Daily Archives: September 6, 2022

Study ranks Midland as top economic freedom area in Michigan – The Center Square

Posted: September 6, 2022 at 4:41 am

(The Center Square) According to a new study, most Michigan cities rank below the national average in a new index of economic freedom.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy released the study Economic Freedom in the City: Ranking Michigans Labor Markets, which grades metropolitan areas on three major policy areas: labor market regulations, taxes, and government spending.

Midland received the states highest overall freedom score, while Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids-Wyoming also performed well.

The study uses data from 2017 to rank the nations 383 Metropolitan Statistical Areas by the level of economic freedom, accounting for taxes, government regulations, minimum wage burdens, bureaucracy size, and union influence.

Midland beat out all other areas statewide, with an overall economic freedom score of 6.76 out of 10 the state's only metropolitan area that scored above the national average. Ann Arbor scored a 6.66 and Grand Rapids-Wyoming followed with a score of 6.56. Bay City, Flint, and Battle Creek were the worst performers among the states 14 MSAs, with respective scores of 5.62, 5.98, and at 5.99.

Economic freedom can vary widely from nation to nation and from state to state, but it can also vary across local economies within states and across the country, study co-author Dean Stansel, a research associate professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom and Mackinac Center adjunct scholar, said in a statement. Academic scholars have produced hundreds of papers using similar national and state-level indexes, finding generally that greater economic freedom is associated with better outcomes on a wide variety of measures. This newer index for metropolitan statistical areas has allowed that research to be expanded to the local level as well.

The study says that there is a strong correlation between greater freedom and economic well-being. It argues that there are positive connections between economic liberty and outcomes such as lower unemployment rates, higher employment, and population growth.

Nationally, Florida received eight of the top 10 scores.

If lawmakers want to attract talent and keep people in the state, it is critical to pass policies that benefit individuals and businesses, MCPP senior director of fiscal policy and study co-auther Michael LaFaive said in a statement. Reducing unnecessary regulations and limiting tax burdens are just a few of the steps that local and state policymakers can take to give individuals access to greater economic prosperity.

Neither Grand Rapids nor Detroit Michigans two large MSAs appeared in the top or bottom 10 of the 52 largest MSAs in the country for economic freedom. The Center Square has previously reported how the Motor City requires 77 steps and more than $6,000 in fees to open a restaurant.

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Another Shocking Decline in Life Expectancy | The Fiscal Times – The Fiscal Times

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Good Wednesday evening. Can you believe its already September?

Life expectancy in the U.S. has fallen by nearly three years since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control.

In 2019, before the pandemic began, life expectancy at birth was 78 years and 10 months. In 2020, it fell to 77 years, due largely to deaths from Covid-19. In 2021, life expectancy fell for a second consecutive year, to 76 years and 1 month about the same level it was a quarter century earlier.

Only half of the loss in life expectancy in 2021 can be attributed to Covid, even though the death rate from the virus was higher in 2021 than in 2020. Other contributing factors include drug overdoses, heart disease and suicide all of which had been weighing on life expectancy before the pandemic began. Drug overdoses hit a record high in 2021, killing about 109,000 people.

Its a dismal situation, University of Pennsylvania demographer Sam Preston told the Associated Press. It was bad before and its gotten worse.

Unusually large decline: Life expectancy rose in the U.S. during much of the 20th century, although the annual increase was typically small, measured in fractions of a year. The decrease recorded in 2020 and 2021, by contrast, was extremely unusual, and the largest change in life expectancy in nearly 100 years.

The decline could have been even worse, too. Death rates from influenza and pneumonia decreased during the pandemic, and if they had been more typical of the pre-pandemic era, the drop in life expectancy would have been even larger.

Some groups worse off than others: Americans have fared worse than citizens in most other high-income countries, the great majority of which saw a rebound in life expectancy in 2021 following a Covid-driven decline in 2020.

None of them experienced a continuing fall in life expectancy like the U.S. did, and a good number of them saw life expectancy start inching back to normal, Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The New York Times. Those countries vaccinated a higher percentage of their populations and took additional steps, such as widespread mask-wearing, that reduced death rates. The U.S. is clearly an outlier, Woolf said.

Within the U.S., some groups saw larger declines than others. Native Americans and Alaskan Natives were hit particularly hard, with average life expectancy dropping by four years just in 2020, and 6.6 years overall. Life expectancy now stands at 65 for that group, about the level recorded for all Americans in 1944 during World War II. Covid complicated long-standing health issues among native populations, including diabetes and a lack of access to health care.

Black Americans were also strongly affected, seeing a four-year drop in life expectancy from 2019 to 2021, to 70.8 years. White Americans saw a smaller decline of 2.4 years during the same period, resulting in a life expectancy of 76.4 years in 2021.

President Joe Bidens plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt has divided Americans, but the controversial idea has more support than opposition among registered voters, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll.

The poll finds that 48% of voters support the cancellation of between $10,000 and $20,000 of student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 and couples making less than $250,000. A slightly smaller share of voters, 43%, opposes the idea. More than seven in 10 Democrats back the plan, while 67% of Republicans are against it. By a margin of 47-42, independents lean against the plan.

The poll also finds that more than half of voters, 56%, back Bidens extension of a pause on student loan payments until the end of the year. And more than three-quarters of voters, including 86% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans, support the idea of developing a plan to address the high cost of college.

The state of Texas has spent nearly $13 million to bus migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C., according to data from the Texas Division of Emergency Management reported by CNN, which obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information Act filing.

CNNs Polo Sandoval and Andy Rose report that released migrants are usually responsible for the cost of their own travel through the United States, but under GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas has been paying to relocate thousands of migrants to those northern cities. The program is a political move meant to highlight the Biden administrations immigration policies and what Republicans call a border crisis. "Before we began busing migrants up to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all the chaos and all the problems that come with it," Abbott told ABC News earlier this month. "Now, the rest of America is understanding exactly what is going on."

As of August 9, Texas had paid more than $12.7 million to Wynne Transportation, the charter service bussing the migrants. The El Paso Times notes that the spending total amounts to about $1,300 per person, whereas one-way, same-day tickets from El Paso to New York or Washington D.C. cost around $300 and same-day flights run less than $400.

Texas has solicited private donations to help pay for the cost of the bus trips, but the state had only received $167,828 as of August 17, CNN says. At a news conference in April announcing the program, Abbott acknowledged taxpayers were likely to end up with part of the bill.

CNN reports that Arizona has spent about $3.5 million bussing migrants, according to Republican Gov. Doug Duceys office.

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Liz Truss Has Been Elected As The New Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom. Replace Boris Johnson – Nation World News

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Liz Truss is Britains new Prime Minister, The election of a new leader in place of Boris Johnson in the internal election of the Conservative Party was overwhelming.

The formal transfer of power from Boris Johnson to the truss will take place this Tuesday in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, In his first message after the campaign, Truss reaffirms that reduction in taxes will be their priority to boost the national economy, but made it clear that they would take the necessary measures to help with energy prices that doubled in early October. We believe in freedom, low taxes, and personal responsibility to deal with life. I campaigned as a conservative. And Ill rule as a conservative. Im going to tackle the energy crisis, on both bills. which households receive and in long-term problems of energy supply, Truss said.

https://content.jwplatform.com/previews/N0zOA8mq-buQgiLVC

The truce plan in a week should go into detail for the issue that keeps the British awake: the tariffs that await them in the weeks before the harsh British winter. According to The Times and Daily Telegraph, Truss is analyzing the possibility of a price freeze, a proposal made weeks ago by Labor and rejected by conservatives at the time and until this weekend. Social pressure and new price increases this morning in the United Kingdom and the European Union following the Russian announcement to close the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline are forcing a change in direction in mono-thematic proposals for a truce. Taxes for corporations and the wealthy) as a solution to all socio-economic problems.

In an interview published this morning by the Financial Times, The truces almost certain finance minister, ultra-neoliberal Quasi Quarteng, indicated that he understood the need to take decisive action on electricity and gas bills. And they will do so by adopting responsible fiscal policies (British public debt has risen from 60 to 90% of GDP since the pandemic). There is speculation at the moment that they will seek a moratorium on rates for the most neglected sectors, without knowing what will happen to the middle class and small and medium-sized companies that have been sunk by the rise in prices.

The social environment doesnt make much difference. In recent months, workers in transport, mail, waste pickers, telecom, Amazon and call centers have gone on strike. In the coming weeks, nurses from the National Health Service and the education sector will vote to decide whether to join this wave of strikes.

And its not just about energy rates. Inflation exceeded 10% and according to analysts, will reach 18% next year. Wage arrears and freezing in some sectors of the conservative government of the past 12 years has slashed purchasing power to its lowest level in decades. The unified term that has been used for the current situation is the cost of living crisis. But in the context of industry, for example, pay cuts have been made. I feel like the Conservatives dont know whats going on, Sharon Graham, general secretary of one of Unites most powerful British unions, told The Guardian. A sign of the times, during a solidarity visit with Felixstow Dock Strikers Statements were made.

Trusss economic program and the promises he made (tax cuts of 27 billion, increased defense and health budgets, fiscal balances, etc.) concern the Tories themselves. David Davis, a former minister in Theresa Mays government, told the Financial Times that conservative principles are at stake. Liz Truss has to think carefully about what shes going to do. The worst outcome of your economic program could be that tax cuts become a dirty word by applying them at the wrong time, Davis said.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Independent Financial Studies, went ahead. What he proposes may not only force us to increase credit in a significant way in the short run, but it will further add to inflationary pressures. He is right that the economic growth of the last 15 years has been disastrous. But taxes Cutting in is not a growth strategy, Johnson said.

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Why the Left Is Learning to Love the Military – The Atlantic

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In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Harlems Riverside Church to a crowd of thousands that flowed out the door as far as 120th Street. King publicly condemned the Vietnam War because it had broken and eviscerated the civil-rights and anti-poverty movements at home. The American government was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.

Read: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War

In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked another MLK speech while asking Congress to help his country repel the Russian invasion. I have a dream. These words are known to each of you today. I can say, I have a need: I need to protect our sky. Two months later, Democrats voted unanimously in favor of a $40 billion package of arms and other assistance to Kyiv.

These two moments capture an important shift in how the American left thinks about the U.S. military and war more generally. Progressives typically see war as inherently murderous and dehumanizingsapping progress, curtailing free expression, and channeling resources into the military-industrial complex. The left led the opposition to the Vietnam War and the Iraq War and condemned American war crimes from the My Lai massacre to Abu Ghraib. Historically, progressive critics have charged the military with a litany of sins, including discrimination against LGBTQ soldiers and a reliance on recruiting in poor communities.

Meanwhile, for decades, the right embraced Americas warriors. Defense hawks were one of the three legs of the Reagan stool, along with social and fiscal conservatives. The military itself leaned right. One study found that from 1976 to 1996, the number of Army officers who identified as Republican increased from one-third to two-thirds. In 2016, according to a poll in the Military Times, active service members favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a margin of nearly two to one.

In the past few years, however, these views have started to change. From 2021 to 2022, the share of Republicans who had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military fell from 81 to 71 percent, whereas for Democrats, the number increased from 63 to 67 percentcutting the gap from 18 points to four. And the militarys views shifted in tandem. In 2020, dozens of former Republican national-security officials endorsed President Joe Biden because Trump had gravely damaged Americas role as a world leader. In one poll before the 2020 election, more active service members backed Biden than Trump (41 to 37 percent).

Why has this happened? Two big reasons are Trump and Ukraine.

Trump saw the military as a symbol of power and surrounded himself with a phalanx of generals. But when he realized they were not a Praetorian Guard that would do his bidding, defend him against all enemies foreign and domestic, and keep him in office by force if necessary, he soured on the military. Trump trampled on its most sacred beliefs and rituals, saying that U.S. generals were dopes and babies who want to do nothing but fight wars. Americans killed in battle, he said, were losers and suckers. Trump suggested that Gold Star families had spread COVID at the White House. He railed against American prisoners of war: I like people who werent captured. He pardoned three service members accused or convicted of war crimes, even though military leaders said it would erode the militarys code of justice. In his testimony to Congress, Trumps acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, said that Trump had told him to ready the National Guard to protect his supporters on January 6, rather than Congress itself. All of this created a fundamental clash with the militarys code of honor and its commitment to the Constitution. Trump wondered why American generals couldnt be more like Hitlers generalsby which he meant the loyalist fanatics who battled in the ruins of Berlin, not the Wehrmacht officials who tried to assassinate the Nazi dictator.

Since he left office, Trump has fueled the conservative belief that Biden is indoctrinating the armed forces with liberal ideas. Republican Senator Ted Cruz said the U.S. military is suffering from a woke cancer and is in danger of becoming a bunch of pansies. The Fox News host Laura Ingraham suggested defunding the military until it abandons its diversity programs: Go after their budget.

Its true that the military has moved left, and not just because of Trump. After George Floyd was murdered in 2020, Kaleth Wright tweeted: Who am I? I am a Black man who happens to be Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. Last year the Pentagon warned, To keep the nation secure, we must tackle the existential threat of climate change.

This shouldnt be so surprising. The military is the epitome of big government, with egalitarian wages, socialized medicine, and the best government-run child-care system in the country. No wonder General Wesley Clark joked that its the purest application of socialism there is. Now progressives are expressing a new gratitude for an institution that understands the value of diversity, cares about the rule of law, and was willing to stand up to Trump when the future of democracy was most in danger. At a time of rampant conspiracy theories like QAnon, liberals appreciate that the military operates in a world of tangible threats and complex logistics and has a basic respect for reality. George Orwell said people often cling to falsehoods until the lie slams into the truth, usually on a battlefield.

Then came Russias invasion of Ukraine. No foreign conflict since the Spanish Civil War has so captured the imagination of the left. Nearly a century ago, many progressives saw Spain as a pure fight between democracy and fascism. Ernest Hemingways novel For Whom the Bell Tolls and Pablo Picassos painting Guernica captured the horror at fascist brutality. About 3,000 Americans traveled to Spain to fight in the international brigades. Today, many on the left see Ukraine as another contest between fascism and democracy, and that rare thing: a good war. Thousands of Americans have gone to join the struggle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the antithesis of everything the left stands for. Not only did he launch an unprovoked attack on a sovereign democratic nation, but he has also disparaged LGBTQ rights, multiculturalism, and immigration, and claimed that the liberal idea has outlived its purpose. Zelensky, in contrast, has built bridges with the global left. He addressed the Glastonbury music festival, in the U.K., where the revelers chanted his name to the tune of The White Stripes Seven Nation Army. In Germany, the Green Party led the charge to supply weapons to Kyiv, overturning decades of German wariness about intervening in foreign wars. LGBTQ protesters in Berlin also demanded that Germany step up arms shipments to Ukraine, so that a Pride parade can, one day, be held in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol. Ukrainian liberalsartists, translators, teachers, filmmakershave joined the struggle. As one writer put it: All our hipsters in Ukraine fight.

To be sure, theres a leftist fringe in the United States that still considers America the worlds evil empire and remains deeply hostile to its military power. That fringe includes the linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, who praised Trump as a model statesman for pushing for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. But the bulk of the left has shown remarkable solidarity with the Ukrainian cause. Liberals who once protested the Iraq War now urge Washington to dispatch more rocket launchers to defeat Russian imperialism. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, a member of the progressive caucus, tweeted: We unequivocally stand with the global Ukrainian community in the wake of Putins attack.

The main opposition to helping Ukraine has come from the right. Trump, who has long praised Putin as a genius, questioned why Americans were sending so much money to Ukraine. Most congressional Republicans backed the aid package to Kyiv in May, but 11 Republican senators and 57 House Republicans opposed it. Republican Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted that if the GOP takes the House in the upcoming midterms, support for Ukraine will end. The Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that Ukraine is an American puppet state, and that his real enemies are not in Moscow but on the American left: Has Putin ever called me a racist?

In March, Democrats were 10 points more likely than Republicans to say that Washington has a responsibility to protect and defend Ukraine from Russia. By July, this gap had grown to 22 points. Another recent survey found that Democrats were more supportive than Republicans of sending weapons to Ukraine as well as of accepting Ukrainian refugees in the United States. A remarkable 42 percent of Democrats favored deploying American troops to Ukraine, versus 34 percent of Republicans.

Progressives have always viewed foreign conflicts and domestic struggles as connectedwith war being either a dangerous contagion or a righteous crusade. A poster from the Spanish Civil War showed the image of a dead child: If you tolerate this, your children will be next. A generation later, the pendulum swung, and King saw intervention in Vietnam as a threat to civil rights in America. Today, the pendulum has swung back, and the left sees the march for freedom in America and the battle to defend Ukraine as elements of the same global fight for democracy. After all, the aggressor in UkrainePutinalso meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump.

Will the alliance between the left and the military last? Progressives may grow nervous about escalation in Ukraine or lose interest in the war. The economy remains the most pressing issue for most Americans. Perhaps, like Orwell in Catalonia, some American volunteers in Ukraine may decide that the struggle is not as pure as they thought. The lefts underlying concerns about the U.S. military have hardly disappeared. Republicans may one day shove Trump offstage and try to get the 80s band back togetherdefense hawks, social conservatives, and fiscal conservatives.

But for now, Trump remains the dominant force in the Republican Party. The Ukrainian cause remains resonant. And the left may worry about another authoritarian great power that threatens a smaller democracy: China mobilizing against Taiwan.

An era of liberal hawkishness should not mean an unthinking embrace of the military. America needs a strong progressive voice to check the rampant waste in the military-industrial complex (which ran to hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan). The military has very real problems, like the crisis of sexual assault. It doesnt benefit from the sort of soft-focus Thank you for your service reverence that has prevented people from asking tough questions about Americas disastrous wars in the past. On Ukraine, liberals can channel Washingtons policy in a more progressive direction, stressing human rights, pressing for investment in green technology to reduce reliance on Russian energy, and going after Moscows dirty money.

In the end, the U.S. military is the worlds anti-fascist insurance policy. The insurance premiums may be outlandish. And most of the time we dont need the policy. Until one day we do. If you need to ship M777 howitzers to Ukraine, the military-industrial complex has its uses.

In 1967, King was right to see Vietnam as a catastrophe for America, at home and abroad. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. But today we face a different world, and a stark choice. Zelensky, Ukrainian progressives, and the European Union? Or Putin, Trump, and Tucker Carlson? The left picked the right side.

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Millions of dollars spent secretly at B.C. Legislature – theBreaker – theBreaker

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Bob Mackin

Almost 27% of taxpayers money the B.C. Legislative Assembly spent in 2021 on salaries and suppliers was hidden in the institutions annual report.

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Association of Former MLAs of B.C./John Yanyshyn)

The annual disclosure report, published in the Aug. 30 B.C. government public accounts, shows almost $60.7 million was paid out during the last fiscal year, which ended March 31. Of that, individual recipients of aggregate payments totalling $16.28 million are not shown because they do not meet reporting thresholds and the freedom of information law does not apply to the seat of government.

A list of named and titled employees shows $11.38 million in salaries over $75,000. But another $12.58 million was paid in salaries under the $75,000 mark. The report does not include salaries and wages paid to constituency assistants on behalf of MLAs.

The list also shows payments totalling $33,017,841 to suppliers for goods and services, as well as other provincial and federal departments for taxes and pensions. There is an unknown number of suppliers who were paid $24,999 or less last year, for a total of $3,696,443.

NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth promised in early 2019, after Speaker Darryl Plecas and chief of staff Alan Mullen discovered corruption by the clerk and sergeant-at-arms, that the Legislature would finally come under the 1993 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Three Legislature-appointed watchdogs, including Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy, had publicly called for new transparency and accountability measures to prevent another spending scandal.

Green house leader Sonia Furstenau (left), NDPs Mike Farnworth and BC Liberals Mary Polak in 2019 (Mackin)

However, more than three-and-a-half years later, the NDP has still not acted on Farnworths promise. In June, an all-party committee recommended the law be extended to cover the Legislative Assemblys administrative functions, which would include spending.

There is no reason why the Legislative Assembly should not, in respect of its administrative functions, be subject to the same transparency and accountability rules as the more than 2,900 public bodies across the province, McEvoy said in April 7 testimony to the committee.

It is time for the Legislative Assembly to adhere to the same standards.

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd was the highest-paid employee last year, at $284,504, followed by law clerk and parliamentary counsel Suzie Seo at $225,860 and executive financial officer Hilary Woodward, at $206,780.

Woodward was apparently terminated June 22 after a sudden meeting with Ryan-Lloyd. Ryan-Lloyd refused to comment, calling it a personnel matter. Replacement Randall Smith began June 23. There was no mention made about Woodwards departure during the open portion of a Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting the following week.

B.C. Legislature beancounter Hillary Woodward (BC Leg)

Woodward was the last witness at the fraud and breach of trust trial of Ryan-Lloyds mentor Craig James. Ex-clerk James, found guilty of spending almost $1,900 of taxpayers money on a custom suit and shirts for personal use, was sentenced in July to a month of house arrest and two months of curfew.

The biggest private sector supplier to the Legislative Assembly was computer support contractor Tecnet Canada Inc. at $1,049,556, followed by Microsoft Canada for $804,135. There were $312,316 in severance payments, but the number of recipients and their names and titles were not disclosed.

Suppliers included NDP advertising agencies Romar Communications ($184,800) and Now Communications Group ($145,606). McCarthy Tetrault LLP was the top-paid law firm ($105,097). The list did not include any payments to Fasken, the Vancouver law firm that defended James at his B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Otherwise, the three biggest payments were $7,392,604 to B.C. Pension Corp., $2,202,211 to Receiver General for Canada, and $1,514,428 to the B.C. Public Service Agency. The Legislature paid $929,365 for the employer health tax in 2021-2022.

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Economy forecast to grow by 7-7.5% in current fiscal Times of India – English Bharat Times

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NEW DELHI: India had surpassed UK as the fifth-largest economy as early as December 2021, according to a State Bank of India report. The share of Indias GDP in global GDP is now at 3.5%, as against 2.6% in 2014 and is likely to cross 4% in 2027, the current share of Germany, according to the SBI report. The path taken by India since 2014 reveals it is likely to get the tag of third-largest economy in 2029, a movement of seven places upwards since 2014 when India was ranked 10th. India should surpass Germany in 2027 and most likely Japan by 2029 at the current rate of growth, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser at SBI, said in the research note. The Indian economy is forecast to grow by 7-7.5% in the current fiscal year while the UK economy has been battling a sharp slide in growth and record high inflation. Latest data showed the Indian economy grew by 13.5% in the quarter ended June. The IMF has forecast India to grow by 7.4% due to the impact of the slowing global economy, inflationary pressures and monetary tightening. The IMF forecast has shown India will retain its tag as the fastest growing major economy in the world. The news of India surpassing the UK to emerge as the fifth-largest global economy triggered a range of responses on social media with some saying there is a huge gap still to be filled when it comes to per capita income. Proud moment for India to pip UK, our colonial ruler, as the 5th largest economy: India $3.5 trn vs UK $3.2 trn. But a reality check of population denominator: India: 1.4 bn vs UK: 068 bn. Hence per capita GDP we at $2,500 vs $47,000. We have miles to go Lets be at it, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak said on Twitter. Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra group, also hailed the milestone. The law of Karma works. News that would have filled the hearts of every Indian that fought hard and sacrificed much for freedom. And a silent but strong reply to those who thought India would descend into chaos. A time for silent reflection, gratitude, he tweeted. RBI deputy governor Michael Debabrata Patra had last month said currently, India is the third-largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), with a share of 7% of global GDP (after China (18%) and the US (16% )). He said Indias GDP in market exchange rates is expected to reach $5 trillion by 2027. By that year, Indias GDP in purchasing power parity terms will exceed $16 trillion (up from $10 trillion in 2021). The OECDs 2021 calculations indicate that the Indian economy will overtake the US by 2048. This would make India the largest economy in the world after China, Patra had said in his speech at a function in Bhubaneswar.

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SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites and a space tug to orbit – Space.com

Posted: at 4:40 am

SpaceX sent a space tug aloft along with another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Sunday night (Sept. 4) and landed a rocket on a ship at sea as well.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the east coast of Florida, carrying 51 Starlink internet satellites to orbit.

Also on board with Starlink Group 4-20 was Sherpa-LTC2, a space tug provided by Seattle-based company Spaceflight. The tug is carrying a payload for Boeing's Varuna Technology Demonstration Mission (Varuna-TDM), which "aims to test V-band communications for a proposed constellation of 147 non-geostationary broadband satellites," according to SpaceNews (opens in new tab).

The first Sherpa-LTC orbital transfer vehicle was removed from a January 2022 SpaceX launch opportunity due to a propellant leak, SpaceNews added.

Related: SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation launches in photos

Sunday's flight plan called for SpaceX to bring the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft touchdown on the droneship Just Read the Instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing the seventh for this particular booster occurred as planned, about 8.5 minutes after launch.

Sherpa-LTC2 deployed from the Falcon 9's upper stage about 49 minutes after liftoff, and the Starlinks followed suit 23 minutes after that, SpaceX confirmed via Twitter (opens in new tab).

SpaceX has already sent more than 3,000 Starlink satellites into orbit, in an effort to create a huge constellation for broadband service targeted for remote areas. SpaceX has launched more than 25 Starlink-centric missions in 2022 already.

Sunday's launch was SpaceX's 40th of the year and continued to add to the Starlink megaconstellation. SpaceX has approval to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites and has asked an international regulator to give the thumbs-up to an additional 30,000.

In late August, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced plans to beam connectivity directly to smartphones using Starlink, in conjunction with T-Mobile. Another deal announced Tuesday (Aug. 30) will see Starlink service beamed to Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) orFacebook (opens in new tab).

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SpaceX ‘noise’ goes largely quiet over the summer – 25 News KXXV and KRHD

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MCLENNAN COUNTY Say the name SpaceX in Central Texas and most people think of the giant, rocket engine testing facility in McLennan County.

At any one time, close to 1,000 people or more are employed there. They pump a lot of money into the local economy.

For months last winter and spring, though, the facility also pumped out massive noise and disturbances from the engine testing, frustrating thousands in McLennan County.

Then, a curious thing happened this summer: hardly any noise or vibrations.

Through the summer its dissipated even more to the point now where I hear it rarely, and Ive gotten no calls about it since June, said Mayor Jim Hering of McGregor.

The mayor said the situation last fall, and through the first half of 2022, was reaching a boiling point.

The noise was bad, the shaking was bad," said Hering. "SpaceX knew it. Its not a secret to anybody. Its something we openly talked about."

Two big changes helped quiet things down, starting in June.

For one, Hering said SpaceX changed their actual testing stands. Also, the summer months typically help with noise and vibrations because of the atmosphere, he said.

The company has also improved when it's testing, conducting the vast majority now before 9 p.m. when fines kick in from the city. That was a big source of irritation for locals, as well.

That fine is several thousand dollars. It accumulates over the year, so if they do it again its even more, said Hering.

25 News reached out to SpaceX a few times in the past week for comment, but never got a response.

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SpaceX 'noise' goes largely quiet over the summer - 25 News KXXV and KRHD

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The Tesla SpaceX Model Is A Hypercar Concept With Rocket Thrusters And Boosters – Men’s Gear

Posted: at 4:40 am

The Cybertrucks delay to 2023, has somewhat marred Elon Musks reputation when it comes to launch dates. However, Teslas announcement of the Semi Trucks arrival before 2022 ends gives us hope that more surprises might be on the way. For the time being, a German automotive designer shares a cool concept he calls the SpaceX Model.

Maximilian Schneider shares an awesome take on what a future hypercar platform from Tesla might look like. As the name implies, this concept fuses a high-performance vehicle with a rocket. Since the Roadsters arrival is still up in the air, well gladly take the SpaceX Model instead.

If only this was the real deal, demand will be through the roof. Now that our expectations are in check, lets find out what this bad boy is all about. From an aesthetic perspective, this machine resembles your typical racer. The marques badge is only visible on the short hood and the SpaceX branding on the front bumper.

The aerodynamic outline of its body is on point, while the cockpit is covered by a heavy-duty canopy akin to that of a fighter jet. Meanwhile, it seems the emission-free ethos of Tesla is no longer applicable here given its configuration. Although the SpaceX Model concept is packing an all-electric drivetrain, there are two massive rocket boosters at the rear and thrusters above each wheel.

Upward-firing units are integrated on the front and rear to aid the vehicles driving dynamics. Furthermore, it should also provide additional downforce to keep the SpaceX Model firmly planted while you push it to the absolute limit. Schneider says there is a street-legal and track-only version. The former can reach speeds of up to 290 mph, while the latter can supposedly hit 327 mph.

Images courtesy of Maximilian Schneider

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SpaceX Scheduled to Launch Falcon 9 Rocket from Cape Canaveral Tonight – SpaceCoastDaily.com

Posted: at 4:40 am

mission will carry another batch of Starlink satellitesSpaceX has scheduled a Falcon 9 rocket launch for Saturday, August 27 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (SpaceX Image)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA SpaceX is scheduled a Falcon 9 rocket launch for Sunday, September 4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Launch is targeted for 10:09 p.m. ET.

The mission will carry more Starlink satellites to space.

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the worlds first orbital class reusable rocket.

Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access.

The Falcon 9s first stage booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Coverage of the launch can be seen on Space Coast Daily TV.

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