Economic lessons needed

I didn't take a lot of Economics classes in high school and college. There are times where I have to do some squeezing to get the checkbook right.

So I need some help here understanding just what is going on here with our economy. On the very day the Stock Market takes a 400-point hit, Target announces a $125 million naming rights deal for the new Twins' ballpark in downtown Minneapolis.

Now the one item doesn't necessarily relate to the other. But it makes a fellow wonder.

Target apparently feels the economy is going to be okay enough so that folks around here will pay more money (not New York money but still an increase in ticket prices from the Metrodome) to go to 81 baseball games. Target apparently feels this will be $125 million well spent in advertising.

But when you see the list of foreclosures in the newspaper and realize how many people -- some of them baseball fans -- you wonder just who is going to attend these games. And just who is going to pay $800- $1500 per seat to go to games at the new Yankee Stadium next year? It isn't anybody in my tax bracket.

This morning, I watched the Treasury Secretary give a bleak picture of the days ahead. Two major financial corporations needed the government to save their butt last week and there may be more of this ahead. Times are obviously tight for a lot of folks.

So what does Target know that we don't?