Thursday, September 25, 2008

Gas Prices Hit Las Vegas - who knew?

NVDL: One of the reasons Las Vegas is now giving away rooms to keep the roulette wheels turning is because fewer people can afford to drive across the desert with gas prices where they are (let alone drive back).

I have already speculated on this website that las Vegas (and Phoenix) will disappear entirely off the map. I mean the city will be a ghost town, defunct, gone.

Others disagree with me, like this guy: "I'm betting that Las Vegas will continue to grow over time," said Keith Schwer, director of business and economic research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Er...I wonder when we can start calling all the writer's who talked up the economy and dismissed words like 'recession', 'inflation' and housing market crisis. There were a lot of people very confident about the prospects of the economy. Because they wanted to be. Even magazines like Time and newspapers like FT have been blindsided by oil prices and the housing burn.

Meanwhile, blogs like mine, guys like Jim Kunstler, community sites like The Oil Drum, almost all entirely unfunded, predicted everything. In fact, we've all been suprised its taken this long. Here's a headsup: the trouble is going to get a LOT worse. Why? because we refuse to listen, we refuse to change our living or working arrangements. Our consumption continues unabated. Until any of these areas change in fundamental ways, trouble will continue to brew, and the pain will gain momentum. Well, it is.
clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com
Image: Rok Nightclub, Las Vegas

Vegas barreled through previous U.S. economic recessions with no problem, but the current slowdown — marked by home foreclosures and then high gasoline prices — has had a much bigger impact on the gambling mecca than economists expected.

And while free rooms and room discounts have kept hotels relatively full — occupancy is down just 1 percent in the year to July — gambling revenue is down 6.5 percent.

"There is no question that people are spending less money now," said Jim Murren, president and chief operating officer at MGM.

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1 comment:

Super Hungry said...

I hear you on the gas prices. Would love to get to LV!