The Pour Over Today - Monday, September 27, 2021

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Congress’s money problems, China’s crackdown on crypto, German and Russian elections, and other top news for Monday September 27. Stay informed, while remaining focused on Christ, with The Pour Over.

Congress's money problems, China's crackdown on crypto, German and Russian elections, and other top news for Monday, September 27th. Stay informed while remaining focused on Christ with The Pour Over. Thanks for joining us. Here's the quote of the day. The will of God is not something you add to your life. It's a course you choose. It's either line yourself up with the Son of God,

or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world. Elizabeth Elliott. Congress has money problems, a pair of them actually. Funding the federal government, and raising the debt ceiling. Without funding, the government will shut down on Thursday. Without raising the debt ceiling, Uncle Sam will default on his loans sometime mid-October. While shutdowns happen with some frequency, most recently in 2019, the U.S. has never defaulted on its debt and economists warn the impact could be, quote, catastrophic. Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader McConnell, have proposed keeping the government funded in a standalone bill, but vowed to default rather than raise the debt ceiling without reining in spending. Democrats, led by the White House, have ruled

out tackling the issue separately, making for a sticky wicket. A major way we can reflect the security, peace, and hope of salvation is by worrying less about certain topics than the rest of the world. The U.S. defaulting would not be unimportant, but neither would it be all-important. Regardless of what happens, your eternity is secure. 1 Peter 1-3-4 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. It's official. China has outlawed all cryptocurrency activity. That means spending, mining, exchanging, speculating, and even investing in high-quality surefire NFTs like a CryptoPunk,

the most expensive of which could be yours for just $100 million, are all banned. While this certainly isn't the first time China has taken aim at digital currency, it is the most complete. Exchange giants HuBuy and Binance stopped allowing users in mainland China to create new accounts on Friday. The crackdown comes as China's central bank ramps up testing of their own cryptocurrency, the digital yuan. While traditional crypto values being self-regulated and anonymous, the digital yuan will allow the Chinese government to closely monitor transactions and consumer behavior. While there's nothing inherently wrong with owning cryptocurrency, we should be wary with the often obsessive tendencies its volatility brings out in people.

Seek to steward your money well over the long term, not bet on a big windfall. 1 Timothy 6.10 says, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Germany is facing a Merkel-less future. After 16 years, Angela Merkel is stepping down as Chancellor with remarkably high international approval ratings. During her tenure, Germany grew into the primary economic driver of the EU, and her decision to welcome more than a million refugees from the Middle East in 2015-16 sparked a wave of refugee children named Angela or Angie. Germans voted on her successor yesterday,

and initial results appear nearly evenly split between the center-left Social Democratic Party and the center-right Christian Democratic Political Alliance. Meanwhile, official results show Russian President Putin's party won an overwhelming majority in what he called, quote, free and fair parliamentary elections. But not everyone is convinced. Election observers complained of numerous violations and systemic fraud, and protesters quickly took to the streets. In other brews, here's a rapid round of updates. Three people died and seven more were hospitalized after an Amtrak train traveling from Chicago to Seattle derailed in north-central Montana on Saturday. Officials

from the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating why the train, which was carrying 141 passengers across 10 cars, left the tracks. The Taliban executed four people in the Afghanistan city of Herat and hung them up throughout the city, including a crane parked in the city square. The move signals a not-so-subtle return to some of the group's most gruesome tactics they first adopted when they held power from 1996 to 2001. The CDC director broke with her agency's vaccine advisory panel and approved the Pfizer booster for workers at high risk of contracting COVID, like healthcare workers and teachers. Unlike the FDA panel, the CDC's advisory panel had only recommended the booster for adults with underlying health conditions and people over 65. Of the 15,000 primarily Haitian migrants encamped in South

Texas, about 9,000 have been processed over the past week. Of those, about 2,000 were deported to Haiti, and 6,615 have been released into the U.S. with instructions to self-report to an ICE office in the coming weeks. Elon Musk and Grimes' relationship status appears almost as complicated as their process for naming children. The parents of ex-Ash A-12 who began dating in 2018 and welcomed their son in 2020 are, quote, semi-separated but still love each in 2018 and welcomed their son in 2020 are, quote, semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms, unquote, according to Musk. And that's all we have for today. Thanks so much for joining us. And as a quick side note, this podcast is now available to anyone on Spotify and Apple Podcasts,

so please tell a friend about us. And if you want to go the extra mile of giving us a five-star rating, we would very much appreciate it. Thanks again, and we will see you on Wednesday.