The World and Everything in It: November 28, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Dual citizenship comes with certain duties, and failure to file tax reports comes with penalties. But how much of a penalty? That’s the question before the U.S. Supreme Court.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Legal Docket.

Also today the Monday Moneybeat: listener questions today on interest rates and why there are so many schools of economic thought.

And the WORLD History Book: a beloved children’s TV character turns 50 this week, but who’s counting?

REICHARD: It’s Monday, November 28th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kristen Flavin.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: China protests » AUDIO: [Protest chanting]

Chinese citizens are joining together in a rare act of defiance—protesting ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns.

Protests broke out in at least eight cities over the weekend. China continues to force some of its residents to isolate in their homes in hopes of stopping the spread of COVID-19 even though most other countries in the world have lifted strict lockdowns.

U.S. Congressman Mike Gallagher says the uprisings represent a major threat to China’s repressive government

GALLAGHER: Ultimately what the Chinese Communist Party fears more than anything else is its own citizens. 

This round of protests started after 10 people died in an apartment fire in Xinjiang province. Protesters questioned whether lockdown measures made it difficult for the building’s residents to escape.

Iran soccer protests » Meanwhile, Iran’s oppressive regime remains under fire from protesters who increasingly have support from around the world.

Iranians have demonstrated for women’s rights for the past two months since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody. Mahsa Amini was arrested for not following the country’s strict Islamic dress code.

In London over the weekend, activists gathered to cut their hair in solidarity with Iranian women.

AUDIO: [Chanting, “Women love freedom”]

The U.S. national soccer team took a stand against Iran on its social media accounts. The two countries are set to meet in the World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday.

A post over the weekend showed the Iranian flag without the center emblem that reads, “There is no god but Allah.” Iran’s government was outraged at the gesture.

Weather/travel » In the U.S. weather forecasts call for heavy snow in the Northwest and Upper Plains this week.

Fox meteorologist Rick Reichmuth.

REICHMUTH: We’re going to see a lot of snow this week, and that’s great news. We have the drought that’s been so ongoing in the West. We’re going to get a lot of moisture...

On the East Coast, severe weather caused headaches for airline passengers on one of the busiest travel days of the year. According to the website Flight Aware, airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights Sunday.

Shopping » Americans officially kicked off the holiday shopping season this weekend.

AUDIO: Anything on sale, Christmas presents, that’s the goal today. Save as much money as you can while also spending money.

It’s the first Black Friday since 2019 that stores have put few, if any, pandemic-related restrictions on in-person shopping.

AUDIO: It's nice to be out again and doing this, because for the last few years people have been inside for the holidays but to be able to get out and shop and see people face to face in the flesh has been really nice.

Many retailers offered deep discounts as record inflation threatened to keep shoppers away. One mall in New Orleans served free champagne to shoppers who spent $50 or more on Friday.

Landslide » In Italy, a deadly landslide buried families in mud after heavy rains. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Five people were missing and seven were found dead on the resort island of Ischia.

Mud and debris hurtled through a busy port city Saturday morning. The disaster killed 3-week-old infant and his parents, a pair of school-age siblings, and two other adults.

The force of the landslide collapsed buildings and pushed vehicles into the sea. 

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Irene Cara obit » AUDIO: ["What a Feeling"]

Eighties pop icon Irene Cara has died. She was known for the hit song “Flashdance … What a Feeling,” from the movie Flashdance. She also starred in the 1980 screen version of the musical Fame.

Both movies chronicled the struggles of young artists vying for prestige. Cara won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and two Grammys for her music. She was 63.

AUDIO: [“Remember my name! Fame!”]

I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: the responsibilities of dual citizenship.

Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Monday, November 28th, 2022 and you’re listening to The World and Everything in It. We thank you for joining us today. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Well, there’s today and tomorrow yet if you’ve never made a gift to support the work of WORLD to take advantage of WORLD’s Giving Tuesday offer.

So if you make a first-time gift today or tomorrow, a longtime WORLD Mover has offered to match your gift dollar for dollar. The only limit is you have to get your gift in before the end of the day tomorrow, Giving Tuesday.

EICHER: Right, but if you do, your first-time WORLD Mover gift is doubled, and as we just said, that generous match is today and tomorrow. You can give securely online at WNG.org/GivingTuesday.

It takes significant resources to report, write, and distribute sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth. If not for WORLD, it just doesn’t get done. So if you benefit from our work, would you take a moment now and support that work in any way that you can? WNG.org/GivingTuesday.

REICHARD: Time now for Legal Docket.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a dispute couched in trademark law. This is one I just had to bring to your attention because it’s kind of fun.

As I say, it’s a trademark question. Whisky maker Jack Daniel’s says another company is violating its trademark. That other company makes plastic dog toys that mimic well known drinks. Here, a plastic toy shaped like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s with the same color scheme and labeled “Bad Spaniels.” And instead of the words “Old No. 7 brand” that’s on the real bottle, the toy has the words “The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet.”

EICHER: Oh boy.

The toy maker says, come on! It’s a joke and everyone knows it. But Jack Daniel’s says the toy could confuse customers and that it usurps the goodwill the whiskey maker has earned over the course of a century and a half.

REICHARD: The toy company is VIP Properties and also parodies other drinks with its toys, like Mountain Drool. You can be sure other companies will be watching what the court does with this case. I can hardly wait to cover this case!

EICHER: Well, on to the one oral argument we’ll cover today: Bittner v United States. It’s a tax case, not nearly so fun as Mountain Drool.

Here, the IRS fined a taxpayer $2.7 million for failing to file certain forms, though it was unintentional.

Here’s the background.

The taxpayer is Alexandru Bittner. He was born and educated in Romania, when it was under communist control. He moved to the United States, worked as a plumber, became a naturalized citizen in the late 1980s. maintained dual citizenship and stayed in the United States for 8 years.

After communism fell, Bittner returned to Romania. He found financial success through a variety of businesses and investments for two decades—during which time he earned more than $70 million.

Bittner opened multiple foreign bank accounts and—during these years—had little contact with the United States.

REICHARD: Bittner moved back to the United States in 2011 and that’s when he learned he should have been filing certain reports with the IRS while he was in Romania.

The relevant law here is called The Bank Secrecy Act. It’s a federal law that requires taxpayers to report their interests in foreign bank accounts, what the lawyers will call F-BARs, Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.

The moment Bittner realized his mistake, he took steps to try to make things right. Here’s his lawyer at the Supreme Court, Daniel Geyser:

GEYSER: The Act requires parties to file reports, not report individual accounts. Any failure to file a report thus gives rise to a single statutory violation, no matter how many accounts a person has or how many mistakes a person might make on a single form. Because there is no independent duty to report each account, there is no independent violation every time an account is not reported.

EICHER: Bittner agrees he owes a penalty for late filing, but the IRS calculates the penalty differently.

And in this case “differently” adds up to $2 million.

Here’s IRS lawyer, Matthew Guarnieri:

GUARNIERI: The Bank Secrecy Act authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to assess a separate civil penalty for each foreign financial account that a U.S. person fails to report. Petitioner violated the Act 272 times, not just five times, when he failed to report dozens of foreign financial accounts in each of five years. That understanding of the statutory scheme flows straightforwardly from the text.

REICHARD: The Act requires a person to report all of his foreign bank accounts on a single annual form. The penalty for failing to report those accounts by not filing the form is $10,000.

But is that penalty imposed on a “per form” basis? Or on a “per account” basis?

The IRS says Bittner failed to file on each account, 272 times.

The Biden administration says interpreting the law that way discourages tax evasion. Of course, it also discourages citizenship, every year thousands give their passports back because citizenship is too expensive.

EICHER: The government says Bittner must have known of his obligation to file because he had to answer specific questions about foreign accounts to pay his income taxes. Further, the IRS found indications that Bittner had tried to conceal assets overseas.

Justice Samuel Alito questioned the government’s argument that it’s not enough to say “I didn’t know” about filing these forms.

ALITO: Well, we are told -- maybe you'll dispute this fact -- that many, many people who have foreign bank accounts of over -- over $10,000 are unaware of this regulation, unaware of this law and these regulations and, even if they're aware of it, they're pretty hard to parse. So all those people are committing violations, and they -- if they come in and they say I didn't know anything about this, doesn't matter. That's not reasonable cause.

Guarnieri the government lawyer answered that “I don’t know” isn’t enough by itself. Yes, there’s a clause in the law that prevents fining people if their violation stemmed from some “reasonable cause.” But other factors matter, such as whether the person was otherwise exercising ordinary business prudence. And Bittner wasn’t, he argued.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed sympathetic to Bittner. After all, it’s legal for people to have foreign bank accounts.

JACKSON: And they can structure those accounts in any way they want. So they can put their million dollars in a single account, they can have 10 accounts with, right, however much, you know, $100,000 apiece or whatever, but you're extracting different penalties from them for this purpose based on this totally lawful behavior.

Guarnieri argued, yes, but look to the purpose of the statute.

GUARNIERI: And there is a good reason that Congress set the penalty scheme up this way. Each time a U.S. person maintains an account with a foreign bank, that relationship is a matter of distinct concern to the United States.

REICHARD: “Distinct concern” because the United States is one of only two countries that tax people based on citizenship status. [The African nation of Eritrea is the other one.] Most other countries tax people based on where they live.

His lawyer argued: It’s that complexity of American tax rules that supports Bittner:

GEYSER: That is quite the burden on the average person, especially with the cudgel of per-account penalties hanging over their head if they lose. Anyone with 10 or 20 accounts could be facing massive fines.

Such as his client, who’s got a penalty increase of over 5000% hanging over him.

Still, the overall tenor of the questions seemed to lean in the government’s favor. Here’s Justice Elena Kagan to Bittner’s lawyer Geyser:

KAGAN: One might say that your version forces the government to treat equally someone who has a $10,000 account and somebody who, like your client, has extreme wealth and many many accounts and where he is depriving the government of much more information than, you know, the small “I have a checking account for $12,000” person does.

GEYSER: Well, Your Honor, the -- I -- I think, here, though, the relevant criteria, though, is what is the culpable conduct. And the culpable conduct under the Act is not filing a report….later…If Congress wanted to impose a separate penalty for each individual account, Congress would have said that.

EICHER: Being rich is not culpable conduct, in other words. Not filing forms on time, that’s culpable conduct.

Not only that, Geyser argued, but the Eighth Amendment prohibits the government from imposing excessive fines. And then there’s the rule of lenity. That says that if the law is vague in any way, it must be decided in favor of the taxpayer.

Sound arguments, but still. Context matters, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh injected some of the reasoning behind the Bank Secrecy Act:

KAVANAUGH: …of course, the broad context of this is September 11, the post-September 11 efforts to ferret out terrorist financing, and the government's and Congress -- the PATRIOT Act, and then this Act in terms of going after terrorist financing. Not surprisingly, therefore, the statute is -- has substantial penalties and is very broad and puts the duty, in essence, on people to know their legal obligations.

REICHARD: People keep foreign bank accounts for myriad reasons: sending money to their families, having ease of access to funds when traveling back home. Tax evasion does occur, of course, but not everyone with foreign accounts is out to cheat the government. With the Biden administration hiring tens of thousands more tax collectors and no signs of reining in its own spending, the pressure is on taxpayers everywhere to make sure every jot and tittle is attended to.

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: the Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time now for our weekly conversation on business, markets, and the economy with financial analyst and adviser David Bahnsen.

He’s head of the wealth management firm The Bahnsen Group and he’s here now.

David, good morning!

DAVID BAHNSEN, GUEST: Well, good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

EICHER: Short week with the holidays, David, but I see a busy week ahead with the Federal Reserve meeting this week to set the policy target for interest rates, so let’s touch on that before we get to listener questions.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, last week, in the shortened week, you had quite a nice move up in the stock market again. And I think the market expectation continues to be a repricing of expectations for the Fed, meaning that people believe the Fed is going to start slowing down, they're tightening. And if they're slowing down, they're tightening, that means they're getting closer to the point of stopping the tightening, the FOMC will announce, and by the way, the FOMC is the Federal Open Market Committee. And that's the specific group of voting governors in the Federal Reserve Board of Governors who actually get to set interest rate policy. And so the FOMC is sort of an elevated subset of the Federal Reserve. And on Wednesday, they'll announce that they are raising rates half of a percentage point. They have raised rates three quarters of a percentage point the last three meetings. So markets are expecting them to slow down the rate hikes starting this week.

EICHER: Okay, so I think that gives us a good segue into our first listener question this week, David. Here’s listener Sam Burnett.

BURNETT: Good morning, Nick and David. As interest rates rise, could you explain how the rise in interest rates affects the national debt? And is there an interest rate above which the federal government defaults on its loans? Thank you.

BAHNSEN: Well, that's a great question. And obviously, from a mathematical standpoint, the bulk of the United States treasuries debt is in shorter term debt instruments, they have debt that is maturing in 30 years and 20 years. And they have plenty of debt that's maturing in between five and 15 years from now debt that was taken at different points. And it's up to the Treasury to manage what we call the term structure, the different maturity points at which monies are to be paid back. But the bulk of the debt is and always has been very short term. And so it's really enabled a lot of extra borrowing and indebtedness, that the interest rates have been very near 0% for so long.

And now for the first time, you're going to actually see the debt service cost really increase because of higher interest rates. Now, some will say, Won't this be a terrible thing, then I can barely afford it. I would take the opposite approach to say, this is the reason why it won't happen. That In other words, the incentives for the central bank to enable the affordability of government borrowing are so high, that while they have been able to use the interest rate in this period for an extended period of time, they simply can't afford it and therefore won't allow it.

Now, of course, there's always been talk of this thing called ‘bond market vigilantes,' that the bond market will rebel and just simply demand a higher rate of interest to facilitate what they worry about being default borrowing, meaning borrowing that will not end up being able to be paid back. But of course, the problem with that is people thought it was the case when we had a trillion dollars of national debt. And we now have 31 trillion. And so I think those trying to prognosticate what the point of no return is for government indebtedness have lacked the creativity and imagination for excessive spending that the government has not lacked. And I would not dare set a time limit on how far the government is capable of kicking this can.

EICHER: You know, David, we receive lots of questions about interest rates, and I thought this listener’s question was pretty representative of so many, so I’ll use it as a follow-on to this discussion on interest rates. She asks: “You say that interest rates, like all prices, are meant to be discovered. Approximately what do you think the interest rates would be, currently, if that were allowed to happen, and is there any way that can be calculated?” What do you say to that?

BAHNSEN: Well, the irony, of course, in the question is that my position is not merely that 12 PhDs should not be imposing an interest rate, but also that David Bahnsen should not be imposing it. And so to be consistent as an advocate of market setting prices, and not prices being imposed, is that it therefore means I don't believe I could do it either. But I think the question is more predictive, like what would the rate be? And this is one thing that's really bothered a lot of my hard money and sound money friends over the years, is I've never actually thought the cost of borrowing would be significantly higher if the Fed got out of the way of hyper interventionism. The fact of the matter is that demand for US dollars and expectations for future growth - demand for dollars being so high, expectations for future growth being so low - that I don't think the interest rate would have been much higher than it has been. Now one of the ways we know this, Nick is the Fed messes and controls and manipulates the short term rate, the overnight borrowing rate for banks to lend money to banks. They do not have direct market control, they can manipulate it, but not direct control on the ten- year. As a matter of fact, the Fed hasn't bought any 10- year bonds in six months - from the end of 2014 until 2020, they didn't buy any 10-year bonds, and the interest rate stayed around 2%. So this is a negative thing I'm saying: you want the 10-year borrowing costs to be equal to the short term borrowing plus your expectation of growth, the premium you're giving up to lend your money out. So, the cost of time. And when the market is pricing that at two to 3%, they're putting a very low expectation on future growth. So if the question is for me to guess what the short term borrowing rate would be, right now, if the Fed was not involved, and banks were only lending to banks, and yet there was liquidity, you didn't need a lender of last resort, there was functioning financial markets, I think it would be well above zero and well below four - where it is now. So I would guess somewhere closer to three than four, four and a half or five. So this is the first time in least 15 years that I think the Fed is setting the rate above the natural rate. But that of course, is something we're not going to know because this is non-falsifiable. I can't be proven wrong because the market forces will not be setting rates anytime soon.

EICHER: We do have time for one more. David, this is Paul Gebel of Edmond, Oklahoma.

GEBEL: I'm asking this question in honor of my high-school economics teacher, Mr. Paulus. Fifty-two years ago, he made the subject come alive for me, and you're carrying on in that same tradition. So here's my question. Why are there so many theories of how economics should be done? One would think that after centuries of trying different approaches, and seeing some practices obviously work, while others produce pretty dismal results, economists and investors should be able to say, “this is how money should be handled,” but disagreements continue. Why is that? I look forward to your answer.

BAHNSEN: I think that the assumption in the question is flawed, which is that economics is an empirical science that once we can merely see the actual empirical results, we can formulate consensus. But the reason you will always have differing and indeed, flawed view of economics, as you rightly pointed out, despite the testimony of history, is that economics flows out of anthropology. What I mean by that is, there are different views of the human person. There are different views of human nature, there are different understandings of what the human person is here on earth to do, human person's relationship to society, in my worldview, the human person's relationship to God. And all of these things are actually what formulate our view of economics. And so the reason we're going to continue to have different views of economics is that we have different views of anthropology. I don't believe that we would have Marxism, collectivism, Keynesianism, a heavy love affair with central planning, if everybody adopted Christian anthropology. I think a Christian anthropology would be a bridge to a more consensus understanding of economics, that then is anecdotally supported by empirical evidence. However, I don't believe that we're going to go to a period of uniform agreement on anthropology anytime soon. And therefore, this all at once answers your question why we have disagreement and restates the case for a properly formed view of economics, which is that it is rooted in the Creator/ creature distinction. And that theological truism formulates our understanding of economics and therefore, economic application. And along the way, our attempts to persuade people about certain matters of policy with empirical evidence can be anecdotally effective, but it's still trying to treat the symptom instead of the root problem. And when we treat economics or teach economics at root, at first principles, which is our understanding of anthropology, that's when we have a chance of getting this all right.

EICHER: All right, well, great questions this week too. Thanks to Sam Burnett and Paul Gebel. We love listener questions and if you have something on your, please get in touch at feedback@worldandeverything.com.

I’m happy to read your question if you just put it in writing in an email. But, I think it’s so much better to hear your questions in your voice. So if you’d take that extra step and make a voice memo recording of your question and email the file, so much the better. Same address: feedback@worldandeverything.com.

David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group. His personal website is Bahnsen.com, B-A-H-N-S-E-N. That’s how you spell David’s last name correctly and knowing that will get you to the right URL online if you want to see what David’s up to. Bahnsen.com.

David, thanks again, and I’ll look forward to talking next week.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, November 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up, the WORLD History Book. 

50 years ago this week, two notable beginnings—one, a popular video game and the other, the debut of a memorable television character. Plus, 75 years ago, the United Nations approves a plan that leads to the founding of the modern nation of Israel.

EICHER: But first, 100 years ago this week, a British pilot takes to the skies over New York City. Here’s Paul Butler.

NEWSREEL AUDIO: Hey, what's up everybody gawking at? What's up there looks so interesting. Why it's nothing but skywriting…

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: On November 28th, 1922, Royal Air Force Captain Cyril Turner is behind the controls of his aerobatic biplane. He writes the first documented message in the skies over the Big Apple. Audio here courtesy of Yesterdays’ Newsreel:

NEWSREEL AUDIO: (con’t) First message is: Hello USA. Letters are 10,000 feet up and half a mile wide.

Skywriting requires stable smoke that can be shut on and off as the pilot writes the letters upside down from his perspective. The pilot diverts paraffin oil through the engine’s exhaust. The oil vaporizes, producing a steady stream of smoke. A single letter can be as high as one mile and take up to a minute and a half to create. Some messages stretch 15 miles. Under ideal conditions, the message is legible for 15 to 20 minutes.

AUDIO: [NEWSREEL]

RAF pilot Cyril Turner adds to his greeting over New York: “Call Vanderbilt 7200”—the Vanderbilt Hotel telephone number. Over the next three hours, the hotel receives more than 40-thousand calls…skywriting advertising is born.

Next, 75 years ago this week, the UN General Assembly adopts resolution 181. Audio here from a 1947 British Movietone Newsreel:

NEWSREEL: Long Island—the General Assembly of the United Nations has made its decision on Palestine. The map shows what partition means. The Jewish state colored light, the Arab state dark. Jaffa to go to the Arabs, Jerusalem internationalized.

The resolution calls for the partition of British controlled Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The city of Jerusalem is to be governed by a special international body.

Since the end of World War I, Jewish immigration to Palestine had been on the rise—increasing tensions between Arabs and immigrants to the region. After World War II, Britain wanted out of the Middle East and in April 1947, it appealed to the United Nations. After much debate, the UN voted on a two state proposal:

NEWSREEL: (con’t) …the resolution of the ... Committee on Palestine was adopted by 33 votes: 13 against and 10 abstentions.

Many in the Jewish community pointed to the resolution as the legal basis for the establishment of Israel:

NEWSREEL: And this was the scene the next day in Jerusalem: the Jewish people at once began to celebrate the United Nations decision…

But Arabs were unhappy with the UN resolution:

NEWSREEL: …the Arab reaction was to follow two days later…Arabs advancing on the center of Jerusalem at the beginning of a three day strike and an orgy of wrecking, looting and bloodshed.

Violence continues in the region to this day as the international community and foreign governments continue to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Next, two cultural milestones—both happening 50 years ago this week. First, Atari Inc. releases its arcade version of Pong…

AUDIO: [PONG COMPUTER SOUNDS]

Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games. It is a simple two dimensional video game meant to simulate table tennis.

AUDIO: [MAGNAVOX COMMERCIAL]

Painfully simple compared to today’s games, Pong established the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey game console. Players use a paddle wheel to control a racket up and down on a vertical axis. A block representing a ball bounces from side to side. Players try to reach eleven points before their opponent—earning points when the other fails to return the ball.

And speaking of counting…that brings us to our second anniversary—50 years ago today:

COUNT VON COUNT: Do you know why they called me the count? Because I love to count things. | I know | Oh look, blocks! I will count them.

Audio here from the first episode of Sesame Street—season 4.

Count von Count is a friendly vampire. He is a parody of Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula. His first appearance includes counting blocks with Bert and Ernie.

COUNT VON COUNT: 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6!

The Count suffers from arithmomania—a legendary malady of vampires. He counts anything and everything. When he finishes counting, he usually laughs and announces the total. The final tally is frequently accompanied by a crash of thunder.

The Muppet wiki fandom page includes contradictory accounts to his supposed age, but today marks his 50th birthday on the show.

Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you had some time—while you bounced between celebrations—to follow Count Von Count’s example…and count your blessings.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: Count Your Blessings - Arr. by Dan Miller (Jens Korndoerfer, Organ) 

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Employment in the tech world.

After Elon Musk took over Twitter earlier this month, he began laying off employees across the organization. He’s not alone. Tech companies Meta, Amazon, and Stripe are following suit. We’ll explore why.

Plus Emily Whitten reviews WORLD’s Audiobook of the Year.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

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The Bible says: “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears… we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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