Fill in the blanks in the following passage by choosing the most appropriate term from the following list: debt issues, higher, internally generated cash, lower, risen, financial deficit, fallen, negative, and stayed roughly constant.
By far the largest source of cash for most companies comes from _____. The gap between this cash and the cash that companies need is called the _____. On average, equity issues have been _____; in other words, companies have used the cash from _____and retained earnings to buy back their stock. Debt ratios can be measured using either market values or book values. Generally, book debt ratios are _____ than market-value ratios. In the 30 or so years before 1990 both debt ratios have on average _____, but since then they have _____.