Despite hundreds of thousands of federal workers missing their paychecks, unless you’ve had to go through TSA lines at the airport, the odds are pretty good that the partial government shutdown has just been background noise up until now. And it may remain that way. However, it’s not hard to craft a darker scenario.
Speaking of crafting, have you ever been to Austin, Texas? Great city—one of my favorites. “Keep Austin Weird” is their slogan. There is a craft beer brewery there called Jester King. And they’re lucky. They had made a lot of beer that was set for shipment across the country. But the shutdown wouldn’t allow them to receive federal label approval. Fortunately that’s not a problem for in-state sales, so they were able to find buyers in Texas.