience was that almost immediately my devices stopped working. I was told that my access to the building would be cut off.

[Nick Eicher]

The White House said the president was simply doing his job as chief executive to align the FTC with the priorities of the new administration.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Go ahead.

[Nick Eicher]

This is a White House press briefing in March.

[Jenny Ruff]

Can you explain the president's thinking in his decision to fire the two Democratic commissioners, especially given that Mark Meador is on track to be confirmed next weekend? There would be a Republican majority. My biggest question is, why now? Sure. Because the time was right to let these people go, and the president absolutely has the authority to do it, and they were given ample notice in a letter that I believe your outlet reported on. So it pretty much explains exactly why this administration chose to let those individuals go. It's the ultimate goal to get this to the Supreme Court, to try to overturn the 1935 precedent. The goal was to let these individuals go. If we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will, Rachel.

[Nick Eicher]

The administration certainly did. And that's our legal docket case for today, Trump versus Slaughter. Only Rebecca Slaughter, because the other Democrat commissioner let go, chose not to fight. Slaughter, although locked out of the building, is pressing on narrowly. The case involves the president's ability to direct the priorities of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC regulates businesses as they relate to consumers. As Slaughter describes the task, the commission is to act as a watchdog against fraud and consumer scams. But FTC does much more than that. Just Last year, for example, it blocked a merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. It goes to court, too. As she explained to CBS News, we're.

[Rebecca Slaughter]

Currently suing pharmacy middlemen over the high price of drugs like insulin. We've passed rules to prevent junk fees and to make it easy, as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one. Yeah, we're the cops on the beat for kids privacy. And on and on.

[Jenny Ruff]

Congress established the FTC in 1914 through the passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Congress designed the ofTC to have five members serving staggered terms. No more than three members can be from the same political party. Slaughter is a Democrat.

[Nick Eicher]

The FTC falls under the executive branch, but Congress designed it in a way that limits the president's ability to remove commissioners. The law says a president can only fire a commissioner for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance. Because Trump didn't fire her for one of those specific reasons, she had grounds to sue.

[Jenny Ruff]

Bob Pushaw is a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. He phrases the driving question in the.

[Bob Pushaw]

Case like the overall question is can Congress create people in the executive branch who are independent of the control of the president, the chief executive officer?

[Nick Eicher]

Or said differently, does the president the voters elected have the authority to fire commissioners at will? Slaughter says he doesn't, and here's why. Audio from CNBC because the laws of.

[Rebecca Slaughter]

The United States say that he can't. The laws that were passed by Congress, signed by a president, have been in place for a century, have some limited protections on the President's ability to control these independent agencies.

[Jenny Ruff]

And 90 years ago, the Supreme Court heard Humphrey's executor versus the United States and found those laws constitutional. In a very similar set of facts, President Franklin D. Roosevelt fired federal trade Commissioner William Humphrey because Humphrey didn't agree with the President's policies. The Supreme Court upheld the same federal statute here, saying a commissioner can only be fired for specific reasons. But Trump says the law and the Humphreys executive precedent violate his powers granted by the Constitution, specifically the part that says the executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.

[Nick Eicher]

And Trump argues the language of the vesting clause should be understood as giving the president unfettered discretion to control the entire executive branch, and that includes independent agency officials. It's known as the unitary executive theory.

[Bob Pushaw]

Pushaw again essentially, Congress meets in sessions and has 535 members. All legislative power is not vested in the speaker of the House. The Supreme Court Meets in sessions, has nine members. Like all judicial power is not vested in the Chief Justice. So essentially the unitary executive people are saying, read article 2. Executive power of the United States shall must be vested in the President of the United States. Period.

[Nick Eicher]

At the Supreme Court, that is exactly what Solicitor General John Sauer argued on behalf of the Trump administration.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

We think the text of the Constitution confers the executive power, all of it, all on the President.

[Jenny Ruff]

But Justice Elena Kagan wanted to unpack the way these independent agencies operate in the real world.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

If there's one thing we know about the Founders, it's that they wanted powers separated. They didn't want them all in one place. They wanted them separated across the government, across the different branches.

[Jenny Ruff]

That's why the Founding Fathers divided the national government into three branches.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

They wanted the executive to enforce the.

[Jenny Ruff]

Laws, the legislative to make the laws, the judicial to interpret the laws.

[Nick Eicher]

Now you may notice something missing here. Here. Independent agencies, where do they fit in this constitutional framework? And things get enormously complicated fast because agencies like the FTC perform functions of all three branches. The FTC creates trade regulations, it makes laws, it enforces the law by investigating consumer fraud and preventing what it sees as unfair competition. Additionally, it has a specialized tribunal where administrative law judges hold hearings and issue binding rules. Justice Kagan affirmed that many people think that's a real distortion from what the Founders intended.

[Jenny Ruff]

But for better or worse, our government did go down that path. Justice Kagan said we need to deal with the government as it has evolved.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

Otherwise you end up with just massive uncontrolled, unchecked power in the hands of the President, not only to do traditional execution, but to make law through legislative and adjudicative frameworks.

[Jenny Ruff]

Amit Agarwal represented Slaughter. He relied on the long history of government agencies and Humphrey's executor.

[David Bonson]

Multi member commissions with members enjoying some kind of removal protection have been part of our story since 1790. So if petitioners are right, all three branches of government have been wrong from the start. And this Court was wrong. Wrong to repeatedly bless those laws and to unanimously uphold the exact same removal provision at issue here in Humphrey's Executor almost a century ago.

[Nick Eicher]

Sauer for the Trump administration pointed out the Court has chipped away at Humphreys executor over the years, including a recent case from 2020.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Humphreys must be overruled. It has become a decaying husk with bold and particularly dangerous pretensions. It was grievously wrong when decided and it continues to tempt Congress to Erect at the heart of our government, a headless fourth branch insulated from political accountability and democratic control.

[Nick Eicher]

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said overturning it would have seismic effects.

[David Bonson]

You're asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent.

[David Bonson]

Where else have we so fundamentally altered the structure of government?

[Nick Eicher]

Sauer said it was Humphrey's executor that ushered in the alteration. Agencies grew under President Woodrow Wilson and later the New Dealers, and Congress ran with it. In Sauer's telling, they were the ones who destroyed separation of powers as classically understood.

[Jenny Ruff]

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson conceded that the Constitution gives the President broad powers, but it does the same for Congress.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

The text the Constitution includes the Necessary and Proper Clause, which gives Congress the authority to determine, set up, et cetera, these agencies to protect the interests of the people. So we have a conflict, I guess, and I'm just wondering why the President's interests in the way that you describe them.

[Jenny Ruff]

Bob Pushaw, the con law expert, says this is worth thinking about the idea.

[Bob Pushaw]

And I think what Jackson's point was, which is a very sound point, is why can Congress decide that it is necessary and proper to have certain agencies be independent of the President when dependence on the President might screw up the policy and the statute Congress is enacting?

[Jenny Ruff]

Justice Jackson also expressed concern about hampering the design of Congress to leave certain matters to nonpartisan experts.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

Having a president come in and fire all the scientists and the doctors and the economists and the PhDs and replacing them with loyalists and people who don't know anything is actually not in the best interest of the citizens of the United States.

[Jenny Ruff]

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wanted to confirm that a decision in favor of Trump would be a limited cut to the way our government operates.

[Ryan M. Reeves]

One thing you've I want to make it crystal clear that overruling or narrowing Humphrey's executor would not threaten the existence of these agencies, but only would alter how the heads of those agencies can be removed. Correct?

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Correct. They'd be political.

[Nick Eicher]

The justices asked both sides where to draw the line. If the President can fire FTC commissioners at will, logic would say he could do the same with other agencies. If the President cannot fire agency leaders at will, could Congress convert Cabinet posts into agencies in order to shield them from presidential control?

[Jenny Ruff]

And quickly, two more things. Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested it's time for the Court to reinvigorate doctrines that limit the ability of Congress to delegate its legislative authority. And Justice Samuel Alito made this remark.

[Nick Eicher]

It certainly is an interesting argument. It's an interesting constitutional argument. It's an interesting political science argument about.

[David Bonson]

Advantages and disadvantages of allowing Congress to impose removal restrictions on executive branch officers.

[Jenny Ruff]

I asked Professor Pushaw his take.

[Bob Pushaw]

I'm an originalist. I think the unitary executive theory is correct. And I think that what we have is an unaccountable blob of administrative agency bureaucrats. I mean, if you read the Constitution, I think the language is pretty clear. The executive power of the United States shall be vested in the president of the United States, not the president, United States comma, and a bunch of independent agencies and people who outside his. That's not what it says. And the president has a duty to take care of laws, be faithfully executed. And he can't faithfully execute the laws if he can't control people who are underneath him.

[Jenny Ruff]

But where will all of this lead? Next month the court is scheduled to hear Trump v. Cook about the president's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. A ruling here that favors Trump should logically extend to the Fed and that could give the president the power to control monetary policy. But the court is going to take up a question of whether an exception applies. We'll have that for you in the coming weeks. And that's this week's legal docket.

[Kent Covington]

Additional support comes from Commuter Bible, the audio Bible podcast series to match the.

[Bob Pushaw]

Work week available via podcast apps and.

[Kent Covington]

Commuterbible.Org and from missions Upside Down, a free award winning video series about Christian missions past, present and into the future. Missionsupsidedown.com.

[Jenny Ruff]

Coming up next on THE WORLD and everything in it. On Monday, Money beat.

[Nick Eicher]

Time now to talk business, markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bonson. David heads up the wealth management firm the Bonson Group. He is here now. And good morning to you, David.

[David Bonson]

Good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

[Nick Eicher]

Well, David, the two economic reports driving headlines this past week were the jobs report and the consumer inflation numbers. According to one of them, inflation cooled a bit. That's the consumer price index reading cpi. According to the other, unemployment rose to its highest level in several years. Both of these reports, of course, affected by delays and distortions tied to the government shutdown. So David, as you look at those numbers, whether you look together or separately, however you want to approach it, what stands out to you about what they do and do not say about the economy right now?

[David Bonson]

Well, let's start with the unemployment report because it's One of the rare times that I get to say that move higher this case to 4.6% unemployment was for exactly the right reason, which was that the amount of people entering the labor force had gone up. So now you have to see the new people that are coming into the labor force that are adding to that denominator. You have to see them get jobs. But it is a good thing for more people to be coming in the labor force and we've seen so little of that for so long that I'll take that as an encouraging sign. Although there weren't a lot of new jobs created on a net basis. And you when the administration's talking about some of the new jobs created this year in the private sector, that's a gross number and it isn't looking at the net that we've had a pickup in layoffs this year. So there's still a lot of work to be done on the jobs front, nick. But a 4.6% unemployment rate from 4.5 because of the fact that more people enter the labor force, that's a better outcome. Now, the CPI number, I hesitate to even talk about it because I cannot believe for the life of me that they even released it with essentially no data from October. A totally made up number on the shelter side because they had no data. So they plugged in a 0% number for it and only 14 days of data from November. And then the full month that we had was from September, which by now here in December is obviously totally obsolete. So it was just a very odd number. It didn't include any insurance figures. Auto insurance is a pretty big component of people spending and monthly expenses. So I didn't really put much into it. Whether people want to assume the current inflation rate is somewhere between two and a half or three is immaterial to me. It is somewhere in there. By the way, I've long believed that the contribution to CPI from shelter is overstated, but I think the administration Putting in a 0% number is a little disingenuous. So we have a little room to go here in terms of the shutdown being done before we get data that I think is going to be reliable.

[Nick Eicher]

Yeah. So between zero and more than that, a lot of guesswork going on here.

[David Bonson]

Well, look, zero could be right, it could be negative. I don't think it's negative. But the point is they don't know either. They put it in as an input and the footnotes are pretty clear. You had 14 days of data, you had no data in October. You were missing whole product categories. So it's hard to believe that the news outlets spent as much time as they did covering it at all.

[Nick Eicher]

And given all of that, David, do you think it would have been better for the government simply to say, yeah, we don't know enough right now, instead of publishing numbers the Fed itself is looking at skeptically, so maybe just skip it and regroup in January?

[David Bonson]

I suppose not. I suppose that that would have looked a little funky. And so to be honest with you, they did disclo the holes in this report. The administration said this is missing this, missing that. I think the flaw here was that the way the financial media reported on it, they didn't adequately footnote it. But the report itself did have all the right caveats.

[Nick Eicher]

Okay, so that brings us to your Dividend Cafe this week, David. You take a step back from the noise, the month to month and take a 25 year view. What emerged from that exercise, I think is a pattern of repeated instability, economic instability, instability, political cultural instability stretching back across a quarter century. Why was it important to you to zoom out like that?

[David Bonson]

Well, I would argue that I could zoom out even further and we're not going to see anything any different. You could take any 25 year period. And that's because you and I know we live in a fallen world. And on this side of glory, one of the hallmarks of original sin is that you end up in a systemic basis with geopolitical original sin, with economic instabilities and so forth. There's no 25 year period that isn't gonna have that. But I wanted to focus on these 25 years. Cause we're now at the end of the first quarter century, you know, this new century, it's unbelievable. If people were to look at it and go, hey, what's happened so far in 25 years? And you say all in this 25 years, you have nine, 11, you have the tech implosion, you have the global financial crisis that brought the world's financial system to its. You have the ascendancy of China, you have the COVID pandemic, there's all sorts of major events. And do we want to argue that these 25 years were more unstable than any other 25 year period, than the Cold War, than World War II, then Vietnam, then Watergate. The news cycle has these things all the time. And I think it is really, first of all, it's an interesting trip down memory lane to think about the last 25 years. But for investors and for those looking at this in the context of economics, to look at it and then say, oh, all of those major instabilities and investors are up seven and a half times over the last 25 years. It ought to give us a perspective on how markets absorb instability. I gotta say, I think markets absorb instability a lot better than governments do.

[Nick Eicher]

And that gets to one of the big takeaways for me, that government economic policy may not matter as much as we often think that it might, because there is just something about the resilience of a free market economy and the ability of businesses and business leaders to adapt.

[David Bonson]

And that's where you have to combine your two sentences there. Because it doesn't matter about the policy as long as you have the free market economy. If the policies are to confiscate all corporate profits, well, that would change things. But to the extent that we have a generally a free market system, you're exactly right. And this is also part of my theological framework that as much as original sin means I expect ongoing instability, I also believe in a human person created by God with faculties for overcoming problems, with the ability to create solutions, with an innovative and productive engine behind him or her. That is a part of our created person. And that's where the prophet realities come from, is how God made the human person. You put that at scale. You put that in the context of an interconnected, global, very substantially resourced economy. That's how you get the kind of profit growth and innovations we've had that have led to really tremendous returns for investors.

[Nick Eicher]

All right, David Bonson, founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of the Bonson Group. He [e-mail] and at World Opinions. David, thank you. Merry Christmas to you and we will see you after the holiday.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Merry Christmas, Nick.

[Nick Eicher]

Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Iker.

[Jenny Ruff]

And I'm Jenny Ruff. Up next, the world history book. For the past year, the history book has been shaped by a growing team of contributors. You've heard them. This week we hear from Paul Butler as he looks back on a decade of stories going back to the early days of this regular feature and the transition to a new generation of history buffs that's already underway.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

On August 3, 2015, I voiced my very first World Radio history book segment. We begin today with August 2, 1923. President Warren G. Harding, in office for only about two and a half years, dies suddenly during a trip to California. After voicing, writing or producing nearly 500 history book segments, today is officially my last. When I started producer and co host Joseph Slife wrote the segment and I just got to voice it. But over time I began writing the segment more and more myself, and since 2017 I've been the one primarily responsible for the weekly segment. One of the modern scholars who influenced my approach to history book is independent historian Larry Eskridge.

[Ryan M. Reeves]

One of the great things about history is that it is the study of everything. Every dimension of life that you can imagine. Social, economic, military, political, religious, theological. It's all history.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Eskridge used to study American evangelicals at Wheaton College.

[Ryan M. Reeves]

Inevitably, if you want to understand the world in which you live, you need to have some context.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Many of the stories featured each week have been of general interest, but we've also tried to consistently highlight Christian history.

[Ryan M. Reeves]

Sometimes when you look at your own particular strain of Christianity or look at the church, there's some characters who are questionable, and that's an exercise which can help you think more Christianly, I'd say, about your own situation and time.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

It's hard to nail down my favorite segments from the last 10 years, but here are some highlights of a few of them. We begin today with February 24th in the year 303. The first of four edicts is published by Roman Emperor Diocletian, prohibiting Christians from gathering for worship. Ryan M. Reeves is associate professor of Historical Theology at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.

[Nick Eicher]

Across the vast majority of the Roman Empire, the Christians experienced the harshest persecutions that they would ever face.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Diocletian's persecution of the church does not work as he hoped. The church does not fracture, but rather grows stronger. Next March 9, 1831American Presbyterian minister and evangelist Charles Finney concludes a six month series of meetings in Rochester, New York. The revival marks the peak of America's second great awakening. The New York meetings lead to the closing of many city theaters and taverns, and crime falls by two thirds. As many as 100,000 people reportedly are converted during the event. According to Mark Knoll, professor of history at University of Notre Dame. Charles Finney's legacy is clearly seen in modern evangelicalism.

[David Bonson]

Things like preaching for a decision, things like asking people to make a commitment to Christ at the end of a meeting, had been very rarely done before Finney's time, and he became a master of this sort of activity. And these have been characteristics that have been quite prominent since his time in American, especially American Protestant history.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

We begin with October 22, 1844. That's the day Baptist lay minister William Miller predicted Christ's return. Miller arrived at the date by comparing Daniel's prophecies and revelation to historical events and computed a timeline for the end of the world. As many as 100,000 so called Millerites believed him.

[David Bonson]

Some of them quit their jobs in order to get ready for the end. Some people gave away their possessions.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

David Rowe is professor Emeritus at Middle Tennessee State University and author of God's Strange Work, William Miller and the End of the World.

[David Bonson]

There were people who confessed to crimes, people who solved long standing disputes with neighbors or with family members. But for the most part, people just prayed and gathered with their families.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

When October 22, 1844 came and went without any visible sign of Christ's return, the day became known as the Great Disappointment.

[David Bonson]

It was a pretty shattering experience for all of them.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

There are many others I'd like to highlight, but just one more. It's from August 3, 2020. It marked the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims setting sail from Holland. It was a personal story for me as my wife is a direct descendant of John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims. In the summer of 1620, about 100 separatists left Holland for England. Now the Pilgrims Pastor John John Robinson had stayed behind in Holland with the rest of the church. He sends a farewell letter to be read aloud before they set out on the next part of their journey.

[Nick Eicher]

Though I be constrained for a while to be bodily absent from you, make account of me in the meanwhile, as of a man divided in myself with great pain, and as having my better part with you.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

Pastor John Robinson ends his letter much like his Farewell Sermons sermon a couple weeks earlier, commending this small band of Pilgrims into the hand of their Creator.

[Nick Eicher]

I do earnestly commend unto your care and conscience that he who hath made the heavens and the earth, and whose providence is over all his works, would so guide and guard you in your ways, inwardly by his Spirit, outwardly by the hand of his power. Fare you well in him, in whom you trust, and in whom I rest.

[Solicitor General John Sauer]

John Robinson When I first worked on the history book, I stepped into a feature Joseph's life had built from the beginning. Since then, it's been my privilege to steward and shape it. Over the past year, I've been gradually stepping back, working with a growing team of younger writers to pass history book along in the same spirit. So it continues and I'm grateful to have been a part of it. That's this week's World History Book. I'm Paul Butler.

[Jenny Ruff]

Tomorrow, a first hand report from Dearborn, Michigan, an American city with a Muslim local government and observations from African Christians about Christmas customs here and there. That and more tomorrow. I'm Jenny Ruff.

[Nick Eicher]

And I'm Nick Icar. The world and everything in it comes to you from World Radio. World's mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates and inspires. The Bible says to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Verses 5b and 6 of Revelation, chapter 1. Go now in Grace and Peace.

[Justice Elena Kagan]

Sa.