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Darshan H. Brahmbhatt, Podcast Editor of JACC: Advances, discusses a recently published original research paper on Healthcare Expenditure on Atrial Fibrillation in the United States: The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2016 to 2021.

Good Sunday morning to you,I am just on a train home from Glasgow, where I have been gigging these past two nights. I've had a great time, as I always seem to do when I go north of the wall.But Glasgow on a Saturday night is something else. My hotel was right next to the station and so I was right in the thick of it. If I ever get to make a cacatopian, end-of-days, post-apocalyptic thriller, I'll just stroll through Glasgow city centre on a Friday or Saturday night with a camera to get all the B roll. It was like walking through a Hieronymus Bosch painting only with a Scottish accent. Little seems to have changed since I wrote that infamous chapter about Glasgow in Life After the State all those years ago. The only difference is that now it's more multi-ethnic. So many people are so off their heads. I lost count of the number of randoms wandering about just howling at the stars. The long days - it was still light at 10 o'clock - make the insanity all the more visible. Part of me finds it funny, but another part of me finds it so very sad that so many people let themselves get into this condition. It prompted me to revisit said chapter, and I offer it today as your Sunday thought piece.Just a couple of little notes, before we begin. This caught my eye on Friday. Our favourite uranium tech company, Lightbridge Fuels (NASDAQ:LTBR), has taken off again with Donald Trump's statement that he is going to quadruple US nuclear capacity. The stock was up 45% in a day. We first looked at it in October at $3. It hit $15 on Friday. It's one to sell on the spikes and buy on the dips, as this incredible chart shows.(In other news I have now listened twice to the Comstock Lode AGM, and I'll report back on that shortly too). ICYMI here is my mid-week commentary, which attracted a lot of attentionRight - Glasgow.(NB I haven't included references here. Needless to say, they are all there in the book. And sorry I don't have access to the audio of me reading this from my laptop, but, if you like, you can get the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. The book itself available at Amazon, Apple Books et al).How the Most Entrepreneurial City in Europe Became Its SickestThe cause of waves of unemployment is not capitalism, but governments …Friedrich Hayek, economist and philosopherIn the 18th and 19th centuries, the city of Glasgow in Scotland became enormously, stupendously rich. It happened quite organically, without planning. An entrepreneurial people reacted to their circumstances and, over time, turned Glasgow into an industrial and economic centre of such might that, by the turn of the 20th century, Glasgow was producing half the tonnage of Britain's ships and a quarter of all locomotives in the world. (Not unlike China's industrial dominance today). It was regarded as the best-governed city in Europe and popular histories compared it to the great imperial cities of Venice and Rome. It became known as the ‘Second City of the British Empire'.Barely 100 years later, it is the heroin capital of the UK, the murder capital of the UK and its East End, once home to Europe's largest steelworks, has been dubbed ‘the benefits capital of the UK'. Glasgow is Britain's fattest city: its men have Britain's lowest life expectancy – on a par with Palestine and Albania – and its unemployment rate is 50% higher than the rest of the UK.How did Glasgow manage all that?The growth in Glasgow's economic fortunes began in the latter part of the 17th century and the early 18th century. First, the city's location in the west of Scotland at the mouth of the river Clyde meant that it lay in the path of the trade winds and at least 100 nautical miles closer to America's east coast than other British ports – 200 miles closer than London. In the days before fossil fuels (which only found widespread use in shipping in the second half of the 19th century) the journey to Virginia was some two weeks shorter than the same journey from London or many of the other ports in Britain and Europe. Even modern sailors describe how easy the port of Glasgow is to navigate. Second, when England was at war with France – as it was repeatedly between 1688 and 1815 – ships travelling to Glasgow were less vulnerable than those travelling to ports further south. Glasgow's merchants took advantage and, by the early 18th century, the city had begun to assert itself as a trading hub. Manufactured goods were carried from Britain and Europe to North America and the Caribbean, where they were traded for increasingly popular commodities such as tobacco, cotton and sugar.Through the 18th century, the Glasgow merchants' business networks spread, and they took steps to further accelerate trade. New ships were introduced, bigger than those of rival ports, with fore and aft sails that enabled them to sail closer to the wind and reduce journey times. Trading posts were built to ensure that cargo was gathered and stored for collection, so that ships wouldn't swing idly at anchor. By the 1760s Glasgow had a 50% share of the tobacco trade – as much as the rest of Britain's ports combined. While the English merchants simply sold American tobacco in Europe at a profit, the Glaswegians actually extended credit to American farmers against future production (a bit like a crop future today, where a crop to be grown at a later date is sold now). The Virginia farmers could then use this credit to buy European goods, which the Glaswegians were only too happy to supply. This brought about the rise of financial institutions such as the Glasgow Ship Bank and the Glasgow Thistle Bank, which would later become part of the now-bailed-out, taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).Their practices paid rewards. Glasgow's merchants earned a great deal of money. They built glamorous homes and large churches and, it seems, took on aristocratic airs – hence they became known as the ‘Tobacco Lords'. Numbering among them were Buchanan, Dunlop, Ingram, Wilson, Oswald, Cochrane and Glassford, all of whom had streets in the Merchant City district of Glasgow named after them (other streets, such as Virginia Street and Jamaica Street, refer to their trade destinations). In 1771, over 47 million pounds of tobacco were imported.However, the credit the Glaswegians extended to American tobacco farmers would backfire. The debts incurred by the tobacco farmers – which included future presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (who almost lost his farm as a result) – grew, and were among the grievances when the American War of Independence came in 1775. That war destroyed the tobacco trade for the Glaswegians. Much of the money that was owed to them was never repaid. Many of their plantations were lost. But the Glaswegians were entrepreneurial and they adapted. They moved on to other businesses, particularly cotton.By the 19th century, all sorts of local industry had emerged around the goods traded in the city. It was producing and exporting textiles, chemicals, engineered goods and steel. River engineering projects to dredge and deepen the Clyde (with a view to forming a deep- water port) had begun in 1768 and they would enable shipbuilding to become a major industry on the upper reaches of the river, pioneered by industrialists such as Robert Napier and John Elder. The final stretch of the Monkland Canal, linking the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port Dundas, was opened in 1795, facilitating access to the iron-ore and coal mines of Lanarkshire.The move to fossil-fuelled shipping in the latter 19th century destroyed the advantages that the trade winds had given Glasgow. But it didn't matter. Again, the people adapted. By the turn of the 20th century the Second City of the British Empire had become a world centre of industry and heavy engineering. It has been estimated that, between 1870 and 1914, it produced as much as one-fifth of the world's ships, and half of Britain's tonnage. Among the 25,000 ships it produced were some of the greatest ever built: the Cutty Sark, the Queen Mary, HMS Hood, the Lusitania, the Glenlee tall ship and even the iconic Mississippi paddle steamer, the Delta Queen. It had also become a centre for locomotive manufacture and, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, could boast the largest concentration of locomotive building works in Europe.It was not just Glasgow's industry and wealth that was so gargantuan. The city's contribution to mankind – made possible by the innovation and progress that comes with booming economies – would also have an international impact. Many great inventors either hailed from Glasgow or moved there to study or work. There's James Watt, for example, whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the Industrial Revolution. One of Watt's employees, William Murdoch, has been dubbed ‘the Scot who lit the world' – he invented gas lighting, a new kind of steam cannon and waterproof paint. Charles MacIntosh gave us the raincoat. James Young, the chemist dubbed as ‘the father of the oil industry', gave us paraffin. William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, developed the science of thermodynamics, formulating the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature; he also managed the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.The turning point in the economic fortunes of Glasgow – indeed, of industrial Britain – was WWI. Both have been in decline ever since. By the end of the war, the British were drained, both emotionally and in terms of capital and manpower; the workers, the entrepreneurs, the ideas men, too many of them were dead or incapacitated. There was insufficient money and no appetite to invest. The post-war recession, and later the Great Depression, did little to help. The trend of the city was now one of inexorable economic decline.If Glasgow was the home of shipping and industry in 19th-century Britain, it became the home of socialism in the 20th century. Known by some as the ‘Red Clydeside' movement, the socialist tide in Scotland actually pre-dated the First World War. In 1906 came the city's first Labour Member of Parliament (MP), George Barnes – prior to that its seven MPs were all Conservatives or Liberal Unionists. In the spring of 1911, 11,000 workers at the Singer sewing-machine factory (run by an American corporation in Clydebank) went on strike to support 12 women who were protesting about new work practices. Singer sacked 400 workers, but the movement was growing – as was labour unrest. In the four years between 1910 and 1914 Clydebank workers spent four times as many days on strike than in the whole of the previous decade. The Scottish Trades Union Congress and its affiliations saw membership rise from 129,000 in 1909 to 230,000 in 1914.20The rise in discontent had much to do with Glasgow's housing. Conditions were bad, there was overcrowding, bad sanitation, housing was close to dirty, noxious and deafening industry. Unions grew quite organically to protect the interests of their members.Then came WWI, and inflation, as Britain all but abandoned gold. In 1915 many landlords responded by attempting to increase rent, but with their young men on the Western front, those left behind didn't have the means to pay these higher costs. If they couldn't, eviction soon followed. In Govan, an area of Glasgow where shipbuilding was the main occupation, women – now in the majority with so many men gone – organized opposition to the rent increases. There are photographs showing women blocking the entrance to tenements; officers who did get inside to evict tenants are said to have had their trousers pulled down.The landlords were attacked for being unpatriotic. Placards read: ‘While our men are fighting on the front line,the landlord is attacking us at home.' The strikes spread to other cities throughout the UK, and on 27 November 1915 the government introduced legislation to restrict rents to the pre-war level. The strikers were placated. They had won. The government was happy; it had dealt with the problem. The landlords lost out.In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, more frequent strikes crippled the city. In 1919 the ‘Bloody Friday' uprising prompted the prime minister, David Lloyd George, to deploy 10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets. By the 1930s Glasgow had become the main base of the Independent Labour Party, so when Labour finally came to power alone after WWII, its influence was strong. Glasgow has always remained a socialist stronghold. Labour dominates the city council, and the city has not had a Conservative MP for 30 years.By the late 1950s, Glasgow was losing out to the more competitive industries of Japan, Germany and elsewhere. There was a lack of investment. Union demands for workers, enforced by government legislation, made costs uneconomic and entrepreneurial activity arduous. With lack of investment came lack of innovation.Rapid de-industrialization followed, and by the 1960s and 70s most employment lay not in manufacturing, but in the service industries.Which brings us to today. On the plus side, Glasgow is still ranked as one of Europe's top 20 financial centres and is home to some leading Scottish businesses. But there is considerable downside.Recent studies have suggested that nearly 30% of Glasgow's working age population is unemployed. That's 50% higher than that of the rest of Scotland or the UK. Eighteen per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are neither in school nor employed. More than one in five working-age Glaswegians have no sort of education that might qualify them for a job.In the city centre, the Merchant City, 50% of children are growing up in homes where nobody works. In the poorer neighbourhoods, such as Ruchill, Possilpark, or Dalmarnock, about 65% of children live in homes where nobody works – more than three times the national average. Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that 85% of working age adults from the district of Bridgeton claim some kind of welfare payment.Across the city, almost a third of the population regularly receives sickness or incapacity benefit, the highest rate of all UK cities. A 2008 World Health Organization report noted that in Glasgow's Calton, Bridgeton and Queenslie neighbourhoods, the average life expectancy for males is only 54. In contrast, residents of Glasgow's more affluent West End live to be 80 and virtually none of them are on the dole.Glasgow has the highest crime rate in Scotland. A recent report by the Centre for Social Justice noted that there are 170 teenage gangs in Glasgow. That's the same number as in London, which has over six times the population of Glasgow.It also has the dubious record of being Britain's murder capital. In fact, Glasgow had the highest homicide rate in Western Europe until it was overtaken in 2012 by Amsterdam, with more violent crime per head of population than even New York. What's more, its suicide rate is the highest in the UK.Then there are the drug and alcohol problems. The residents of the poorer neighbourhoods are an astounding six times more likely to die of a drugs overdose than the national average. Drug-related mortality has increased by 95% since 1997. There are 20,000 registered drug users – that's just registered – and the situation is not going to get any better: children who grow up in households where family members use drugs are seven times more likely to end up using drugs themselves than children who live in drug-free families.Glasgow has the highest incidence of liver diseases from alcohol abuse in all of Scotland. In the East End district of Dennistoun, these illnesses kill more people than heart attacks and lung cancer combined. Men and women are more likely to die of alcohol-related deaths in Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK. Time and time again Glasgow is proud winner of the title ‘Fattest City in Britain'. Around 40% of the population are obese – 5% morbidly so – and it also boasts the most smokers per capita.I have taken these statistics from an array of different sources. It might be in some cases that they're overstated. I know that I've accentuated both the 18th- and 19th-century positives, as well as the 20th- and 21st-century negatives to make my point. Of course, there are lots of healthy, happy people in Glasgow – I've done many gigs there and I loved it. Despite the stories you hear about intimidating Glasgow audiences, the ones I encountered were as good as any I've ever performed in front of. But none of this changes the broad-brush strokes: Glasgow was a once mighty city that now has grave social problems. It is a city that is not fulfilling its potential in the way that it once did. All in all, it's quite a transformation. How has it happened?Every few years a report comes out that highlights Glasgow's various problems. Comments are then sought from across the political spectrum. Usually, those asked to comment agree that the city has grave, ‘long-standing and deep-rooted social problems' (the words of Stephen Purcell, former leader of Glasgow City Council); they agree that something needs to be done, though they don't always agree on what that something is.There's the view from the right: Bill Aitken of the Scottish Conservatives, quoted in The Sunday Times in 2008, said, ‘We simply don't have the jobs for people who are not academically inclined. Another factor is that some people are simply disinclined to work. We have got to find something for these people to do, to give them a reason to get up in the morning and give them some self-respect.' There's the supposedly apolitical view of anti-poverty groups: Peter Kelly, director of the Glasgow-based Poverty Alliance, responded, ‘We need real, intensive support for people if we are going to tackle poverty. It's not about a lack of aspiration, often people who are unemployed or on low incomes are stymied by a lack of money and support from local and central government.' And there's the view from the left. In the same article, Patricia Ferguson, the Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Maryhill, also declared a belief in government regeneration of the area. ‘It's about better housing, more jobs, better education and these things take years to make an impact. I believe that the huge regeneration in the area is fostering a lot more community involvement and cohesion. My real hope is that these figures will take a knock in the next five or ten years.' At the time of writing in 2013, five years later, the figures have worsened.All three points of view agree on one thing: the government must do something.In 2008 the £435 million Fairer Scotland Fund – established to tackle poverty – was unveiled, aiming to allocate cash to the country's most deprived communities. Its targets included increasing average income among lower wage-earners and narrowing the poverty gap between Scotland's best- and worst-performing regions by 2017. So far, it hasn't met those targets.In 2008 a report entitled ‘Power for The Public' examined the provision of health, education and justice in Scotland. It said the budgets for these three areas had grown by 55%, 87% and 44% respectively over the last decade, but added that this had produced ‘mixed results'. ‘Mixed results' means it didn't work. More money was spent and the figures got worse.After the Centre for Social Justice report on Glasgow in 2008, Iain Duncan Smith (who set up this think tank, and is now the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) said, ‘Policy must deal with the pathways to breakdown – high levels of family breakdown, high levels of failed education, debt and unemployment.'So what are ‘pathways to breakdown'? If you were to look at a chart of Glasgow's prosperity relative to the rest of the world, its peak would have come somewhere around 1910. With the onset of WWI in 1914 its decline accelerated, and since then the falls have been relentless and inexorable. It's not just Glasgow that would have this chart pattern, but the whole of industrial Britain. What changed the trend? Yes, empires rise and fall, but was British decline all a consequence of WWI? Or was there something else?A seismic shift came with that war – a change which is very rarely spoken or written about. Actually, the change was gradual and it pre-dated 1914. It was a change that was sweeping through the West: that of government or state involvement in our lives. In the UK it began with the reforms of the Liberal government of 1906–14, championed by David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, known as the ‘terrible twins' by contemporaries. The Pensions Act of 1908, the People's Budget of 1909–10 (to ‘wage implacable warfare against poverty', declared Lloyd George) and the National Insurance Act of 1911 saw the Liberal government moving away from its tradition of laissez-faire systems – from classical liberalism and Gladstonian principles of self-help and self-reliance – towards larger, more active government by which taxes were collected from the wealthy and the proceeds redistributed. Afraid of losing votes to the emerging Labour party and the increasingly popular ideology of socialism, modern liberals betrayed their classical principles. In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George said ‘the partisan warfare that raged around these topics was so fierce that by 1913, this country was brought to the verge of civil war'. But these were small steps. The Pensions Act, for example, meant that men aged 70 and above could claim between two and five shillings per week from the government. But average male life- expectancy then was 47. Today it's 77. Using the same ratio, and, yes, I'm manipulating statistics here, that's akin to only awarding pensions to people above the age 117 today. Back then it was workable.To go back to my analogy of the prologue, this period was when the ‘train' was set in motion across the West. In 1914 it went up a gear. Here are the opening paragraphs of historian A. J. P. Taylor's most celebrated book, English History 1914–1945, published in 1965.I quote this long passage in full, because it is so telling.Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country forever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police. Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those helped the state, who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913–14, or rather less than 8% of the national income.The state intervened to prevent the citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women, and adult males in some industries,from working excessive hours.The state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13. Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.All this was changed by the impact of the Great War. The mass of the people became, for the first time, active citizens. Their lives were shaped by orders from above; they were required to serve the state instead of pursuing exclusively their own affairs. Five million men entered the armed forces, many of them (though a minority) under compulsion. The Englishman's food was limited, and its quality changed, by government order. His freedom of movement was restricted; his conditions of work prescribed. Some industries were reduced or closed, others artificially fostered. The publication of news was fettered. Street lights were dimmed. The sacred freedom of drinking was tampered with: licensed hours were cut down, and the beer watered by order. The very time on the clocks was changed. From 1916 onwards, every Englishman got up an hour earlier in summer than he would otherwise have done, thanks to an act of parliament. The state established a hold over its citizens which, though relaxed in peacetime, was never to be removed and which the Second World war was again to increase. The history of the English state and of the English people merged for the first time.Since the beginning of WWI , the role that the state has played in our lives has not stopped growing. This has been especially so in the case of Glasgow. The state has spent more and more, provided more and more services, more subsidy, more education, more health care, more infrastructure, more accommodation, more benefits, more regulations, more laws, more protection. The more it has provided, the worse Glasgow has fared. Is this correlation a coincidence? I don't think so.The story of the rise and fall of Glasgow is a distilled version of the story of the rise and fall of industrial Britain – indeed the entire industrial West. In the next chapter I'm going to show you a simple mistake that goes on being made; a dynamic by which the state, whose very aim was to help Glasgow, has actually been its ‘pathway to breakdown' . . .Life After the State is available at Amazon, Apple Books and all good bookshops, with the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Good Sunday morning to you,I am just on a train home from Glasgow, where I have been gigging these past two nights. I've had a great time, as I always seem to do when I go north of the wall.But Glasgow on a Saturday night is something else. My hotel was right next to the station and so I was right in the thick of it. If I ever get to make a cacatopian, end-of-days, post-apocalyptic thriller, I'll just stroll through Glasgow city centre on a Friday or Saturday night with a camera to get all the B roll. It was like walking through a Hieronymus Bosch painting only with a Scottish accent. Little seems to have changed since I wrote that infamous chapter about Glasgow in Life After the State all those years ago. The only difference is that now it's more multi-ethnic. So many people are so off their heads. I lost count of the number of randoms wandering about just howling at the stars. The long days - it was still light at 10 o'clock - make the insanity all the more visible. Part of me finds it funny, but another part of me finds it so very sad that so many people let themselves get into this condition. It prompted me to revisit said chapter, and I offer it today as your Sunday thought piece.Just a couple of little notes, before we begin. This caught my eye on Friday. Our favourite uranium tech company, Lightbridge Fuels (NASDAQ:LTBR), has taken off again with Donald Trump's statement that he is going to quadruple US nuclear capacity. The stock was up 45% in a day. We first looked at it in October at $3. It hit $15 on Friday. It's one to sell on the spikes and buy on the dips, as this incredible chart shows.(In other news I have now listened twice to the Comstock Lode AGM, and I'll report back on that shortly too). ICYMI here is my mid-week commentary, which attracted a lot of attentionRight - Glasgow.(NB I haven't included references here. Needless to say, they are all there in the book. And sorry I don't have access to the audio of me reading this from my laptop, but, if you like, you can get the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. The book itself available at Amazon, Apple Books et al).How the Most Entrepreneurial City in Europe Became Its SickestThe cause of waves of unemployment is not capitalism, but governments …Friedrich Hayek, economist and philosopherIn the 18th and 19th centuries, the city of Glasgow in Scotland became enormously, stupendously rich. It happened quite organically, without planning. An entrepreneurial people reacted to their circumstances and, over time, turned Glasgow into an industrial and economic centre of such might that, by the turn of the 20th century, Glasgow was producing half the tonnage of Britain's ships and a quarter of all locomotives in the world. (Not unlike China's industrial dominance today). It was regarded as the best-governed city in Europe and popular histories compared it to the great imperial cities of Venice and Rome. It became known as the ‘Second City of the British Empire'.Barely 100 years later, it is the heroin capital of the UK, the murder capital of the UK and its East End, once home to Europe's largest steelworks, has been dubbed ‘the benefits capital of the UK'. Glasgow is Britain's fattest city: its men have Britain's lowest life expectancy – on a par with Palestine and Albania – and its unemployment rate is 50% higher than the rest of the UK.How did Glasgow manage all that?The growth in Glasgow's economic fortunes began in the latter part of the 17th century and the early 18th century. First, the city's location in the west of Scotland at the mouth of the river Clyde meant that it lay in the path of the trade winds and at least 100 nautical miles closer to America's east coast than other British ports – 200 miles closer than London. In the days before fossil fuels (which only found widespread use in shipping in the second half of the 19th century) the journey to Virginia was some two weeks shorter than the same journey from London or many of the other ports in Britain and Europe. Even modern sailors describe how easy the port of Glasgow is to navigate. Second, when England was at war with France – as it was repeatedly between 1688 and 1815 – ships travelling to Glasgow were less vulnerable than those travelling to ports further south. Glasgow's merchants took advantage and, by the early 18th century, the city had begun to assert itself as a trading hub. Manufactured goods were carried from Britain and Europe to North America and the Caribbean, where they were traded for increasingly popular commodities such as tobacco, cotton and sugar.Through the 18th century, the Glasgow merchants' business networks spread, and they took steps to further accelerate trade. New ships were introduced, bigger than those of rival ports, with fore and aft sails that enabled them to sail closer to the wind and reduce journey times. Trading posts were built to ensure that cargo was gathered and stored for collection, so that ships wouldn't swing idly at anchor. By the 1760s Glasgow had a 50% share of the tobacco trade – as much as the rest of Britain's ports combined. While the English merchants simply sold American tobacco in Europe at a profit, the Glaswegians actually extended credit to American farmers against future production (a bit like a crop future today, where a crop to be grown at a later date is sold now). The Virginia farmers could then use this credit to buy European goods, which the Glaswegians were only too happy to supply. This brought about the rise of financial institutions such as the Glasgow Ship Bank and the Glasgow Thistle Bank, which would later become part of the now-bailed-out, taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).Their practices paid rewards. Glasgow's merchants earned a great deal of money. They built glamorous homes and large churches and, it seems, took on aristocratic airs – hence they became known as the ‘Tobacco Lords'. Numbering among them were Buchanan, Dunlop, Ingram, Wilson, Oswald, Cochrane and Glassford, all of whom had streets in the Merchant City district of Glasgow named after them (other streets, such as Virginia Street and Jamaica Street, refer to their trade destinations). In 1771, over 47 million pounds of tobacco were imported.However, the credit the Glaswegians extended to American tobacco farmers would backfire. The debts incurred by the tobacco farmers – which included future presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (who almost lost his farm as a result) – grew, and were among the grievances when the American War of Independence came in 1775. That war destroyed the tobacco trade for the Glaswegians. Much of the money that was owed to them was never repaid. Many of their plantations were lost. But the Glaswegians were entrepreneurial and they adapted. They moved on to other businesses, particularly cotton.By the 19th century, all sorts of local industry had emerged around the goods traded in the city. It was producing and exporting textiles, chemicals, engineered goods and steel. River engineering projects to dredge and deepen the Clyde (with a view to forming a deep- water port) had begun in 1768 and they would enable shipbuilding to become a major industry on the upper reaches of the river, pioneered by industrialists such as Robert Napier and John Elder. The final stretch of the Monkland Canal, linking the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port Dundas, was opened in 1795, facilitating access to the iron-ore and coal mines of Lanarkshire.The move to fossil-fuelled shipping in the latter 19th century destroyed the advantages that the trade winds had given Glasgow. But it didn't matter. Again, the people adapted. By the turn of the 20th century the Second City of the British Empire had become a world centre of industry and heavy engineering. It has been estimated that, between 1870 and 1914, it produced as much as one-fifth of the world's ships, and half of Britain's tonnage. Among the 25,000 ships it produced were some of the greatest ever built: the Cutty Sark, the Queen Mary, HMS Hood, the Lusitania, the Glenlee tall ship and even the iconic Mississippi paddle steamer, the Delta Queen. It had also become a centre for locomotive manufacture and, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, could boast the largest concentration of locomotive building works in Europe.It was not just Glasgow's industry and wealth that was so gargantuan. The city's contribution to mankind – made possible by the innovation and progress that comes with booming economies – would also have an international impact. Many great inventors either hailed from Glasgow or moved there to study or work. There's James Watt, for example, whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the Industrial Revolution. One of Watt's employees, William Murdoch, has been dubbed ‘the Scot who lit the world' – he invented gas lighting, a new kind of steam cannon and waterproof paint. Charles MacIntosh gave us the raincoat. James Young, the chemist dubbed as ‘the father of the oil industry', gave us paraffin. William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, developed the science of thermodynamics, formulating the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature; he also managed the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.The turning point in the economic fortunes of Glasgow – indeed, of industrial Britain – was WWI. Both have been in decline ever since. By the end of the war, the British were drained, both emotionally and in terms of capital and manpower; the workers, the entrepreneurs, the ideas men, too many of them were dead or incapacitated. There was insufficient money and no appetite to invest. The post-war recession, and later the Great Depression, did little to help. The trend of the city was now one of inexorable economic decline.If Glasgow was the home of shipping and industry in 19th-century Britain, it became the home of socialism in the 20th century. Known by some as the ‘Red Clydeside' movement, the socialist tide in Scotland actually pre-dated the First World War. In 1906 came the city's first Labour Member of Parliament (MP), George Barnes – prior to that its seven MPs were all Conservatives or Liberal Unionists. In the spring of 1911, 11,000 workers at the Singer sewing-machine factory (run by an American corporation in Clydebank) went on strike to support 12 women who were protesting about new work practices. Singer sacked 400 workers, but the movement was growing – as was labour unrest. In the four years between 1910 and 1914 Clydebank workers spent four times as many days on strike than in the whole of the previous decade. The Scottish Trades Union Congress and its affiliations saw membership rise from 129,000 in 1909 to 230,000 in 1914.20The rise in discontent had much to do with Glasgow's housing. Conditions were bad, there was overcrowding, bad sanitation, housing was close to dirty, noxious and deafening industry. Unions grew quite organically to protect the interests of their members.Then came WWI, and inflation, as Britain all but abandoned gold. In 1915 many landlords responded by attempting to increase rent, but with their young men on the Western front, those left behind didn't have the means to pay these higher costs. If they couldn't, eviction soon followed. In Govan, an area of Glasgow where shipbuilding was the main occupation, women – now in the majority with so many men gone – organized opposition to the rent increases. There are photographs showing women blocking the entrance to tenements; officers who did get inside to evict tenants are said to have had their trousers pulled down.The landlords were attacked for being unpatriotic. Placards read: ‘While our men are fighting on the front line,the landlord is attacking us at home.' The strikes spread to other cities throughout the UK, and on 27 November 1915 the government introduced legislation to restrict rents to the pre-war level. The strikers were placated. They had won. The government was happy; it had dealt with the problem. The landlords lost out.In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, more frequent strikes crippled the city. In 1919 the ‘Bloody Friday' uprising prompted the prime minister, David Lloyd George, to deploy 10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets. By the 1930s Glasgow had become the main base of the Independent Labour Party, so when Labour finally came to power alone after WWII, its influence was strong. Glasgow has always remained a socialist stronghold. Labour dominates the city council, and the city has not had a Conservative MP for 30 years.By the late 1950s, Glasgow was losing out to the more competitive industries of Japan, Germany and elsewhere. There was a lack of investment. Union demands for workers, enforced by government legislation, made costs uneconomic and entrepreneurial activity arduous. With lack of investment came lack of innovation.Rapid de-industrialization followed, and by the 1960s and 70s most employment lay not in manufacturing, but in the service industries.Which brings us to today. On the plus side, Glasgow is still ranked as one of Europe's top 20 financial centres and is home to some leading Scottish businesses. But there is considerable downside.Recent studies have suggested that nearly 30% of Glasgow's working age population is unemployed. That's 50% higher than that of the rest of Scotland or the UK. Eighteen per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are neither in school nor employed. More than one in five working-age Glaswegians have no sort of education that might qualify them for a job.In the city centre, the Merchant City, 50% of children are growing up in homes where nobody works. In the poorer neighbourhoods, such as Ruchill, Possilpark, or Dalmarnock, about 65% of children live in homes where nobody works – more than three times the national average. Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that 85% of working age adults from the district of Bridgeton claim some kind of welfare payment.Across the city, almost a third of the population regularly receives sickness or incapacity benefit, the highest rate of all UK cities. A 2008 World Health Organization report noted that in Glasgow's Calton, Bridgeton and Queenslie neighbourhoods, the average life expectancy for males is only 54. In contrast, residents of Glasgow's more affluent West End live to be 80 and virtually none of them are on the dole.Glasgow has the highest crime rate in Scotland. A recent report by the Centre for Social Justice noted that there are 170 teenage gangs in Glasgow. That's the same number as in London, which has over six times the population of Glasgow.It also has the dubious record of being Britain's murder capital. In fact, Glasgow had the highest homicide rate in Western Europe until it was overtaken in 2012 by Amsterdam, with more violent crime per head of population than even New York. What's more, its suicide rate is the highest in the UK.Then there are the drug and alcohol problems. The residents of the poorer neighbourhoods are an astounding six times more likely to die of a drugs overdose than the national average. Drug-related mortality has increased by 95% since 1997. There are 20,000 registered drug users – that's just registered – and the situation is not going to get any better: children who grow up in households where family members use drugs are seven times more likely to end up using drugs themselves than children who live in drug-free families.Glasgow has the highest incidence of liver diseases from alcohol abuse in all of Scotland. In the East End district of Dennistoun, these illnesses kill more people than heart attacks and lung cancer combined. Men and women are more likely to die of alcohol-related deaths in Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK. Time and time again Glasgow is proud winner of the title ‘Fattest City in Britain'. Around 40% of the population are obese – 5% morbidly so – and it also boasts the most smokers per capita.I have taken these statistics from an array of different sources. It might be in some cases that they're overstated. I know that I've accentuated both the 18th- and 19th-century positives, as well as the 20th- and 21st-century negatives to make my point. Of course, there are lots of healthy, happy people in Glasgow – I've done many gigs there and I loved it. Despite the stories you hear about intimidating Glasgow audiences, the ones I encountered were as good as any I've ever performed in front of. But none of this changes the broad-brush strokes: Glasgow was a once mighty city that now has grave social problems. It is a city that is not fulfilling its potential in the way that it once did. All in all, it's quite a transformation. How has it happened?Every few years a report comes out that highlights Glasgow's various problems. Comments are then sought from across the political spectrum. Usually, those asked to comment agree that the city has grave, ‘long-standing and deep-rooted social problems' (the words of Stephen Purcell, former leader of Glasgow City Council); they agree that something needs to be done, though they don't always agree on what that something is.There's the view from the right: Bill Aitken of the Scottish Conservatives, quoted in The Sunday Times in 2008, said, ‘We simply don't have the jobs for people who are not academically inclined. Another factor is that some people are simply disinclined to work. We have got to find something for these people to do, to give them a reason to get up in the morning and give them some self-respect.' There's the supposedly apolitical view of anti-poverty groups: Peter Kelly, director of the Glasgow-based Poverty Alliance, responded, ‘We need real, intensive support for people if we are going to tackle poverty. It's not about a lack of aspiration, often people who are unemployed or on low incomes are stymied by a lack of money and support from local and central government.' And there's the view from the left. In the same article, Patricia Ferguson, the Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Maryhill, also declared a belief in government regeneration of the area. ‘It's about better housing, more jobs, better education and these things take years to make an impact. I believe that the huge regeneration in the area is fostering a lot more community involvement and cohesion. My real hope is that these figures will take a knock in the next five or ten years.' At the time of writing in 2013, five years later, the figures have worsened.All three points of view agree on one thing: the government must do something.In 2008 the £435 million Fairer Scotland Fund – established to tackle poverty – was unveiled, aiming to allocate cash to the country's most deprived communities. Its targets included increasing average income among lower wage-earners and narrowing the poverty gap between Scotland's best- and worst-performing regions by 2017. So far, it hasn't met those targets.In 2008 a report entitled ‘Power for The Public' examined the provision of health, education and justice in Scotland. It said the budgets for these three areas had grown by 55%, 87% and 44% respectively over the last decade, but added that this had produced ‘mixed results'. ‘Mixed results' means it didn't work. More money was spent and the figures got worse.After the Centre for Social Justice report on Glasgow in 2008, Iain Duncan Smith (who set up this think tank, and is now the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) said, ‘Policy must deal with the pathways to breakdown – high levels of family breakdown, high levels of failed education, debt and unemployment.'So what are ‘pathways to breakdown'? If you were to look at a chart of Glasgow's prosperity relative to the rest of the world, its peak would have come somewhere around 1910. With the onset of WWI in 1914 its decline accelerated, and since then the falls have been relentless and inexorable. It's not just Glasgow that would have this chart pattern, but the whole of industrial Britain. What changed the trend? Yes, empires rise and fall, but was British decline all a consequence of WWI? Or was there something else?A seismic shift came with that war – a change which is very rarely spoken or written about. Actually, the change was gradual and it pre-dated 1914. It was a change that was sweeping through the West: that of government or state involvement in our lives. In the UK it began with the reforms of the Liberal government of 1906–14, championed by David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, known as the ‘terrible twins' by contemporaries. The Pensions Act of 1908, the People's Budget of 1909–10 (to ‘wage implacable warfare against poverty', declared Lloyd George) and the National Insurance Act of 1911 saw the Liberal government moving away from its tradition of laissez-faire systems – from classical liberalism and Gladstonian principles of self-help and self-reliance – towards larger, more active government by which taxes were collected from the wealthy and the proceeds redistributed. Afraid of losing votes to the emerging Labour party and the increasingly popular ideology of socialism, modern liberals betrayed their classical principles. In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George said ‘the partisan warfare that raged around these topics was so fierce that by 1913, this country was brought to the verge of civil war'. But these were small steps. The Pensions Act, for example, meant that men aged 70 and above could claim between two and five shillings per week from the government. But average male life- expectancy then was 47. Today it's 77. Using the same ratio, and, yes, I'm manipulating statistics here, that's akin to only awarding pensions to people above the age 117 today. Back then it was workable.To go back to my analogy of the prologue, this period was when the ‘train' was set in motion across the West. In 1914 it went up a gear. Here are the opening paragraphs of historian A. J. P. Taylor's most celebrated book, English History 1914–1945, published in 1965.I quote this long passage in full, because it is so telling.Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country forever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police. Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those helped the state, who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913–14, or rather less than 8% of the national income.The state intervened to prevent the citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women, and adult males in some industries,from working excessive hours.The state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13. Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.All this was changed by the impact of the Great War. The mass of the people became, for the first time, active citizens. Their lives were shaped by orders from above; they were required to serve the state instead of pursuing exclusively their own affairs. Five million men entered the armed forces, many of them (though a minority) under compulsion. The Englishman's food was limited, and its quality changed, by government order. His freedom of movement was restricted; his conditions of work prescribed. Some industries were reduced or closed, others artificially fostered. The publication of news was fettered. Street lights were dimmed. The sacred freedom of drinking was tampered with: licensed hours were cut down, and the beer watered by order. The very time on the clocks was changed. From 1916 onwards, every Englishman got up an hour earlier in summer than he would otherwise have done, thanks to an act of parliament. The state established a hold over its citizens which, though relaxed in peacetime, was never to be removed and which the Second World war was again to increase. The history of the English state and of the English people merged for the first time.Since the beginning of WWI , the role that the state has played in our lives has not stopped growing. This has been especially so in the case of Glasgow. The state has spent more and more, provided more and more services, more subsidy, more education, more health care, more infrastructure, more accommodation, more benefits, more regulations, more laws, more protection. The more it has provided, the worse Glasgow has fared. Is this correlation a coincidence? I don't think so.The story of the rise and fall of Glasgow is a distilled version of the story of the rise and fall of industrial Britain – indeed the entire industrial West. In the next chapter I'm going to show you a simple mistake that goes on being made; a dynamic by which the state, whose very aim was to help Glasgow, has actually been its ‘pathway to breakdown' . . .Life After the State is available at Amazon, Apple Books and all good bookshops, with the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Nosipho Radebe is in conversation with Political Economist, Prof. Patrick BondSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Les dépenses militaires mondiales ont connu leur plus forte augmentation depuis plus d'une décennie en 2023, atteignant un niveau record de 2,4 milliards de dollars alors que les guerres et les tensions croissantes alimentaient les dépenses à travers le monde.Traduction :Global military expenditure saw its steepest increase in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fuelled spending across the world.Click through the following links to start your language-learning journey:Web: https://go.italki.com/louisfrenchApp: https://go.italki.com/louisfrenchappBuy $10, get $5 for free for your first lesson using my exclusive Promo Code: LOUISThe discounts are only available for the first 50 users. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Les dépenses militaires mondiales ont connu leur plus forte augmentation depuis plus d'une décennie en 2023, atteignant un niveau record de 2,4 milliards de dollars alors que les guerres et les tensions croissantes alimentaient les dépenses à travers le monde.Traduction :Global military expenditure saw its steepest increase in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fuelled spending across the world.Click through the following links to start your language-learning journey:Web: https://go.italki.com/louisfrenchApp: https://go.italki.com/louisfrenchappBuy $10, get $5 for free for your first lesson using my exclusive Promo Code: LOUISThe discounts are only available for the first 50 users. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ActionSA has raised concern over South Africa's R3.45 billion expenditure on 115 foreign missions in 2023/24, calling it excessive and unfocused. According to a parliamentary reply, the Department of International Relations spent R950m in Africa, R900m in Asia and the Middle East, R813m in Europe, R465m in the Americas, and R325m on multilateral missions. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba spoke to Elvis Presslin to discuss the party's concerns

The defence posture of NATO member countries, which had already dramatically shifted after 2014, was accelerated irreversibly in 2022 with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The trend of boosting defence spending has been witnessed across the Alliance, however, it has been especially strong in the countries closer to NATO's eastern flank, as Europe has recognised its obligation to share more fairly the financial burden of defending itself. Within this new paradigm, Poland and Germany represent two examples of European countries who are stepping up to this challenge by securing significant defence funding in different yet equally effective ways.

Send us a textJeff and Scott chat with Adam Michel of the Cato Institute about tax expenditures. Adam currently has on his X account the Tax Expenditure Madness brackets (also on his substack: https://adamnmichel.substack.com/). Adam sets up brackets like the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament,  but instead of pitting basketball teams against each other to establish the best team*, he has tax expenditures competing to determine which is the worst expenditure. Jeff, Scott and Adam chat about several sets of tax expenditures, and offer their somewhat tongue-in-cheek opinion about which ones are worst.*For example, by establishing that UNC women's basketball has won a national championship 1 time, compared to Duke's 0 times, or that UNC men's basketball has won the NCAA tournament 6 times, compared to Duke's 5 times. Of note is that of all teams with over 20 games played in the NCAA men's tournament, Duke has the highest winning percentage, which is only to say that they win a lot before they ultimately lose--they choke under pressure in the end.

Send us a textSarah welcomes Josh Maley back to The Beyond Condition Podcast and we get stuck into the real talk of living as a 300LB BODYBUILDER.Josh brings his knowledge and experience as a coach and IFBB PRO to share not only insight into his success but the truths that come with his incredible physique transformation. Both mentally and physically you will find out the true cost to becoming a champion and what life looks like since retiring from competitive bodybuilding.Discussions include:*Bodybuilding as a lifestyle*Training mindset*Off season as a 300lb+ male bodybuilder*Health considerations including sleep apnea*Expenditure and cardiovascular health*Self coaching and coaching*PED use and side effects*Longevity as a bodybuilder*Bloodwork*Social media and documenting your journey*Progression*Josh's competitive season in 2024*The PRO SERIES*Approaches to bodybuilding*Relationship with food*Eating out and socialising*Rehab and stretching*Recovery managementFind Josh on Instagram @josh_maley and Yvette @yvettegeary_makeupartist @yg_branduk_tmWatch it here: https://youtu.be/Bq9jM9C64x4Get in touch and share this episode @sarahparker_bb

Auckland Council's Community Committee has sent a ‘please help' letter to the government after reports from their Community Impact team showed a 53% rise in the number of people sleeping rough over the past four months. This follows changes last year by the Ministry of Social Development to the rules surrounding emergency housing, introducing stricter entry criteria and new requirements which make it difficult to stay.  While Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, earlier this week, denied that these changes have led to an increase in homelessness, Housing First Auckland programme manager Rami Alrudani said that outreach workers have been stretched thin, dealing with “more and more homelessness every day”. Producer Sara spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about the rise in homelessness in Tāmaki Makaurau.  As well, Auckland Council are trialling an AI digital assistant to help improve their customer support services. The ‘Ask Auckland Council' pilot, presented at February's Revenue, Expenditure and Value Committee, is being funded by Google Cloud at no cost to ratepayers. Auckland Council receives 1.5 million calls every year and coordinates region-wide services across multiple platforms. The new system is designed to bridge the gap between Aucklanders and digital services, reducing the effort required to seek out information Starting on the topic of homelessness, Sara asked Julie if she was surprised to see a stark increase in the latest data around the number of people sleeping rough.

Wisdom Kobena Woyome, former Parliamentary Sports Committee Chairman, backs Mahama's call for transparency on Black Stars' budget. Mo Shaban reviews Division One League. Man Utd eyes Victor Osimhen & more.

Darshan H. Brahmbhatt, Podcast Editor of JACC: Advances, discusses a recently published original research paper on Psychological Distress in Adults With Myocardial Infarction: Implications for Health Care Utilization and Expenditure

Nosipho Radebe speaks to Matimba Khosa, Specialist Economist at NedbankSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune in to the "Weekly Sri Lankan Political Review" by SBS Sinhala, featuring journalist Manoj Udatiawala from Sri Lanka. Please note that the two segments broadcasted during the live program have been combined and are now available on the website as a single program. - SBS සිංහල සේවය විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති වාර්තාකරු, මාධ්‍යවේදී මාධ්‍යවේදී මනෝජ් උදටියාවල සමඟින් ගෙන එන 'සතියේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය දේශපාලන පුවත්' සමාලෝචනයට සවන්දෙන්න. සජීව වැඩසටහනේ කෙටස් දෙකක් ලෙසින් ප්‍රචාරය වුනු විශේෂාංග එකතු කොට එක වැඩසටහනක් ලෙසට වෙබ් අඩවියට එක්කොට ඇති බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න.

Nosipho Radebe speaks to Risenga Maluleke, Statistician General at Stats SASee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest Suggestion Form: https://forms.gle/bnaeY3FpoFU9ZjA47 Order 'Build, Don't Talk' (in English) here: https://amzn.eu/d/eCfijRu Order 'Build Don't Talk' (in Hindi) here: https://amzn.eu/d/4wZISO0 Follow Our Whatsapp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaokF5x0bIdi3Qn9ef2J Subscribe To Our Other YouTube Channels:- https://www.youtube.com/@rajshamaniclips https://www.youtube.com/@RajShamani.Shorts

Bertrand Maître, ESRI, discusses how some sections of society do not have enough for a a basic standard of living.

What Congress does not have to approve. Undisclosed figures. Expenditure accountability. Wasteful spending. The Voice in the Wilderness does not endorse any link or other material found at buzzsprout.More at https://www.thevoiceinthewilderness.org/

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) published details on the 38,000 home energy upgrades supported through Government funded grant schemes in the first nine months of 2024. This represents an increase of 11% on the number of upgrades for the same period last year, showing continued momentum in home retrofitting. Government expenditure across all schemes reached €279 million, up 34% year on year. Of the homes upgraded, 5,255 were energy-poor homes which benefitted from totally free energy upgrades. The headline outcomes during the first nine months of 2024, across all schemes administered by SEAI, were: 48,300 applications processed across all schemes, up 3% over the same period in 2023. 38,000 property upgrades were completed, up 11% over the same period in 2023. Over 15,000 homes were upgraded to a BER B2 or higher, up 24% over the same period in 2023. Over 5,255 upgrades for energy poverty qualifying households, up 26% on the same period in 2023. Expenditure across all schemes was €279 million, up 34% on the same period in 2023. Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD said: "Our retrofitting programme continues to expand which means that more and more people are waking up in warmer, more efficient and healthier homes every year. While we often talk ourselves down in Ireland, when I tell other energy and climate Ministers across Europe about our robust retrofitting rates, they are amazed at the percentage of homes we are reaching, year on year. We cannot be complacent, however, and we have to keep pushing on, particularly with our programme of free retrofitting for low income and energy poor homes. We must ensure that everyone can benefit from the clean, green energy solutions that are available." Dr Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit at SEAI said: "As has been the case for some time now solar PV is proving a very attractive technology for homeowners. And while application levels in some of the schemes have been somewhat flat in the most recent quarter, there has also been a general uplift in application levels towards the end of the quarter and into Q4. This is likely because during the summer months homeowners focus is often elsewhere. It is only when the colder weather arrives that homeowners focus tends to return to retrofit. "The Government, Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and SEAI have taken several actions during 2024 designed to increase homeowner demand and supply chain participation. These include: a new phase of SEAI's multi-annual marketing and communications campaign, new supports for homeowners availing of the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme, and a new training incentive for heat pump installers. Dr Byrne continued: "Several scheme developments are likely to drive interest and participation in both the short and medium term. These include the support scheme for homeowners affected by Defective Concrete Blocks launched in September and the low interest Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme with more institutions due to sign up in the coming months. We are also excited about the traditional buildings pilot programme launched in October, which will provide vital evidence and data which will hopefully unlock access to grants for these typically harder to treat homes". For more information on Home Energy Upgrades visit www.seai.ie/home-energy/home-upgrades. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss. Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audi...

November 18, 2024 Rockingham County Commissioners MeetingAGENDA1.   Meeting Called to Order by Chairman Hall2.   Invocation3.   Pledge of Allegiance - Sam Millikan, age 4, attends Apples Chapel Daycare4.   RecognitionA. Lance Metzler, County ManagerRequest consideration of approval for a Resolution recognizing and honoring the Rockingham County Sheriff's Team that was deployed to Buncombe County (Asheville area) on October 6, 2024, to provide law enforcement assistance, search, rescue and recovery, support efforts delivering supplies, damage documentation and neighborhood welfare checks after the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.                   B. Commissioner Mark RichardsonPresentation of Resolution honoring Rush Collins, Jr. congratulating him for his 100th birthday and thanking him for his service to Rockingham County.                   C. Lance Metzler, County ManagerRequest consideration of approval for a Resolution honoring Donald "Don" T. Powell for his service on the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners and to Rockingham County.                   5.   Approval of the November 18, 2024 Agenda6.   Consent AgendaConsent items as follows will be adopted with a single motion, second and vote, unless a request for removal from the Consent Agenda is heard from a CommissionerA. Dr. Mark Kinlaw, President, Rockingham Community CollegeConsider approval of the 2024-2025 Rockingham Community College Quarter Cent Sales Tax Budget along with a revision to increase the original estimate of $200,000 to install phase one of the security cameras project on campus to $342,543 for the complete installation, saving approximately $25,000.B. Trey Wright, Public Health DirectorRequest approval to increase fees on the Master Fee Schedule. Medicaid is allowing this increase. The current fee is $14.00.8305 Urine Drug Screen/Test $33.00C. Derek Southern, Assistant County Manager/Interim HHS DirectorConfirm designation of Child Fatality Prevention Team/Community Child Protection Team (CFPT/CCPT), Future Local Team, as a single County team.D. Todd Hurst, Tax AdministratorRequest the approval of Tax Collection and Reconciliation reports for October including refunds for October 23, 2024 thru November 4, 2024.E. Lance Metzler, County Manager1. Request approval to add an additional Veterans Treatment Court Coordinator position.2. Consider adoption of a Resolution of concurrence for abandonment of 0.2 miles of SR 2339 (Friddle Road) New Bethel Township.3. Consider approval of the appointments to the Industrial Facilities & Pollution Control Financing Authority for Mark Collins, Grayson Whitt and Scott Barham. Terms: Mark Collins - 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2030; Grayson Whitt 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2030; Scott Barham 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2028; Barry Dodson 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2028; Gary Gibson 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2026; and Kathy Hale 11/18/2024 ending 11/17/2026.F.   Justin Thacker, Deputy Finance Director1. Request approval to amend the Rural Operating Assistance Program (ROAP) budget for $34,290 due to less grant dollars awarded to the ROAP program in the Final Disbursement formula. The reduction in expenses will be factored in ADTS for monthly expense requests in the following areas:     EDTAP: $15,100     RGP: $15,110     Work-first Grant: $4,080     Total: $34,2902. Request consideration to appropriate $90 of available fund balance in the General Funds as a transfer to the E-911 Special Revenue Fund. After the NC 911 Board staff review of the FY 24 E-911 report, $90 of costs incurred have been deemed ineligible for E-911 funding and both the NC911 Board and the NC State Treasurer's office require that a transfer from the General Fund be made in order to reimburse the E-911 fund for the ineligivle expenses.G. Mandy McGhee, Finance Director1. Request approval to increase Public Health budget by $20,000 for the Electronic Health Records Grant with Community Care of North Carolina.           2. Request approval to appropriate insurance proceeds of $13,835 and Restricted Other Revenue (Controlled Substance Funds) to cover the cost of replacing a vehicle totaled in an accident. Total cost of new 2024 Dodge Charger is $36,994.3. Request approval to appropriate revenue from the sale of (4) vans in the amount of 9,950 and revenue received RCC Van Lease Agreement in amount of $695 to the paint remaining (2) Youth Service vans 285 and 286.           4. Request approval to adopt Capital Project Ordinance and budget for the Madison Water Transmission Main and Pump Upgrade Capital Project in the amount of $10,000,000 from State of NC-OSBM Grant 20535. As well as approval for the adoption of the Capital Project Ordinance and budget for the Rockingham Miscellaneous Water and Sewer Improvement Capital Project in the amount of $23,550,000 from the State of NC - OBSM Grant 20536.5. Request approval of the modification to the Resolution by the County of Rockingham to Direct the Expenditure of Opioid Settlement Funds. Please see changes which are highlighted in the Resolution.H. Hiram Marziano, Community Development DirectorConsideration of appointment of Dwayne Rakestraw of Madison to a three-year term as a full member of the Rockingham County Planning Board & Board of Adjustment. Mr. Rakestraw is a current alternate member of the Planning Board.7.    Public Comment8.    Public Hearing9.    Hiram Marziano, Community Development DirectorCase 2024-23: Zoning Map Amendment (Rezoning) – A request to rezone a (+/-) 1.1-acre parcel from Residential Protected (RP) to Highway Commercial (HC) – Standard Rezoning – Applicant: Hemal Patel – Tax PIN: 7926-01-28-8445 - 114 Will Rd. – Mayo Township10.   PresentationA. Trey Wright, Public Health DirectorPresentation of the 2023-2024 Community Health Assessment to the BOCC.B. Ronnie Tate, Director of Engineering and Public Utilities & Bill Lester, LKC EngineeringRequest for Board approval of three utlity design contracts: Contract#1 - Influent Pump Station upgrades at Mayodan Sewer Treatment Plant $409,000.00 Contract#2 - Plate Settlers upgrade at Mayodan Water Treatment Plant $399,000.00 Contract#3 - Booster Pump upgrades along US 220 $680,000.00C. Cara Dohner, Vaya HealthUpdated for Vaya Health11.   New Business12.   Commissioner Comments13.   Adjourn###

Step into the rich and vibrant garden of Puritan wisdom with Charles Spurgeon, one of the most beloved preachers and authors in recent Christian history. In Flowers from a Puritan's Garden, Spurgeon prayerfully selects and expands upon the profound insights and analogies gleaned from Thomas Manton's sermons. Each “flower” in this garden is a spiritual truth, lovingly cultivated and presented with Spurgeon's signature warmth, wit, and pastoral care. Whether you are a long-time admirer of Puritan writings or new to their influence, Flowers from a Puritan's Garden offers a refreshing and spiritually nourishing read. Perfect for daily devotions, personal study, or as a gift to those seeking encouragement in their Christian journey, this book will help readers to see the beauty of God's truth as it applies to our lives. Discover the timeless beauty of following Christ through the eyes of one of history's greatest preachers, and allow the truths in these pages to blossom in your heart. About the Author Charles Haddon (C. H.) Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British Baptist preacher. He started preaching at age 16 and quickly became famous. He is still known as the “Prince of Preachers” and frequently had more than 10,000 people present to hear him preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. His sermons were printed in newspapers, translated into many languages, and published in many books.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) today published details on the 25,750 home energy upgrades supported through Government funded grant schemes in the first half of 2024. This represents an increase of 18% on the number of upgrades for the same period last year and shows the ongoing surge in home retrofitting. Government expenditure across all schemes reached €186 million, up 44% year on year. Of the homes upgraded, 3,300 were energy-poor homes which benefitted from totally free energy upgrades. The headline outcomes during Q2 2024, across all schemes administered by SEAI, were: 25,750 property upgrades were completed to mid-year, up 18% over the same period in 2023. Over 10,150 homes were upgraded to a BER B2 or higher to mid-year, up 34% over the same period in 2023. Over 3,300 of the upgrades completed to mid-year were for low-income households, up 41% on the same period in 2023. The average cost per home under this particular scheme is €26,400. Over 31,500 applications were processed across all schemes to mid-year, which remains unchanged over the same period in 2023. Expenditure across all schemes to mid-year was €186 million, up 44% on the same period in 2023. Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD said: "Today's report shows continued momentum and strong delivery across the SEAI retrofit schemes. We're going to build on this progress in the coming months as the impact of initiatives such as the recently launched retrofit communications campaign and the low-cost retrofit loan take effect. "I particularly welcome the 41% increase in the delivery of upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty under the Warmer Homes Scheme. This means that 3,300 low-income households have received upgrades and are now living in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes with lower energy bills and lower emissions. This half-year report is a snapshot in time, but our retrofitting programme is a longer-term one stretching over the coming six years. We have to keep this upward trajectory going so that even more homes will be transformed over the coming months and years." Dr Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit at SEAI, said: "2024 is shaping up to be another significant year of delivery, with strong demand being shown across all the major retrofit programmes. The current delivery of retrofits comes from the existing pipeline of applications, and the key to ongoing strong delivery is having an active pipeline of applications. While there is some evidence to suggest that the application pipeline for some schemes may be softening, we anticipate this picking up later in the year as the benefit of the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme begins to be seen, particularly as more lenders are now signed up to the scheme." "The Government, Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and SEAI have taken several actions during 2024 designed to increase homeowner demand and supply chain participation. These include a new phase of SEAI's multi-annual marketing and communications campaign, new support for homeowners availing of the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme, and a new training incentive for heat pump installers. Dr Byrne continued: "On the supply chain side, it is particularly encouraging to see the launch, by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), of a new Domestic Heat Pump Installation Incentivisation Scheme for plumbers. This scheme will give an incentive of up to €500 where plumbers take time off work to upskill as SEAI registered heat pump installers. It is expected that by helping to offset these costs, the scheme will allow small and medium contractors to upskill their staff, gain extra capacity in an area that is in increasing demand, and help plumbers to future-proof their careers. It is anticipated that up to 300 plumbers will avail of the scheme between now and the end of the year and this could have a major ...

Meet Millie Adrian; an online educator and YouTuber who teaches content creators the latest strategies and trends on social media.  Time stamps:  0:00- 1:20: Intro 1:18- 1:56: Mission on this planet 1:56- 2:58: How you started the business 2:58- 4:08: Core offer 4:08- 4:54: What clients value most 4:54- 6:00: Price points 6:00- 7:11: Tools 7:11- 8:00: Launching 8:00- 10:00: Success 10:00- 10:30: Growth 10:30- 11:17: Million Dollar Creators Database 10:40- 11:38: Growth 11:38- 14:19: Expenditure and Team 14:19- 15:34: Customer acquisition 15:34- 17:12: Secret to growing audience 17:12- 18:45: Growing the business in future 18:45- 19:50: Biggest thing holding you back 19:50- 23:07: Quick fire questions 23:07- 24:26: Outro Follow Millie: Instagram TikTok YouTube Follow Million Dollar Creators Instagram: milliondollarcreators.club TikTok: @million_dollar_creators YouTube: @Million_Dollar_Creators Creator Database

How does the Central government and State governments divide tax collection? Why was ban on alcohol a bad decision by Bihar? Which government policies are really beneficial to the public? In this episode, Karthik breaks down the complexities of revenue and expenditure, explaining how taxes are collected, allocated, and utilized to drive India's growth. From infrastructure development to social welfare programs, discover how taxes shape the nation's future. Tune in for a fascinating discussion on the economics of governance and the role of taxes in building a better India. How does the Central government and State governments divide tax collection? Why was ban on alcohol a bad decision by Bihar? Which government policies are really beneficial to the public? In this episode, Karthik breaks down the complexities of revenue and expenditure, explaining how taxes are collected, allocated, and utilized to drive India's growth. From infrastructure development to social welfare programs, discover how taxes shape the nation's future. Tune in for a fascinating discussion on the economics of governance and the role of taxes in building a better India. Chapters - 00:00:00 - 00:01:11 - Episode Introduction 00:01:11 - 00:12:44 What are the different roles of the Central government and State governments? 00:12:44 - 00:25:33 How does the government navigate through debt, inflation and financial emergencies? 00:25:33 - 00:30:30 How is the country's revenue divided between the Central government and state governments? 00:30:30 - 00:37:30 Why was Bihar's decision to ban alcohol a bad one? 00:37:30 - 00:42:40 Which tax revenues are controlled by the Central government and which by State governments? 00:42:40 - 00:51:00 On what and how much is the expenditure by both governments? 00:51:00 - 01:11:11 What are some measures proposed by Karthik to optimise the financial operations and outcomes by the government? 01:11:11 - 01:19:37 What are the steps that need to be taken to ensure well-run governments and a better economy? 01:19:37 - 01:21:49 Concluding today's episode Resource List - Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance, Book by Karthik Muralidharan - https://amzn.in/d/ig9Sw0i Indian Finance Commision - https://fincomindia.nic.in/ NREGA Website - https://nrega.nic.in/MGNREGA_new/Nrega_home.aspx Paper on Public Employment Programs - https://www.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2023/07/01/General-equilibrium-effects-of-improving-public-employment-programs-experimental-evidence-from-India More about Pensions - https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2023/9/18/episode-347-indias-massive-pensions-crisis/ What is the 3-i framework? - https://www.ncchpp.ca/docs/2014_ProcPP_3iFramework_EN.pdf CEGIS Website - https://www.cegis.org/ Union Budget by the Ministry of Finance - https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/ About SparX by Mukesh Bansal SparX is a podcast where we delve into cutting-edge scientific research, stories from impact-makers and tools for unlocking the secrets to human potential and growth. We believe that entrepreneurship, fitness and the science of productivity is at the forefront of the India Story; the country is at the cusp of greatness and at SparX, we wish to make these tools accessible for every generation of Indians to be able to make the most of the opportunities around us. In a new episode every Sunday, our host Mukesh Bansal (Founder Myntra and Cult.fit) will talk to guests from all walks of life and also break down everything he's learnt about the science of impact over the course of his 20-year long career. This is the India Century, and we're enthusiastic to start this journey with you. Follow us on our Instagram: / sparxbymukeshbansal Also check out our website: https://www.sparxbymukeshbansal.com You can also listen to SparX on all audio platforms! Fasion | Outbreak | Courtesy EpidemicSound.com

On this week's episode of the Rosenberg Round-Up, we discuss what's behind the recent rebound in equities and the changing cross-asset picture, as well as what the 28% downward revision in employment growth is telling us. We also shed light on what lingering risks in the Commercial Real Estate sector mean for bank stocks. Visit our sponsor Kalshi today and get $20 in credit to start trading: https://kalshi.onelink.me/1r91/rosenberg For a 30-day free trial of our research, click here: ⁠⁠https://web.rosenbergresearch.com/RosenbergRoundupTrial⁠ Send us your questions and requests at: information@rosenbergresearch.com  In This Episode The Week in Review (0:50) — What's changing relative asset prices, and some notes on Harris' economic agenda The Week Ahead (9:21) — Personal Income and Expenditure headline the week The Spotlight (9:57) — The overlooked risks of rising CRE distress Canada Corner (11:38) — Don't shed a tear for the loonie

The Local Government Minister's outlining his expectation to councils ahead of day two of the local government conference.  Local Government New Zealand is meeting in Wellington, and yesterday received a broadside from the Prime Minister instructing them to tighten their belts.  Minister Simeon Brown is expected to make an announcement today on potential deals between central and local government.  But Brown told Mike Hosking it won't be a silver bullet, and councils still need to be better with their spending.  He says like central government, councils need to cut their budgets, to give residents rates relief.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Exclusive insights: NPP 2024 manifesto breakdown with Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Minister for Works & Housing and Vice Chairman for the NPP 2024 manifesto. [Listen]"

Flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has responded to critics of his No Academic Fees Policy for level 100 tertiary students.

#indianeconomy Dr Prasanna Tantri is an Associate Professor in the Finance area and Executive Director of the Centre for Analytical Finance at ISB. His research areas include- banking, financial inclusion, financial contagion, regulation, and the relationship between politics and finance. He teaches a course on Indian financial systems. 0:00 Income of Indian govt 4:31 Expenditure of Indian govt 7:03 Subsidies of Govt 9:20 PM Aawas better than roads? 12:00 KhataKhat will destroy India 15:21 Karnataka KhataKhat Model 18:36 Importance of Ayushman Bharat 22:00 Ayushman Bharat better than Roads 23:11 Don't invest blindly on infra 32:30 Best proposal in Congress manifesto 36:52 Modi's BIG mistake on economy 42:10 Modi's 2nd Big mistake 46:05 Economics of Rahul's Khatakhat 52:00 Problem with Modi's infra spend 54:43 Khata Khat makes sense if….

If you've recently become unemployed and are struggling, Bill Saver can help you manage your monthly expenses and reduce financial waste. Visit https://recessionresister.com for details. Recession Resister City: Portland Address: 11923 NE Sumner St Website: https://recessionresister.com Email: support@recessionresister.com

Banking and fuel reviews have been in the news this week, and while it has been all good intentions from the Government - it remains difficult to believe we'll see any substantial change.    Opposition parties will always complain about the number of inquiries or reviews a Government or Crown entity does, but when they come to power they quickly do the same. Either way, it's hard to get excited about them.   This week, the Commerce Commission released its latest analysis on fuel companies and their pricing, announcing that retailers are quick to increase fuel prices when costs go up, but slower to bring prices down when costs decline. It's known as the rocket-feather approach. Prices rocket up and then float down gently like a feather.   If you put fuel in a car you already know this. But it was interesting to hear the commission put a figure on it - motorists would benefit by around $15 million a year if fuel companies were to drop prices as quickly as they increased them.   It's a timely conversation, because the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax comes to an end at midnight on June 30th, and motorists are expecting that 11.5 cents to come off the price at the pumps immediately.   I think any fuel company with a marketing department and interest in customer loyalty will be working hard to make this happen.   But I doubt the Commerce Commission's general warning that it will keep a close watch on the pricing tactics of fuel companies in future will make any difference.    If you want cheaper petrol then use the station apps, GASPY, or fill up at unmanned stations.   Banking was also in the firing line this week, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis announcing an inquiry into banking competition, with a focus on rural banking.    The inquiry, which will be undertaken by the Finance and Expenditure and Primary Production Committees will examine the state of competition in the banking sector, barriers preventing further competition, and any possible impact of the regulatory environment on competition and efficient access to lending.   Nicola Willis believes this will benefit us all, and yes, we'd love to see more competition in banking. So out of pure optimism I'm hoping we see some changes that benefit the customer - but once again I won't be holding my breath for any significant changes.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has asked the Finance and Expenditure and Primary Production Committees to lead a joint inquiry into banking. The investigation will be primarily focused on rural banking, and submissions from banks and chairpersons and chief executives will be expected. ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper explained what this means for the wider rural sector. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rural communities are elated to see their repeated concerns being heard. The Finance Minister has asked the Finance and Expenditure and Primary Production Committees to lead a joint inquiry into rural banking. Federated Farmers says rural New Zealanders are facing huge financial pressures - worsened by unfair interest rates. Spokesperson Richard McIntyre says it's causing farmers to sell up. "It's the banks making excessive profits and it's a lack of competition in the rural banking space. We've only got 5 rural banks, but we have about 18 in the residential space." LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has published a report giving details on the nearly 12,000 home energy upgrades supported through Government funded SEAI grant schemes in the first quarter of this year. This represents an increase of 18% on the number of upgrades for the same period last year, and shows the ongoing surge in home retrofitting. Government expenditure across all schemes reached €73 million, up 29% year on year. Of the homes upgraded, almost 1,200 were energy-poor homes which benefitted from totally free energy upgrades and 5,050 achieved a BER B2 rating or better. Quarter one figures do not take into account the new first low-cost loan which is expected to help expand the retrofitting programme even further over the coming year. The headline outcomes during Q1 2024, across all schemes administered by SEAI, were: Over 11,700 property upgrades were completed, up 18% year on year. Over 5,050 homes were upgraded to a BER B2 or higher, up 53% year on year. Over 15,450 applications processed across all schemes, down 1% year on year. Almost 1,200 upgrades for low-income households, up 25% year on year. Expenditure across all schemes was €73 million, up 29% year on year. 79 Approved Housing Body upgrades supported under the One-Stop-Shop Scheme, and 51 under the Community Energy Grants scheme to end Q1. Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD said: "These figures are ongoing proof that climate actions work. We are now getting to the point where nearly 1,000 homes right across the country are being made warmer and more efficient every week. And I expect that we will go even further as the year progresses. These quarter one numbers are reflective of what happened even before we hit go on the new low-cost retrofitting loan scheme - a first for both Ireland and the European Investment Bank. "This is going to shift our retrofitting plan into a whole new gear because it means that home-owners who may not have the immediate reserves can now get the low-cost financing they need to retrofit their homes. Low income homes and energy poor homes will continue to get free upgrades. I can only see this scheme going from strength to strength." Dr Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit at SEAI said: "From a results perspective 2024 has started off well, with almost all key metrics recording increases on the corresponding period in 2023. Retrofitting activity in the quarter is primarily driven from applications received in Q3 and Q4 of the previous year and these were relatively strong. The overall number of property upgrades completed and B2 upgrades completed increased considerably, with a sizeable portion related to continued high demand for the Solar PV scheme. The Warmer Homes Scheme continued the robust performance from last year with a 25% year on year increase in the number of fully funded upgrades delivered for households at risk of energy poverty. "It is also positive to see that heat pump numbers increased by 3% on the output reported this time last year. While this continued the upward trend, further work is required to drive heat pump uptake in the months and years to come. During Q1, we discontinued the requirement for a heat pump technical assessment to a heat pump grant for homes built after 2007. This will improve the customer journey for homeowners and is expected to increase demand for heat pumps. SEAI will introduce further measures to drive demand and delivery including a fresh marketing and communications campaign to launch shortly." Dr Byrne continued: "Overall, we can see that the cumulative number of applications across all schemes was essentially flat compared to the same time last year. This points to the need to continue the implementation of the National Retrofit Plan to overcome barriers to retrofit and further drive demand and delivery. Wider potential impacts on the sector also need to be acknowledged such as the challenge of scaling the sector in th...

Auckland Council is removing almost a third of rubbish bins around the region to save $9.5 million over the next eight financial years.    Meanwhile, the council spent almost $147,000 dollars on a sculpture at the Pakuranga Rotary Walkway in November last year, two months before removing a bin.  Auckland Council chair of revenue expenditure Maurice Williamson told Heather du Plessis Allan “This has got to be the greatest example of a policy that was good in theory, and has been a disaster in practice.”  Williamson said “About 30 percent of the bins weren't being used, or had an alternative bin nearby.”  LISTEN ABOVE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 11 o'clock hour of today's show: -(01:08) 3 Big Things: Cicadas are emerging in Wisconsin, cargo ship responsible for Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore finally moved from site of the collapse, and Justin Timberlake announces show at the Fiserv Forum. -(05:00) ABC News Correspondent Derricke Dennis provides updates from Donald Trump's hush money trial. -(08:31) TMJ4 Meteorologist Tyler Moore forecasts the week ahead. -(13:28) MMAC Senior Advisor Tim Sheehy on Milwaukee

Les dépenses militaires mondiales ont connu leur plus forte augmentation depuis plus d'une décennie en 2023, atteignant un niveau record de 2,4 milliards de dollars alors que les guerres et les tensions croissantes alimentaient les dépenses à travers le monde.Traduction :Global military expenditure saw its steepest increase in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fuelled spending across the world. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Welcome to the Due Diligence Show, a new Best Ever series featuring deep dives into every aspect of the due diligence process. In this series, our host, Slocomb Reed, will interview expert guests to uncover their stories, tips, and strategies to give you the information you need to master the due diligence process. In this episode, John Wilhoit Jr., an asset manager who owns 10,000 units, joins Slocomb to discuss how to assess capital expenditure needs ahead of an acquisition, including a case study breaking down what he'd expect in an old building, the challenges that property would provide, and how to overcome them.   Previous Episode: JF140: How Much do Multifamily Asset Managers Get Paid? Sponsors: Viking Capital Baselane

Today on Financial Revelations: David talks about the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) that just came out and what it means. He also answers viewer questions on: What type of retirement account you should use when you own a business with non W2 employees How does the war in Ukraine affect us Do you think we will have a recession this year   We are having a Financial Workshop! Topic: Managing Money in a Presidential Election Year Date: April 16, 2024 Time: 6pm Cost: $15 per person. ALL monies will be donated to NativosUSA (Amazon Well Drill) Call us today at (800) 344-2354 or (440) 934-2195 for more information and to reserve your spot.   As always you can listen to David on WCRF Cleveland 103.3 every Thursday from 8AM - 9AM or on the Moody Radio App. Email any financial questions to Kory@epsf.com Twitter @skibucks1 For more information on the Amazon well drill, please visit:  https://nativosusa.org https://www.gofundme.com 

In today's episode for 27th February 2024, we tell you the importance of the latest Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) survey that was released a decade after the previous one. If you're a person who is great at communicating and are enthusiastic to join our team, Ditto is looking to recruit new Insurance advisors. You don't even have to know about Insurance, we'll train you from scratch and you can enjoy working remotely with a great team. If you're interested in this or know someone who is please click this link. https://bit.ly/48WX5za

This episode examines the need for tax reform in Australia and reviews various options for overhauling the country's tax system. Simon Cowan joins host Gene Tunny from the Centre for Independent Studies to discuss issues like bracket creep, the tax system's progressivity, mining royalties, and negative gearing. They also analyse the political strategies around the stage three tax cuts and how expenditure reform, including controlling the growth of programs like the NDIS, is needed to reduce the tax burden. Cowan argues the tax system has become too reliant on income tax and higher-income individuals. Please get in touch with us with any questions, comments and suggestions by emailing us at contact@economicsexplored.com or sending a voice message via https://www.speakpipe.com/economicsexplored. About this episode's guest Simon CowanSimon Cowan is Research Director at the CIS. He is a leading commentator on policy and politics, with a regular column in the Canberra Times newspaper, frequent interviews on Sky and the ABC, and multiple appearances before parliamentary committees discussing the budget, citizenship, taxation and health policy. He has written extensively on government spending and fiscal policy, with a specific focus on welfare and superannuation policy. He earlier work focused on government industry policy, defence and regulation.What's covered in EP228Australian tax system overhaul and cost of living relief. (0:04)Tax bracket creep and its impact on income. (5:14)Tax system and progressivity. (9:44)Tax cuts and political strategy in Australia. (15:29)Tax system in Australia, income tax reliance, and potential changes. (21:13)Taxation, welfare, and the burden on working-age population. (26:02)Tax reform and its challenges in Australia. (31:03)Taxation and resource extraction in Australia. (38:05)Australian tax system and potential reforms. (45:42)Takeaways1. Australia's tax system has become overly reliant on income tax and needs to diversify its revenue sources.2. Bracket creep is a real problem that has not been adequately addressed, particularly for higher-income earners.3. Both major political parties have taken cynical, short-term positions on tax reforms that are not in the community's best interests.4. Expenditure reform, including controlling the growth of programs like the NDIS, is needed to reduce the tax burden.5. Lowering company taxes could boost business investment and economic growth in Australia.Links relevant to the conversationSimon's article on the stage 3 tax cuts:https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/opinion/labors-tax-backflip-all-the-easier-against-an-opposition-with-no-spine/AFR article (pay-walled) “Royalty hike and IR overhaul threaten critical mineral pipeline: BHP”:https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/royalty-hike-and-ir-overhaul-threaten-critical-mineral-pipeline-bhp-20231119-p5el3yQLD Government announcement on coal royalty hike:https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/95467Grattan Institute's view on tax reform:https://grattan.edu.au/news/thats-not-tax-reform-this-would-be-tax-reform/Thanks to Obsidian Productions for mixing the episode and to the show's sponsor, Gene's consultancy business www.adepteconomics.com.au. Full transcripts are available a few days after the episode is first published at www.economicsexplored.com.

America is dealing with the largest deficit it has ever seen, but politicians are too busy arguing about how to fix it to actually get anything done. How many taxpayer dollars are going into the pit of unchecked and outdated expenditures? What would the economy look like if that money was rerouted somewhere more worthwhile or if it stayed in our pockets? Martin Luby, Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, joins Boyd with a new angle. 

Nic Owens, industrials equity analyst for Morningstar Research Services, discusses how Southwest is preparing to avoid another holiday travel meltdown, the airline industry's outlook for ticket prices, and what travel stocks to check out.Uber's Profit and Demand Cruised AheadRoblox Reported Rise in Global Growth  Kellanova Benefitted From Higher Prices Holiday Travel Season and North American AirlinesHow Southwest Airlines is Preparing for the HolidaysWhat We Can Expect From Travel Demand and Ticket PricesWill a Low-Cost Airline Fail in 2024?Travel Stocks to Consider This Holiday SeasonInflation News: Cooler Report Opens Door to Interest-Rate Cuts in 2024 Read about topics from this episode.  Uber Earnings: The Platform Is More Easily Attracting Demand and Supply; Shares Remain UndervaluedRoblox Earnings: Strong User Growth and Cost Leverage Bode Well for 2024Kellanova CoA Cheap Dividend Stock That's 30% Undervalued and Yields Above 4%Southwest Airlines Earnings: Cutting Valuation to $19 From $36 on Yields, Expenditure, and RiskUnited Airlines Earnings: Cost Growth Portends Industry Drama as CEO Predicts a ShakeoutWhy We Expect Inflation to Fall in 2024 What to watch from Morningstar.Higher Bond Yields and Interest Rates Are Here to StayNew iShares Target-Date ETFs Provide Different Retirement Saving Path5 Scary Stocks for You to Avoid This HalloweenNavigating Medicare Open Enrollment for 2024 Read what our team is writing:Preston CaldwellNicolas OwensIvanna Hampton Follow us on social media.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorningstarInc/Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorningstarIncInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningstar... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5161/

Learn about the latest in local public affairs in about the time it takes for a coffee break! Brian Callanan of Seattle Channel and David Kroman of the Seattle Times discuss a change in independent expenditures for this year's City Council elections, a new policy for Seattle Police on ruses, Council budget amendments, an immediate need for Sound Transit trains that has board members concerned,  plus another challenge for the state ferry fleet. If you like this podcast, please support it on Patreon!

1. Call to Order 2. Public Comment 3. Proposal from and Contract with Axis Construction for the Animal Shelter project located on the Dump Access Road 4.– MBTA's Response to the Select Board's Letter regarding classification of the Mattapan Line and Potential Follow Up 5. – Expenditure from the Milton Landing Revolving Fund for Fence Installation at Milton Landing 6. – Select Board Landing Committee Neponset River Tour 7. Employee Appreciation Lunch 8. Closing Date for Warrant Articles for the December 4 Special Town Meeting Warrant Articles and the Date for Approving Articles for Inclusion on the December 4 Special Town Meeting Warrant 9. Town Administrator's Report 10. Chair's Report 11. Future Meeting Dates: a. Tuesday, September 26, 2023 or October 3, 2023 b. Tuesday, October 10, 2023 c. Tuesday, October 24, 2023 12. Adjourn

Cheryl and Liz from In Detail Interiors discuss the significance of project pricing and minimum spend requirements for achieving profitability in your design firm. But what exactly do these terms mean, and how can you integrate them into your design business? Today, they will discuss the strategy of implementing this business model and explain why this can be a major win/win for both you–and your clients if you are going about it with intention. Stay tuned to the end to hear this episode's Damn Good Truth!Read the latest issue of the Damn Good Designer magazine here! You will love it! IN THIS EPISODE:[01:33] Cheryl defines a project-pricing business model and explains how it works. [05:42] Liz further explains the concept of project pricing and a minimum expenditure[10:41] Establishing vendors will make the project a win-win when you use them regularly[13:54] Some clients are hourly versus flat fees, but the minimum expenditure is key[19:45] How they repeat no less than five times critical information the client should know[32:43] Discussion of why operating your business on a project pricing structure means you can project profit more effectively[34:55] Cheryl's damn good truth for this episode KEY TAKEAWAYS:We have determined that we need the minimum expenditure from the project at hand to say no to future business and remain profitable.Flat fees are how a firm can grow because they allow you to project the profit.Sponsored By : The Design ParadigmBuilding your business one layer at a time. The Real deal in running a successful business with a proven model. A comprehensive and Powerful Business Model for https://www.theinteriordesignparadigm.comRESOURCE LINKS:Damn Good Designer - WebsiteThe Interior Design Paradigm - WebsiteJoin the conversation on our Facebook Group : Small Business Think BigABOUT THE HOSTS: Cheryl Kees Clendenon2021 KBB Person of the Year2022 Design Studio winner Dallas Arts Awards2021 Changemaker Design Hounds 200 or so years ago, a child came roaring into the world feet first, ready to show up and argue a cause. Just because. Her mother still maintains the story is- she was screaming-“Why?”- from the minute she landed the wrong side up and slapped the doctor for disturbing her afternoon nap.To this day, she does not give “it” a rest except when she is sleeping, which is where you will find her only between 2 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. A belligerent non-smoker (in case you were wondering) and a frequent challenger of anything that resembles “normal” or desired by the masses, Cheryl is a natural-born contrarian who talks faster than 2x speed on a podcast.She gravitates towards wanting to help clients and designers who are the square pegs in a world of round holes; she loses earrings impossibly frequently, falls off of platform shoes and is unapologetically saucy. Relaxing is not in the skill set. Life begins and ends with family.Her sacred words are Why, Percipient, Whizbang and Profit. But please do not say the words Package, Blocks, Red Flag, Overwhelm or Picked. Hives break out, and it gets ugly. Liz LapanVP of Everything, Interior Designer, Work...

Charlie Brown of Simple and Straightforward helps you form good spending habits Episode 2358: The Simple (Unconventional) Way to Form Spending Habits So You Never Have to Think About Your Expenditure Again by Charlie Brown Simple and Straightforward questions everything we think of as normal. This publication may have its roots in minimalism and simple living, but it goes so much beyond decluttering and living with less. It's about deciphering the complexities of modern life one article at a time.  It covers: Culture and society, especially their influence on our lives Travel, specifically how travel can shape our perception of what is "normal" Digital life, questioning our all-encompassing relationship with the online world Food with a focus on recipes designed around reducing food waste Highly curated recommendations for the best intentional living content on the internet The original post is located here: https://themakingofamillionaire.com/the-simple-unconventional-way-to-form-spending-habits-so-you-never-have-to-think-about-your-e66c6424b3b1 Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com  Interested in advertising on the show? https://www.advertisecast.com/OptimalFinanceDaily Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices