Top of the Week: Another Cataclysmic Error Threatens to Plunge the US Economy Into a Bottomless Pit

I can’t believe they actually did it. Even though it is painfully obvious that the U.S. economy is slowing down dramatically and that we are heading into an excruciating repeat of the housing crash of 2008, the Federal Reserve decided to go ahead with the largest interest rate hike in 28 years anyway.

History has shown us that raising rates just as an economy is entering a recession is an exceedingly foolish move, and many of us have been pleading with the Fed not to do it. But of course if the Fed actually listened to people like us, we would not be facing such a dire crisis in the first place.

Essentially, the Fed just killed any hopes of avoiding a recession. The rate hike that was announced on Wednesday was the largest that we have seen since 1994:

When Disney bought a 30-minute TV program in the late ’60s to announce its new theme park, no resident of Florida or member of the American church could have predicted how powerful Disney would become.

With a variety of fake business names, Walt Disney’s company bought 55,000 acres of pastureland at $110 an acre. In an effort to appease Walt Disney’s growing entertainment business, Florida granted Disney the right to set up the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a self-governed special taxing district that can make its own laws and levy taxes against themselves while taking advantage of multiple tax breaks.

When I reported for the Orlando Sentinel, I witnessed firsthand the challenges and problems that Disney World created for city and county governments. In Orange County, Florida, Disney World is like a black hole in the middle of the county where the county has no jurisdiction.

It’s a standing custom by the show’s producers to give some audience members an opportunity to sing during the show’s breaks for commercials.

Madison Baez Taylor, who was actually slated to be a contestant, was watching the taping with her dad, Chris. According to the show’s host Terry Crews, she had been placed in the audience in order to trick judges Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel just to see if they noticed.

Kirk, 28, who founded Turning Point Ministries USA, says that the World Economic Forum, founded and led by Klaus Schwab, is on a mission to destroy Western values—biblical values—and to drive the Ten Commandments out of our culture.

“They are doing everything they possibly can to break the Ten Commandments,” Kirk says. “It’s broader than that, but I think that’s a good way to frame it. The Ten Commandments are a really good starting point. They are morally transcendent, and any person that lives them out will be flourishing and grow closer to God. But when they say they want to break those, they’re going to try to do it not just through the laws but also through trying to make the opposite acceptable and, in fact, glorify it.”