Bankruptcy court is a clubhouse. It's sole purpose is to feed the various constituencies that make their living off of it. The auctioneers, trustees, lawyers, etc. The last people on the bankruptcy food chain are the creditors, except perhaps, sometimes the shareholders.

Of course debt is a major part of the problem. The problem with debt is that it has to be paid back. During periods of economic expansion, this isn't a problem, however during recessions and depressions, like now, this is the problem. If a company is cash-flow positive then a debt-equity swap will relieve the pressure. However, the take in Nevada is going down every month. It is just a matter of time until these places are cash flow negative. Then the liquidations will begin.

Part of Vegas's problem is competition from other markets. This has lessened the allure of Vegas as a gaming destination. However, there is a further problem. The quality of the Vegas experience has been diminishing over the years. The reasons Vegas has become less fun is: 1)Casino beancounters cutting back on comps and increasing the house advantage of games 2)The impersonal nature of most casinos, 3)Increasing costs of a Vegas trip as casinos attempted to increase non-gaming revenues and 4)Corporatization of casino ownership.

I live in the East Coast. I can have a mediocre experience in CT or AC. Vitually all those casinos are either in bankruptcy or heading there, also as a result of debt.

For Vegas to prosper in the current down times, it must get back to basics. Use technology to restore the customer relationship, get more generous with comps, go back to the Frank Rosenthal way of doing business, less the broken bones. Innovate more. I haven't seen a new gaming concept the equal of Rosenthal's Sports Book, the buffet, the blockbuster show, etc., in 20 years. Beancounters only know how to cut costs at the expensive of the business. They are clueless as to how to create excitement and buzz.

Even Wynn is run by beancounters. Steve is not running that show anymore.

De-emphasize slots as a business model. I know they are less labor intensive than table games, but they are completely homogeneous. You can play them anywhere. I know they are profitable, but they increase the depersonalization of the business and over reliance upon them has damaged the Vegas experience.

Next, Vegas is sin city. Nevada should immediately legalize marijuana. This is a multi-billion dollar industry. People travel to Amsterdam and other places for the hashish bars. Vegas should have them. Depressions are the best time to end prohibitions.

There are many more things to be done, but this would be a start.

Vegas must return to its roots. Once upon a time the little guy came to Vegas to get treated like a big shot. Everyone knew your name and personal service was the hallmark of Vegas. Then it went mass market, impersonal service. This worked for a while, but now that gambling is no longer an infinite market and that there are so many outlets around the world, people want to go where they are treated well. And unfortunately, with a few notable exceptions, that hasn't been the case in Vegas. The M marks a true return back to what made Vegas great. While the mob were tough taskmasters, they knew what it took to make people comeback, year after year. I remember my parents would go to the Dunes at least twice per years. Everything was comped and they would rave about their trip for weeks, especially if they won.

But the bean counters took over the town. Comps became harder to get and the town really lost a lot of its allure.

Now that the Bamster has screwed over bondholders at Chrysler and GM and showed that contracts are not worth the paper they are written, these banks have taken their cue. Why should they honor a written contract?

The bean counters killed Vegas. I used to come from the East Coast to Vegas four times per year. Now I am down to one time, if that. I remember staying at Caesars with a high roller friend of mine. His average bet was $1500 and he played at least 14 hours per day. They bitched about giving him a free massage. He blasted his host but to no avail and has not returned since.

I used to go to Wynn where they had a $100 two deck BJ table, dealer stood on soft 17's. They promptly changed it to dealer hits on soft 17 and I haven't been back since. Steve Wynn used to say that giving out comps would balance itself out, but not anymore. The bean counters are running his place now too. In short, why travel 2000 miles to get shabby treatment for what I believe is decent play, when I can stay in here and go to CT or AC and get shabby treatment? LV used to be where even the little guy could go to be treated well and feel like he was special. Everyone knew your name and gave you respect. Now it has positioned itself to become the Walmart of gambling. Cookie cutter shows, no one knows who you or cares to. Making profits on non-gaming items was the death knell. LV forgot why people came. And, travel expenses are discretionary and the first thing to get hit in a downturn, let alone a depression that we have now. Bankruptcy and liquidation are too good for some of these rip-off artists. Good riddance!

Guess if you build it they won't necessarily come.

continued

Now the real problem is that owning a home is the American Dream. The dems turned owning a home into just another socialistic program. By eliminating the need to have a downpayment, any income or asset verification and any knowledge of your borrower, they guaranteed that this debacle would occur. I personally have been waiting for it to happen for the last 10 years. Every true credit professional out there knew this day would come. And those greedy Wall Street guys, investment bankers, mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers were all part of this debacle. But they were all part of a grand socialist experiment and like all socialist experiments it was doomed to failure from the beginning. And like all socialist failures, the socialist dem party blames the republican party.

McCain co-sponored a bill in 2005 and 2006 to limit and bring discipline to Fannie/Freddy, guess who stopped him? Chris Countrywide. Barney Frank's lover worked where, you got it, Fannie Mae, no pun intended.

Finally, the largest seller of crap mortgages to Fannie was Angelo Mozillo's Countrywide. He had a special program for VIP's including Chirs Countrywide and Senator Kent Konrad from North Dakota (also a dem).

Finally, kudos to Paul Gigot, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. He took on Freddie/Fannie since 2000. He was attacked and had much political pressure brought upon him and the Journal. But he didn't flinch.

You koolaid drinkers out there can't handle the truth. Carter helped get the CRA (community reinvestment act) passed in 1977. It mandated a certain percentage of a banks deposits be reinvested in the neighborhoods where the bank did business, even if they were "redlined." Fast forward to 1995 and Andy Cuomo, Clinton's HUD secretary. He brought suit against 25 banks for discriminating against minorities applying for mortgages. The banks folded like cheap lawn chairs even though they never discriminated against any minorities. The reason more blacks and latinos got turned down was because minorities have more credit problems than whites. This is a statement of fact, not racism. The CRA on steroids forced banks to make stupid loans if they wanted to expand. This happened to BOA when it acquired Fleet. Clinton encouraged abusive use of the CRA to pry more money out of the banks for non-credit worthy buyers. Many millions in slush went to Obama groups such as Acorn. Barry even sued Citibank in Chicago to get them to make stupid loans. Around 1998, Fannie passed 1 trillion in mortgage holdings. Prior to the Clinton years, Fannie bought mortgages and packaged them up and then sold them off in the secondary market, complete with Fannie's implicit federal guarantee. During the Clinton years, the loans Fannie and Freddie were buying consistently declined in quality. Therefore, rather than sell them off to unwary unwitting buyers, they kept them for their own account and sold debt instead. Can you spell time bomb. Jim Johnson and Franklin Delano Raines repeated this toxic recipe many times over. Raines, to collect million in bonuses cooked the books to the tune of 9 billion in bogus profits. He got 50 million in bonuses. From the time Bush came into office in 2001 he made 17 attempts to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Guess who became their stuanchest defenders, not John McLame, but Solomon Barney Frank, Chris Countrywide Dodd, Barry Soetoro Obama, Maxine Waters, etc. Who got the largest amount in contributions from Fannie/Freddie? Chris Countrywide, Barry Obama, Barney Frank. All totaled Freddie/Fannie contributed to 334 congress critters, mostly dems.

These are the facts. Don't preach to me about deregulation or repubican corruption of which there is no shortage. Show me facts. Explain to why Barry Obama got the second highest total contributions in just one year as a senator. (To be continued)