Condo-mania

Apartment conversions are all the rage in Las Vegas. Anyone looking for an entry-level priced home in a nice area will likely be relegated to buying what amounts to be — an old apartment.

More than 17,000 apartment units in Las Vegas are to be converted into condos, according to Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research. Approximately 7,500 are currently on the market, with another 10,000 to be converted by year-end.

Party of One

They just don’t make statesmen the way they used to, writes Doug French. Every week a new revelation comes to light about some senator or congressman’s ethical transgressions.

Shark Attack

The city of Las Vegas is young, having just celebrated its 100th birthday. An old money aristocracy has not yet taken root. Back east, the JP Morgans and Henry Fords are long gone, leaving bloated corporations and reclusive trust fund babies behind. But, this town’s movers and shakers mix amongst the hoi polloi. If you go to Drai’s for dinner, Steve Wynn and his wife Elaine might be dining in the next booth. You might see Kirk Kerkorian dining at Piero’s, or Sheldon Adelson at Kona Grill.

Publicly Funded Sex

Do you ever wonder what all of those tax dollars you send to Washington D.C. pay for? In a fit of wishful thinking, your mind’s eye conjures up images of hard-working people giving their all each and every day serving taxpayers. After all there must be so much work to do, these dedicated public servants must be eating brown bag lunches at their desks and spending many a night burning the midnight oil. Not hardly.

Washington is full of thousands of people doing little of nothing: All on the taxpayers’ dime.

High Rises and High Time Preferences

Fifty years ago a Life magazine cover asked — “Las Vegas — Is Boom Overextended?” After all, three hotels had opened in the spring of that year costing a total of $15 million and two more were opening that summer including the $5 million Dunes. “Had Las Vegas pushed its luck too far?” Life wondered.

Nearly 30 years later, Malcolm Baldrige, while serving as Secretary of Commerce in 1984 was quoted as saying, “the current boom in Las Vegas could last four more years.”

The Gold ATM

It appears technology has moved the world one small step closer to a sound money. On Wednesday, a hotel in Abu Dhabi unveiled the GOLD To Go ATM, a gold dispensing vending machine created by a German firm. The machine dispenses 24-carat gold bars in 1, 5, and 10 gram sizes as well as gold coins. A computer inside the machine keeps track of the gold price in real time and updates it every ten seconds but maintains the price for a given buyer for ten minutes. The machine itself sports a gold leaf finish.

Business prices

We see stock quotes every day, but what’s happening with the prices of Subways and nail salons? Although the title to this article indicates that the price of small businesses in Las Vegas are on the upswing, you don’t have to read down very far to see, “It’s definitely a lot tougher market than it was two years ago, but people feel it’s on the rebound,” [BizBuySell general manager Mike] Handelsman said.

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