April 21st, 2025. Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis performed his final public act when he waved to worshippers in St. Peter's Square. He died today at 88. Born in Argentina, he was the first

pope to come from the Americas. He was also the first Jesuit to serve as Pope, bringing new

perspectives to the Catholic Church and hoping to focus the church on the poor. The stock market

plunged again today after President Donald

J. Trump continued to harass Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The threat of instability,

if Trump tries to fire Powell, added to the instability already created by Trump's tariff policies,

saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall 971.83 points,

or 2.48%. The S&P 500 dropped 2.36%, and the NASDAQ composite fell 2.55%. The dollar hit a three-year low, while the value of gold soared.

Journalist Brian Tyler Cohen noted that since Trump took office, the Dow has fallen 13.8%. The S&P 500 is down

15.5%. And the NASDAQ is down 20.5%.

Hannah Aaron Lang of the Wall Street Journal reported that

the Trump route is taking on historic dimensions.

She noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average

is headed for its worst April performance since 1932, when the country was in

the midst of the Great Depression. Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments,

told Lang, it's impossible to commit capital to an economy that is unstable and unknowable

because of policy structure. The Trump administration

announced on April 11th that it would withhold from Harvard University $2.2 billion in grants already

awarded and a $60 million contract unless Harvard permitted the federal government to control the

university's admissions

and intellectual content. Today, Harvard sued the government for violating the First Amendment

and overstepping its legal authority under the guise of addressing anti-Semitism. The complaint notes

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