It appears – though the numbers published vary a bit – that our government is bleeding money on such a scale that the reserves will be run down in five or six years, placing us in the same boat as all those debt-addicted governments we have been looking down on.

From harbor-front sculptures to posters and even a pyrotechnic drone show, Hong Kong is in a panda frenzy. The city’s six pandas are front and center in the government’s latest effort to boost its lackluster tourism industry and revive an economy that’s struggling to regain momentum.