What’s Different About Today’s Government Deficit and Debt?
As of today, the U.S. government’s current deficit and debt are indeed currently at unprecedented levels for peacetime—once we account for them appropriately.
Trouser Trouble
An item from "The Short Run" in the July/August issue of Dollars & Sense.
An incident at the recent World Cup competition reaffirmed the power of advertisers in sports. On June 16th, about 1,000 fans watched a match between the Netherlands and Côte d'Ivoire at a Stuttgart stadium in their underpants because their trousers had not been allowed in. The orange lederhosen the Dutch fans were wearing in support of their team bore the name of Bavaria, a Dutch beer. But Bavaria was not an official World Cup sponsor, so officials from soccer’s governing body, FIFA, confiscated the pants. European Sponsorship Association chair Nigel Currie said, "Sponsors pay huge amounts of money, and it is all about TV exposure." Sure--and some fans got more exposure than they bargained for.