Financial Issues - 08.26.2026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Financial Issues, where we join reality with truth,
helping you make the most of your money by honoring
God with your investments. Now listen man, as we give
you the practical tools and advice you need to become
a biblically responsible investor.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning, folks, welcome to Financial Issues. Is great to
be here with you this morning. Sethy Dinski the studio,
a team, Sam Case the rest of the crew here today.
We're delighted to have you with us, spending your Tuesday
morning with us on financial issues. Hope you'll join the conversation, folks.
You got to join our live chat every morning nine
oh five Eastern time. Financial issues dot org slash live
great place to be to join the conversation there. Today's show,

(00:44):
Alex McFarland, doctor Alex McFarland, national author, speaker and evangelist,
will join me shortly. New York City is, in his
own words, poised for disaster as the looming shadow of
Muslim socialist mayoral candidate Zoron Mom Donnie stands over the
Big Apple. McFarland will give his expertise on this very
important issue. I'm excited for that. He'll be coming up
in about ten minutes with me. Folks looking forward to

(01:07):
having him on. Also by now pay later, loans, bet pls,
I believe is what they're called for short, Sam, as
the utes call them the young folks.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, that's the Hits way.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's exactly well. They're now reaching record levels among Americans.
So we'll touch on that later.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
And what could go wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Exactly right, good question, what could possibly go wrong? Your
questions and comments will get to those first and foremost, folks,
right off the bat. President Trump spoke yesterday very favorably
about last month's stock deal between the United States government
and Intel. This was yesterday. We'll explore what's up with
that right now, Sam, what can you tell us about this?
Trump was touting this yesterday. Very interesting discussion to open

(01:48):
our shoes.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, And the reason he's touting it is a lot
of conservatives are not too pleased about this deal, saying,
reeks of big government, socialism, communism, whatever you want to
call it. The US government taking a ten percent steak,
which I believe will be the biggest steak in the
company in the chip making giant Intel. Trump posted on
truth Social that he would quote make deals like this
for our country all day long and said only quote

(02:11):
stupid people would oppose this type of deal, claiming the
arrangement would make the US richer and bring more jobs
to America. And according to CNBC, the steak is worth
get this eight point nine billion dollars. The question is
how did we spend that money? Well, what happened here
is the Trump administration pretty cleverly leverage the Chips Act,
leverage money that was already supposed to go into Intel

(02:34):
for this stock deal. Here's White House economist Kevin Hassett
giving those details yesterday.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
The bottom line is that because of the Chips Act,
the US government had decided to give a whole bunch
of money to Intel, and the President Trump and Howard
Leptik Secretary Lutnik talk to Intel about the progress they
were making in the hurdles they had they had to
hop over in order to get the money, and I
don't think they're particularly happy with that progress. And so

(03:03):
in the end they worked out a deal where Intel
is going to get the Chips money, but in exchange,
we're going to get some equity, and equity is not voting,
so there's not going to be government intrusion into the
business of Intel. It's more like a down payment on
a sovereign wealth fund, which many many countries have.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Both Hassett and Trump say more deals like this could
be coming in the future. I saw Howard Lutnick today
saying that Trump is also considering some deals like this
in the defense industry as well.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
So your thoughts set, Yeah, I saw that this morning. Sam.
You know, Sam, Before I give my thoughts on it,
can you give us a little bit of the background
for this, because that is that's somewhat important for this.
Intel was not doing so well.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Before this can right, and that is some of the
heartburn over this whole thing is that now it appears
that the Trump administration has sunk the US into what
is a struggling company. Intel stock price, according to National Review,
dropped by over fifty percent between early twenty one, twenty
two twenty one and early twenty twenty three, then after
a brief spike, it then declined by more than fifty

(04:05):
percent again since the beginning of twenty twenty four. I
think I looked at their numbers and they're still in
the negative over five years. So the idea is now
we're tied to this struggling company and what is the
government going to be willing to do to regulate around it,
to prop it up? So are we are we going
to be propping up a dying company so that can't
fail and just be sinking more and more money into

(04:26):
this thing.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And the word that comes to my mind, Sam with
that is that terrible s word subsidies. Government subsidies. We're
subsidizing now this company? Interesting one boy. All we needed, Sam,
was another controversial topic to start our show. We had
Social Security yesterday and now we got this one chat.
What do you think? Let me ask you, is this
a good idea of what Trump's doing here? I'd love
to hear your thoughts put them in the chat right now.

(04:48):
I'll share mine here right off the bat, Sam, let
me say this. I really like Donald Trump. I really
like him. I think he's the best president of my lifetime.
He's a leader with conviction.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Now you say that, it makes me think you're going
to say someth and Sam, I don't like about it. Donald.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I like Donald Trump a lot. I celebrated his win
back in November. I'm grateful to what God has done.
What I'm about to say, and you're exactly right, Sam,
It has nothing to do with the litany of good
things Trump has done so far or my confidence in him.
I might be one of those stupid people that he's
referring to, though, Sam, I think this is a terrible
move from the Trump administration. Terrible, terrible, terrible move. First off,

(05:23):
right off the bat, Sam, we talked about this yesterday
when were preparing for the show. But this set's a
really bad precedent. That's a really really bad precedent for
the US government. We're all feeling great about this, or
maybe at least we're like, Okay, whatever Trump's doing this,
you know, maybe it's to grow American jobs, the Sovereign
Wealth Fund, as Hassett just said. But the reason we're
feeling great about it, Sam, is because of the one

(05:44):
who's in the Oval office. Trump is in control. God forbid.
But this could happen, God forbid three years from now.
Gavin Newsom, for example, beats out jd Vance for the
presidential race and now we have President Newsom. God forbid it.
I say that again, God forbid it. But what if
that happens now he's in charge. I'm not so sure
I like this deal with him in charge, or.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
What if the president is said that he can also
buy more companies.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, that's exactly right. He can buy more companies. He
can choose which boosts he wants the US government to
give to these dying companies. Folks, this is not the
free market. This is the market that is being controlled
by the federal government. And Sam, I gotta say this,
this might be controversial. If Joe Biden had done this,
if Barack Obama had done this, if Bill Clinton had
done this, how would we have, as conservatives have reacted.

(06:30):
I would not have been pleased Bill Clinton. I was
only like six at the time, but that's neither here
nor there. If Biden or Obama had done this, I
would have rightly come down on them and said that's stupid.
You can't do that. Chat. What do you think? How
would you have reacted had Joe Biden done this, probably
with some warranted outrage. Just because Trump does it does
not automatically make it good. And again I say that

(06:50):
as someone who really likes Donald Trump. Secondly, Sam, we
talked about this as well. How can we celebrate the
cure for a company being the federal government swooping in
to save the day, which is really what this is right.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You can't imagine a thriving company is going to be
willing to take a deal like this saying you know,
we're doing so well. You know what we need right
now the government to have a major stake in our company.
That's really going to boost our sales. Yeah, that's not
a good sign for the company.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's a sign of sickness. That's a sign of sickness
that the government needs to come in and help. You know, Sam,
when I heard this yesterday, and I'll ask this to you,
we talked about this. This sounded like a government bailout
wrapped in different wrapping paper to me. You know, we
all come down hard on government bailouts, and we should.
How is this similar to a government bailout? And how
is it different?

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, it'd be a government bailout, and that you have
a failing company and now you have the government injecting
money into it to prop it up. And the way
that is different is this money was already going to
go to Intel because this was part of that Biden
Chips Act. So what Trump was doing was leveraging that
money to get something out of it, which, as I said,
you could view that as clever and maybe he's even
right that it could bring jobs to the United States

(07:59):
and make the country rich. Sure, the problem is now
you have the United States government tied to this company
and its interests are tied to this company. So is
it now a competitor? Is the United States government now
a direct competitor to major companies like Innvidia? Are we
now going to be regulating the industry to prop up
Intel and hurt Invidia? And then maybe even worse than that,

(08:19):
Let's say you have some guy in Silicon Valley right now,
he's just a genius. He's working in his garage, he
doesn't really have much money, but he has developed a
brand new chip that is going to change the future.
Is the government going to now try to crush that
guy to keep Intel going? And that just doesn't seem
like a good way to pay forward the future, especially

(08:39):
in an industry like semiconductors where we need the best,
most advanced chips in order to beat China. Because this
is actually how China does things is they have their
guys on the inside in these companies. They still let
the companies behave like free companies, but they're still keeping
a watchful eye over what they're doing. And as we've
seen with China, that crushes their productivity because it doesn't

(09:00):
allow people to take risky, creative moves when you have
the government breathing down your neck.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's well said, man, yeah, really really well said. You know,
either way, whether it's a bailout or not, whether it's
a traditional bailout or a bailout like this, a stock bailout.
The fact that the US government's driving company stock up
buying stake and it's not good look for the company,
not a good sign for Intel. And this is not
the free market, folks, Sam you mentioned, you know, the
stock was tanking before this. Since the deal, it's risen
back up twenty eight percent. I listen, I love when

(09:27):
companies that I own when the stock rises. I think
that's great, but it doesn't always mean that it's a
good thing. Well, you do own it now it is
we all own my tax dollars. That's exactly right. And third,
this is you know, this is I think a really
important thing here, folks. And I want to be careful
saying this, but I think it's worth saying. This is
not outright socialism, but it is a step towards socialism.
Trump is not a fascist. Okay, the liberals will tell

(09:48):
you that he is. They'll use the term fascist to
describe as a euphemism for anything conservative. They'll say Trump
is a fascist. What they really mean is Trump is
a conservative, and I don't like it.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
They're calling him a fascist for cleaning up DC exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's not fascism. What Trump is doing here, though, unfortunately,
is a step towards what actual fascism is, where you
don't have the government controlling everything like in socialism. But
like you mentioned, Sam, China is very similar to this.
You have companies who are definitionally free in quotes, but
the government heavily influences them. This is a step towards this.

(10:22):
Cronyism could be another words for it. There is a
free market, but the free is in quotes.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
And what's really ironic about this the left wingers who
love to call Trump a fascist, and again I'm not
saying he is at all, right, but people like Bernie
Sanders who love to throw out that F word are
coming out in praise of this place. So it's very ironic.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
That's right. Pretty interesting stuff there. Listen, here's the lesson.
We need to keep the free market free. The free
market is at its best when it is truly a
free market. And I hope that Trump, who is a
promoter of small government, at least in word, and I
applaud him for that, I hope he's going to back
that up with action and not just talk more on
the other side of this break to come right after this,
we'll be back. Welcome back, folks, financial issues. Interesting, delightful

(11:12):
conversation as usual. I've appreciate seeing so many of you
in the chat. We'll get to some of these chat
comments in just a moment here, But first, why don't
we take a look at what the markets did yesterday?
So they as they transferred their emotional well being. I
feel like I'm reading a story to my kids. Once
upon a time the markets were so emotionally just crazy

(11:32):
and unstable.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Some little did the markets know?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
That's right, little they don't know where that's going exactly right,
So yesterday they transferred their emotional well being from jerme Pal,
which is what they were clinging to last week, to
the perennial chip Darling in Vidia. Sam you aptly mentioned
earlier today that now we have to wonder is Intel
going to become is the US government going to become
a prime competitor of Invidia through Intel, through its puppet Intel.

(11:55):
We'll just have to see. But in Vidia does report
on Wednesday, so tomorrow after the bell. So the markets
opened the week feeling a little pensive, little tepid, tentative,
whatever words you want to describe there. The Nasdaq Nasdaq
kept its head afloat in the morning. The other two
indices were slightly down. By midday, there wasn't really much
change in the indices. The dal Jones was trending downward

(12:15):
the furthest late afternoon, the Nasdaq was flirting with the
flat line in the final minutes, and by Monday's closing bell,
all three indices were down. The dal Jones was down
three quarters of a percent, s and P five hundred
down just less than a half percent in the NASDK right
around a quarter percent down. This morning, the futures are
continuing to slip. There was a big headline that came

(12:35):
out ted I'm just I'll mention right here, and I
don't think we'll have time to talk about it here.
But Trump did tell Fed Governor Lisa Cook that she
has fired and then she came back and said he
has no authority to do that, so.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Kind of amazing you're fired.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, no, you're firing. No boy to be able to
have that kind of power over your job. Yeah, it
does bring up, you know, to mind, folks, just the
question of who is in charge of the Federal Reserve,
who can fire these guys? We don't know. Maybe we'll
talk about that later on, But let's pivot for a
moment here, folks, because I've got a very special guest
on the program with me right now, doctor Alex McFarland.
He is a nationally renowned pastor, speaker, author. He's host

(13:11):
of The Alex McFarland Show and Exploring the Word. Doctor McFarland,
welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, good morning.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
I hope you're having a productive day so far.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know we are, Brother, I'm already a little bit
out of breath because of the rant that we had
in the first segment there, So I'm going to try
to slow down here a little bit with you on here,
but you know, i'd love to get your thoughts, doctor McFarland,
right away on some quotes that you've shared recently concerning
the very likely election of Muslim socialist autocrat zoron Mam
Donnie to the mayoral seat in New York City. This

(13:43):
has become a story of national attention, as you know,
doctor McFarland, and one which caught your eye. As you said, quote,
New York City is now poised for disaster. Could you
speak to this for just a moment. Why would such
a candidate as Mom Donnie be truly disastrous for New
York City.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
Well not an for New York City, but really for
the country at large. And thank you for being willing
to talk about this. You know, I've been to New
York so many times, and you know there's a lot
that everybody loves about New York City. But this is
the twelfth or thirteenth largest economy in the world metro

(14:19):
or isn't that amazing.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's bigger GDP.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
Than Canada, bigger GDP than France. And there are at
best estimate, one hundred and three billionaires in New York City.
And you know, Mam Donnie says there should not be billionaires.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Now.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
His pack just this week got a major donation from
a billionaire. And you know, there's there's just so much
wrong here. You kind of wonder where do you get
on the train. For one thing, let's just remember that
on nine to eleven it was Mam Donnie's worldview Islam
that was responsible for the deaths of three thousand New Yorkers.

(15:01):
And I mean it's just like so demoralizing that a
Muslim would be mayor of New York. I mean it
would be like if they put Hirahito on the state
seal of Hawaii. I mean, think about that for those
of you that know about Pearl Harbor. Anyway, here's the
deal though, demanding that apartments not have rent, forcing companies

(15:28):
to put grocery stores in neighborhoods where they'll be robbed,
blind and bankrupted. Socialism never works. And really socialism is
the doorway to communism, which is really what their end
goal is. I mean really the redistribution of wealth, the
confiscation of earnings, and the forcible redistribution of wealth. While

(15:51):
they themselves, the overlords, live posh lives that have been
provided them by a capital to economy, The voters of
New York, please, in the name of all of them,
does Holy wake up. I mean, you know, any garden
variety democrat would be better than this guy.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, absolutely, you know it's funny. Sam and I have
talked Docr McFarland on the show before about how listen.
I'm no fan of Eric Adams, but he's looking a
whole lot better than this guy is right now. And yeah,
it's truly, it is disastrous. I agree with you completely.
You know, it's been almost twenty four years now to
the day, doctor MacFarland, as you mentioned, since those horrific

(16:32):
attacks on the World Trade Center on September eleventh, two
thousand and one, so less than a generation we have
gone from that to now having a Muslim socialist probably
being the one to run America's most important city. My
question for you is how has someone with such an
obviously erroneous, vile worldview become poised to become the mayor

(16:54):
of America's largest city when his values run so counter
to who we are as a country.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
Two words government schooling. See I used to use the
term public schools, but government schooling has been just cranking
out compliant little socialists for years now. There are those
of us like yourself, and I believe myself that you know,

(17:22):
we want to learn and we find out the truth
of how the world works. How reality works. We learned
the truth of our great nation. I'm very pleased. Back
there behind you, you've got the American flag and the
flag of Israel. But you know it's funny. Let me
digress for just a moment. Last week I was with

(17:43):
a group in an event and there were about two
thousand people. They're mostly Christians, but there were a group
of young millennials that began to really take me to task,
and these are Christians for my support of Israel. Now,
these are Christian college students, gen Z millennials, some that

(18:05):
were not college students, and they were just viscerally opposed
to America supporting Israel. And I said, look, I think
any honest person would recognize that if Israel were not
where they are, the entire Middle East would be overrun
by Hamas and terrorists. And my point is it was

(18:25):
hard to get them to think critically about why we
have a vested interest in supporting Israel and regarding New
York City. The reason I'm bringing this up is we've
got generations of young people that have been taught that
corporations that make a profit profits are obscene. Profit is

(18:47):
immoral capitalism, bad socialism, compassionate. But it's like Margaret Thatcher.
She was Prime Minister of Great Britain in the eighties
during the Reading years, and she said, you know is
great until you run out of other people's money.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
And there are a.

Speaker 5 (19:05):
Lot of young people and they don't know how wealth
is created. That they don't know how to live within
your means save, exercise self restraint and build wealth. And uh,
Mom Donnie is using the tools of a constitutional capitalist
republic to undermine and tear down a constitutionalist capitalist republic.

(19:30):
One final thing that I would say, it would be disastrous.
Even right this morning, Mom Donnie is encouraging cities. He's
calling on all the Democrat run cities like Boston, uh
and Detroit to quote fight Trump's agenda. Well, Donald Trump
is just doing the best for American people. In fact,

(19:54):
it was pointed out this week that his tariffs have
already shaved four trillion off the national debt.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
So for the.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
Mayor of the largest economy in America to say, quote
fight our president, that's treason. The last thing I would
say is that there's this coattail effect. And right now,
Mom Donnie's political team is helping like this male Democrat
in Texas and other members of the squad. And I

(20:25):
think it would be very disastrous if okay, if he
becomes mayor of New York, it's going to be a fiasco.
New York City will become the dystopian hellscape that places
like Seattle and Minneapolis are and dearborn in Detroit. But

(20:48):
there could be this coattail effect where naive, uninformed voters
sweep other Marxists into office in cities across America. And
that would not be good. Folks pray for some sanity
to descend on the Big Apple.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
So well, said doctor MacFarlane. Let me ask you this
question here as we're coming to the end of our interview.
How might God be speaking to the people of this
country through this? You know, we understand God often warns
and even outright judges his people through the institution of
wicked rulers. Is this a warning shot across the belt?
Is this a direct judgment? How might God be speaking

(21:27):
to us?

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Well? Perfect question, That is a great question. Our nation
needs a revival. You know, here's the thing. Socialism aka
Marxism communism is godless. It is it is immoral, and
it confiscates what one worker earned and gives, and you know,

(21:51):
to those who may or may not work. And second
Thessalonian says, if a man will not work, neither shall
he eat second Thesalonians three ten. So it rewards things
that the Bible condemns. But I would just implore people
to pray for our nation. And I want to call
my fellow pastors. You know, brother, I've spoken in two

(22:13):
thousand American churches and pastor to churches. Ministers need to
get in their pulpits and tell the truth. And pastors
for decades would say to me, oh, the irs forbids
me from addressing political issues. That's false. But even if
they did, since when do we ministers ameliorate what we

(22:35):
do or don't say based on you know, what the
culture is is doing. Get in your pulpits, pro abortion,
anti God, anti religious freedom, Marxist candidates. To waste a
vote on those guys is a sin. Be a good
steward of your vote, people, especially those of you in
New York.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Doctor MacFarland, thank you so much. You know the thought,
the thought came to my mind and as you were
speaking there, Thank goodness, the first generation of Christians in
the first century Rome didn't do what you described. So
many pastors do when they shy away from speaking on
political issues. Had that first generation done that, the church
might not have survived. So praise Gunnan that we've had
strong men, and you're exactly right, brother, we need strong
pastors who are willing to speak to these issues. Doctor McFarland,

(23:19):
I appreciate you coming on our show so much, folks. Again,
that's doctor Alex McFarland, nationally renowned pastor, speaker, author, host
of The Alex McFarland Show and exploring the word as well.
You can find him on social media platforms as well,
Doctor Alex McFarlane. I'll look forward to having you on again, brother,
at a future time. Thank you so much for joining
me today, folks. If you have to leave us, we

(23:39):
hope you have a great rest of the day. We
got more financial issues right around the corner after to
stick with this.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
If you don't get life right, you're not going to
get all the other.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Thank you folks who're joining us today. It was great
to have doctor McFarland on and I always enjoy getting
to speak with him. And we're so grateful for courageous
men like Campers devoted their lives to spreading the Gospel
and also to speaking to these political issues. Folks. I
can't stress what doctor MacFarland said enough. If you are
a pastor or if you're attending a church that has
said we just we try to just stay out of politics,

(24:30):
you know, we don't want to try to get into that.
It might be time to either have a hard conversation
with your pastor or find another church, because you need
to be led by courageous shepherds who are willing to
speak to these issues, like the great men of old
all the way back to the first century. We're able
to do. Our Lord Jesus himself spoke to these issues, folks,
and of course we agree, amen and amen to the

(24:50):
fact that that our kingdom is not of this world.
But nonetheless we're here right now needing to be good
stewards of what God has given to us. So we
got to do that, folks, as simple as that. Let's
get to a little chat run down here. Great to
see so many of you. Brian from Missouri will start
with you in New York City will become such a
bleephole that the citizens will have to wake up to
reality and start voting smarter. I agree with you there,

(25:12):
Brian Amen.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
It's unless all the smart citizens leave and then no
one else is left.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
That's exactly lame to see and the fee. That is
a good question for you chat. Is it the responsibility
of you know, people who want to be good stewards
of their city. Is it your responsibility to stay and
fight or is it your responsibility to take your family
and go to a place that is a place of safety. Personally,
I don't mean to be the middleman here, but I
think you can do either one within your conscience. Definitely.

(25:38):
I've heard very many faithful stories of people who have said,
you know what, I'm getting out of here, and I
think that's totally fine. I've heard other ones people saying,
you know what, I'm going to stay and fight. I'm
going to try, and then maybe they stay and fight
for five years and then they say they're getting out
of here. So I think either way interesting there, for sure.
Claude is saying the acceptance of Mom Donnie indicates the
world is close to accepting the Antichrist. You know, Claude,

(26:00):
it's interesting there because we have seen the spirit of
Antichrist present throughout the ages, and I do think Mamdani,
You're exactly right. It's just another example of this. Oftentimes
what you'd see throughout history. And we're talking about this
a little bit in the Daniel Bible study is statist governments.
Statist governments where governments come in and they say the
all powerful government will take care of you. It's really

(26:21):
an attempt to be God. Mam Donnie's governmental style is
that's classic statist government. And I say, I say amen
to what you're saying there, brother. I think you're exactly right.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Because nothing's new under the sun. You saw this when
Cyrus let the Jews go back to Israel. You had
people writing letters to him saying, those bad and rebellious
Hebrews are rebuilding their city. Subtext is they're breaking apart.
They want to be separate from us, the all powerful
Persian Empire.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
And we've seen it over and over again. We saw
it in Persia, saw it in Babylon, saw it in Rome.
You've seen it at various points in the twentieth century.
Statist governments trying to be God. And Christians need to
stand from against this. And also, I think Sam understand
that behind these statist governments are demonic forces. We joke
about it a lot that our ruling overlords are canoodling
with demons. I actually believe that they are, whether or

(27:13):
not they're holding seances or things like that, but they
are finding their worldviews, their doctrines from demons because you know,
ultimately it comes back to the prince of demons, comes
back to Satan himself. So the anti god agenda comes
from that. We have to be aware of that absolutely. John,
you said New York will be like London England. That's very,
very bad. I was going to ask Alex that question, actually,

(27:35):
because I do think England has really become almost kind
of like a warning archetype to the United States that hey,
if you don't deal with this, if you don't deal
with the influx of a godless, demonic worldview like Islam man,
it could go really bad, could go.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
And we tend to mirror each other England in the
United States. If one does one thing, pretty soon the
other is going to do the exact same thing. With
Trump and then they did Brexit, so now they're moving
in more liberal progression. So we have to pray that
doesn't come back to the United States.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, that's really well said there. Nathan is there anyone
that can fire back at a verbal attacker with a
voice as common polite as brother Alex Boy, he's a
good example of that, as any brother, of firing back
with tact and with truth and with facts. I think
that's really really good. I love that. Let's see here
talking about what we were talking about in the first segment,
with government bailouts. Some of you have mentioned very interestingly

(28:27):
the bailouts that took place back right around the financial crisis.
You had Freddie fred Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Kind
of interesting. I think connection there that we're seeing here.
So yeah, interesting stuff there, for sure. That's exactly right.
Too big to fail, that's exactly right. Mark with a
great comment there. Intel is dirty sports, abortion, sexual immorality,

(28:48):
Sure does, brother, So we want no part of it. Unfortunately,
our tax dollars are being invested in it, but we
unfortunately can't control that. So we want to control we
canroll with our investor dollars. Brian from Missouri saying not
a fan of the government taking steak in publicly owned companies.
I also don't think the government should be giving billions
of tax dollars to companies either. Communism Brian, Amen, brother boy,

(29:11):
it's certainly you're exactly right. We want the free market
to be free, folks. The free market is a good thing.
I've been listening to a really, really impactful series for
me on the Book of Revelation. It's kind of helped
me as I'm studying the Book of Daniel and the
pastor in it speaks about how the free market is
the biblical model of economics. The free market is the

(29:32):
way to go, and anything that is not the free
market is not biblical. And so when you have like
what we're having here and what we had in ancient
Rome as well, when you have the state starting to
poison the free market, it becomes not free and it
therefore becomes anti Biblical.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
In the marketing about it too, is it makes people
dislike the free market because they think that this is capitalism.
They exactly corporatism, cronyism, bailouts, graft, things like that, sweet
little handouts from the government. They I think that that
is what capitalism entails. It just doesn't. Capitalisms lets the
strong rise in the weak fall, and then the market

(30:07):
sorts those things out.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Exactly right, Yeah, it really is. I mean it's I
feel like Sam a good word to describe it as,
it's just common sense economics and if you think about
God being a god of order and wisdom and common
sense just makes sense. Really does some of you? Talking
as well about Cracker Barrel. We did see I think
it was yesterday Sam Cracker Barrel issued a pseudo apology
for their you know, shall we say questionable aesthetic decisions

(30:33):
because they.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Say, yeah, we could have done better. They did, but
we could have done.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
What I read there is they said, yeah, we could
have done better with I don't know if it was
how we announced this or they basically had to backtrack
and say that the guy and Sam, forgive me, his
name is escaping me, but the classic guy.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Just call him mister cracker Barrel.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Mister Cracker Barrel. He's still going to be on the menu,
he's still going to be on road signs, but he's
not going to be on their logo anymore. It was
your classic. We're apologizing without really apologizing. They really screwed
this one up, folks, They really did. And this has
been going on, by the way, for some time. Cracker
Barrel was once on our list. We issued a sell
alert for it. It's no longer on our list. I'm
thankful for that, Sam, because it's really it's really going

(31:13):
downward for sure. Interesting stuff there, folks. Let's get to
the markets here, as we just opened up the day
before we get to the AG report. Everything is hanging
right around the flat line. So the Dow Jones is
just below the S and P five hundred is directly
at the flat line, and the Nasdaq is just above
the flat line. Oil meanwhile, is right around a little

(31:36):
less than sixty four dollars a barrel. It was down
from its three week highs Gold is right around it's
about thirty four hundred dollars a little more than that
right now. Meanwhile, the US ten year treasury yield hanging
right around four point three percent or so. Sam, quickly
before the AG here. One of the big headlines this

(31:57):
morning is ken Donald Trump actually five fed board Governor
Lisa Cook. We don't know. We don't know, but Trump,
I hope you're not asking me, because I really don't know.
He's claiming that he can fire. He actually said that
she is fired. She said he has no authority to
do so. She said, and I quote, I will not resign.
She plans to finish out her term. Fed Governor Cook

(32:18):
was a Biden appointee, and so once again, folks, this
just brings to a head what we've said for so
many times. Who is in charge of the Federal Reserve?
Is there any accountability here?

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Trump can fire with cause, that's what Ken rules are,
but the question is what is the cause?

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Right?

Speaker 2 (32:36):
My understanding Sam, we talked about this before the show,
is that there was some legal things going on with
Fed Governor Cook.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
That was a question about mortgage fraud.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, question about mortgage fraud. But she was never charged
for it. So if she's not charged for it, I
guess what she's saying.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Is there's an ongoing DOJ investigation right now.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, for sure, So listen, folks, I do think that
the point stands. Nonetheless, we have to be able to
have institutions that have real accountability, and if the Federal
Reserve doesn't have real accountability, I'm not sure how it
can be treated as a legitimate institution. The AC report's
coming in, folks, Craig Howgard, then we'll talk more on
the other side of the break ofference.

Speaker 6 (33:12):
This is Craig Holguard with your financial issues. That update
for August twenty six well, corn benefited from better than
expected weekly export inspections yesterday. Also should be noted that
the latest crop progress report has corns good to excellent
rating at seventy one percent. That's the highest rating for
this date since twenty sixteen. Back last year, at this time,
the corn crop was rated at sixty five percent good
to excellent. That gave us a record production. We had

(33:34):
December corn finishing the day three quarters of percent higher
yesterday at four to twelve and a quarter. The soybean
complex started the week with a weaker tone after the
pro farmer crop tour found record large podcasts in several states.
They estimate the national soybean yield at fifty three bushels
para acre. That'd be a record by a full bushel paracre.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
Late last week we had.

Speaker 6 (33:54):
Some rumors that China was inquiring about US soybeans. Those
rumors died over the weekend. Comments from the Chinese embassy
suggests that the US protectionism is damaging agricultural ties between
the two nations. As result of November means were ten
and three quarter cents lower at ten forty seven and
three quarters. We was supported by strong weekly export inspection numbers,
this week's figure being more than double last week's total.

(34:16):
As a result, Minneapolis December week was two and a
half cents higher at five ninety two and a half.
Kansas City declined by a quarter of a cent, closing
at five twenty and three quarters, well Chicago was two
and a half cents higher at five twenty nine and
three quarters. Cotton futures had a negative reaction to a
stronger dollar. As result, December futures were sixty nine points
lower at sixty seven thirty two. Livestock futures turned into

(34:38):
mixed performance. October live cattle were a dollar and a
nickel lower at two hundred and thirty six dollars eighty
two and a half cents per one hundredweight. Feeder cattle
declined by seventy seven and a half cents, with September
futures closing at three hundred and sixty one dollars and
ninety cents per one hundred live cattle and feeder cattle
were lower yesterday after it was reported over the weekend
at the first human screw worm case in the United

(34:59):
States have been found in Maryland. We also had October
Leenhogg futures twenty cents higher. Yesterday had ninety one dollars
and forty cents per one hundredweight. Classroom mail futures started
the week with a bounce. Higre the closing mail we
had September futures up sixteen points at eighteen forty three.
Well listen has men Craig Holguard with your financial issues
egg update. We'll be right back with more financial issues

(35:20):
after this.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
This program do not necessarily represent the opinions of the
station or any of the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products
or services offered by the program sponsors may not be
known by the program.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Thanks for joining us today, folks. I always do enjoy
getting to engage with you all in the chat there.
So if you're on the chat you haven't chimed in
good and say hello, we'd love he's lying.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
He actually hates it.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
That's right now. It is the worst. I dread it now.
I seriously, I do love getting to speak with each
of you. So once again, if you're on the chat
you haven't chimed in and said hello, go ahead and
do that right now. Try to get your shout out
before the end of the show. Seem let's talk about
this buy now, pay later stuff that's going on. Apparently
there's a record number of this what can you tell us?

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, it comes this credit card debt is also hitting
a new high, and people are finding some pretty creative
ways to get into additional debt. According to a lending
Tree survey, they found about a half of all Americans
expect to apply for a buy now, pay later loan
in the next six months.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Now.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Of course, gen Z they're the most likely aged group
to use these loans, with sixty four percent saying they've
already used one of these apps in the past. It's
a program you sign up for. Among those gen Z users,
more than seventy percent have reported using more than one
at the same exact time. Not too good. Most of
these loans, what are they being used for? That's the
important question. Yeah, Number one, it was clothing, shoes and accessories,

(36:57):
followed by technology devices so like cell phones, probably mostly
cell phones and maybe computers. Followed after that was home decorps,
and then finally this one I found kind of disturbing
because it shows you're really in a dire strait if
you need buy now, pay later for groceries. Twenty five
percent of people who have used these loans said that
they've used them for groceries. That's up from fourteen percent

(37:20):
a year ago, which is really really not a good
sign of things. These are kind of like credit cards,
but they're way easier to apply for, meaning that if
you're already in a bad economic situation, it's easy, really
easy in fact, to get into a worse one, and
that debt can really pile up.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Thanks for bringing that up, Sam, You know, good time
is any folks to remind you of our stance on debt.
Debt's not sinful, and I understand. You know, the Bible
says the borrower slave to the lender, that that's a
principle of wisdom more than it is a principle of
morality versus immorality. Debt is not sinful. It can be
very dangerous, can be very dangerous, and many times it's
very foolish. Certain things can be foolish, but some things

(37:57):
are not. You know, if there's something that is not foolish,
easily or overly burdensome, debt can be something that could
be used for good. For example, a mortgage. You know,
if you go into a mortgage, you can afford it.
That could be an example of good debt. I would
say another kind of acceptable debt would be an emergency
expense you absolutely cannot pay for at that moment. You know,
if you or a loved one has a medical procedure

(38:19):
that your insurance doesn't cover, or your health sharing isn't
able to cover, and the only way to get the
procedure done is to go into debt. I say, go
into debt. It's worth it if it's life saving, Absolutely so.
I think that would be really important to remember. But Sam,
you mentioned the things on that list, The types of
things that are on the list for BNPL loans, clothes, tech, groceries,

(38:41):
home decor. None of those items are justified for buy now,
pay later. None of them are. And they're indicative of
a country that isn't a serious debt problem. There's a
biblical principle here, folks. We can never forget it only
by what you can afford.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
The question is what if you can't afford any thing
and you need groceries. That's the thing I was concerned
about it. I was going to Aldi the other day,
which is the discount grocery store. That's where you need
to go if you can't really afford groceries. That's kind
of why I like it. I can afford groceries, but
it's really cheap, which is it's fantastic. But even they
are using buy now, pay later. Right when you check out,

(39:18):
they said, you want to split up this purchase. And
I'm thinking, if all the of all the grocery stores
out there is offering this service, what does that mean
for what people are able to afford right now?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
It's true, Sam, And you know what, that is a
really tough one there. And I do think the answer
to that is if you're in such a dire situation
that you can't even afford groceries without going into debt,
that to me is indicative of a serious structural problem
that probably would be requiring some form of outside help.
So that would be an example where I would say
it's time to go to your pastor to go to

(39:50):
your church. A lot of churches, my church has this.
It's the kind of like it's different from our general fund,
you know, the general fund if you tie that goes
to that. This is like a special needs fund or
it's a emergency needs fund that our church has where
if church members have a need, they present the need
to the elders and so that it's not abused. There's
a screening process for this, but the elders they check

(40:13):
out the need, they see how dire it is, they
determine what they can give, and then they help this
person out. I think that's what the church is for.
I think that's what family is for too. I think
there are better ways than just resigning to Okay, I'm
going to go into debt to afford these things that
I shouldn't be going into debt for, you know. And
that's that's totally I listen. I get things are more expensive,
but I do think there are other options out there

(40:35):
than just going into debt for things that you know
you should be able to buy. Sam, It's an interesting
point that you brought up there, though, because I'm sure
there are a lot more people today than there used
to be who can't afford basic things. You know. I
can tell you what the solution, and this is borrowing
from our conversation on cebersecurity yesterday, I can tell you
what the solution is not. It's not the government getting involved.

(40:57):
I can tell you that for sure. It has to
be the individual intuition, individual resolve and the help of
outside forces that are not the government, charities, churches, families.
That's what those things are for. Does that make sense,
samh one hundred percent plus.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
Those institutions, they not only can give you the money,
the food, what you need, Yeah, but they're also invested
in you because they did give you those things. There's
a personal relationship with those people and they now want
to see you succeed as opposed to the government, but
they really care. They give you your food stamps and
you're off to the races. There's no incentive to really
get you out of the hole you're in.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Absolutely, absolutely, and I think you know, the government probably
would be just as well. They maybe even would root
for people to not get out of the hole they're
in because it means that they still need help from
the government. So the government can be useful in its sense. Folks,
it's a good lesson to be involved with a good,
solid church also, you know, obviously for your spiritual health,
but also the church can be there to provide physical needs.

(41:51):
I mean, really, it's it's kind of a crass way
to think about it, but I do think that it's
really important for us to understand that's what the church
is there for is to come alongside where other believers
can come alongside and help people. That's why we have
ministries like Samaritan Ministries as our health sharing ministry. It
really is a church model of healthcare sharing. I would
not have been able to afford my son's surgery that

(42:12):
he had, rather major surgery back in December if we
didn't have people like Samaritan coming alongside of us. They
covered every single dollar of it outside of the initial
unsharable amount. It was amazing. So stuff like that, it's
so so important. Here, Well, let's move here, folks to
one headline we weren't able to get to yesterday. Sam.
We saw Canada over the weekend drop a lot of

(42:33):
its retaliatory tariffs against the US. What can you tell
us about this one, Sam.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
That's right. This announcement came out on Friday, dropping most
of its counter tariffs of twenty five percent on US goods.
Although there will still be tariffs on certain sectors like
auto steel, aluminum, and others, they will remain in place
for right now. The move comes as the US Mexico
Canada Agreement is scheduled for a review in the next
few months. And also as President's President Trump spoke with

(43:01):
the leader of Canada last week, so that was the
result of that conversation.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Very good, Sam, Thank you. So things marching on, things
moving on here. When we're talking about the tariff deals
getting worked out. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of
those in the coming days and we'll be sure to
let you know what is going on here with these, Sam.
Let's get to this question here that we got from
a dear friend of ours, Pastor Dan. Pastor Dan Hall
and his wife Marsha, their partners. I appreciate them so much.

(43:26):
What is Pastor Dan asking here, Sam.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Pastor Dan says, when filling out the portfolio tracker, what
do I select when the options aren't there for the
company stock I have? For example, there's nothing for manufacturing, transportation, aircraft,
et cetera. I've been an FI member for several years
and I'm just now filling out the tracker. I've watched
the intro video and I know I have stocks that'll
probably sell eventually, but wanted to get started with what

(43:50):
I have.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Well, thank you for that question, Pastor Dan. Let me
just say this, I had the privilege of preaching at
Pastor Dan and Marsha's church last year, so I appreciate
you both very much in the local area here. To
answer your question, I assume, and you know, Sam and
I were kind of trying to figure out what you
were talking about with this. So if we answer and
it's not exactly what you were talking about, just send
a follow up to us. We assume Sam that he's

(44:12):
talking about which industry to pick. So when you're on
the tracker and you have your holdings, there's an option
for you to pick the industry, and there are many,
many different industries that you can pick, Sam, if you
can correct me if I'm wrong as I explain this,
but the industry that you pick is not necessarily as
important as the sector that you pick, but it is
helpful for you to kind of see how your personal

(44:34):
allocation works out. So, for example, if you're heavy in
tech companies that are semiconductor producers, you can know maybe
I shouldn't buy any more semiconductor companies, even if I
can still fill out my tech sector.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
It's exactly right. Now, Yes, the industry has no bearing
on your pie chart, which is really that quick visual
it's going to tell you what your portfolio looks like
the sector is just like you said, Seth, that's more
for helping you know what the company does in shorthand
way also help you stay diversified inside your sector.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, so pastor Dan. For you guys, if you're asking
about you know, like airplanes, you had mentioned them for example,
there's one option under industry, which is Aerospace and Defense,
I might consider putting that one there. Again, that's really
more just for you to be able to kind of see.
Now if what I assumed when I read this question, first,
if it's a company that's not on our list at all,
then I would tell you very easy if you got

(45:24):
stocks that aren't on our list, first check to see
if there bri or not, and you can use the
evaluator tool on our website. If you go to financials,
use dot org, go to the resources tab. You go down.
I think, let me just confirm this here resources tab,
it's the fourth one down is the evaluator tool. Click
on that and you can use that free screening tool there.
If they are biblically responsible, great, If they're not biblically responsible,

(45:46):
it's not so great. But it's an easy answer because
you just sell it. You sell it immediately. It's better
to be obedient to God, and even if it means
taking a loss, better to be obedient to God than
to knowingly invest in darkness and ride out for the
chance of a gain. If they do pass BRI screening,
then it's a more complicated You have a couple options
before you. You can still sell it and reallocate based
off of our picks. Might not be a bad idea

(46:06):
if you trust us, and also if you're selling it
a gain, that's not a bad thing too. You can
also hold these positions though, if they're biblically responsible and
see what happens. Just know that we don't have eyes
on them, you know, so it might not be a
bad move for you, but you just got to be aware.
It's kind of like you're holding them at your own
risk because we're not looking at them. They're not on
our lists. So if something happens to them, whether they
become non biblically responsible, or if something happens technically or

(46:29):
fundamentally that causes concern for us, we won't know about
it because we're not looking at them, So just be
aware of that. It's part of the overall benefit of
the do it yourself part of the strategy, so appreciate
that question, Pastor Dan and Marsha, and appreciate you guys
so much. Thank you all for joining us today. It
was a delight to be here on the show, and
I do hope that you'll consider joining us again tomorrow

(46:50):
for financial issues. Remember everything you have belongs to the Lord.
That's a comforting thought, folks. Let's be found good and
faithful Steward's for all of it. God blessed you.

Speaker 7 (46:57):
See next time, if we ever forget that we're one
nation under God, then we will be a nation gone.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Under Thank you for joining us. This has been an
FISM production.