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DIVERSITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CITYCENTER

CityCenter is a cutting-edge destination, with an urban core that will blend world-class residential, hospitality, retail, gaming and entertainment elements into a synergistic hub of distinctive character.  The $8 billion CityCenter – the largest single privately funded development in U.S. history – will catapult Las Vegas to new status among the most sophisticated cities of the world.

CityCenter will be a turning point in the evolution of Las Vegas. 

Well yes, it is liable to be a turning point but for al the wrong reasons. City Center

is jointly financed by our good friends and optimists in Dubai and MGM Grand, now trading for less than two dollars a share. Dubai you will recall is fueled, so to speak, but oil revenue, still dropping.  Click on the hyper link and yes there is lots of vision. But that vision was restricted to, as they said about Michael Corleone in the Godfather, leisure activities. I do not see any real business core here. It is all glitz and glamour.  Today CNBC is in las vegas, a realtor was quoted as saying condos are down from $750 K to a mere $400K, such a deal, I suspect these are tomorrows apartment rentals. 

Actually Nevada has attracted a substantial amount of businesss mostly outside the city of Vegas.  Credit card companies like the lack of usury laws, many high tech firms fled California and its problems for Nevada. It has a wonderful airport without any snow and connections to everywhere in the US.  Seems to me they needed a business not leisure vision. Harry Reid put $2 billion in the stimulus plan for a 

maglev train from California to Nevada, talk about linking two disasters…

Timing in business is everything, you have to go out there, which by the way I am sure you can do on the cheap now!, to see just how outrageous all this is, the resorts, the half life size Eifel Tower, the empty condo towers, geez….

And the winner is

  tell 

Most introductory economic textbooks note that sole proprietorships tend to die with the owner. The reason si that the proporietor is usually too stubborn to find a suitable replacement, groom the successor, and then step aside. Alas, this is the end of may a great franchise. To wit, here are some examples.

Paul Harvey, who was news radio virtually by himself, died this past week at age 90. Paul had a son cleverly named Paul Harvey Jr.  Not a good second act name frankly…While he ocassionally substituted for Dad, not the same thing.

No one built a better organization than Billy Graham who finally in his eighties noticed he had a son named Franklin. Franklin had to find something else to do. Interestingly he moved the entire organization from Minnesota to South Carolina recently. A big loss for Minnesota. Harvey McKay who wrote How to Swim with Sharks without Being Eaten says Graham's organization is one of the finest in terms of productivity and organization he has ever seen.

Finally Richard Russell has over 10,000 subscribers to his Dow Theory Letters, and at age 84 writes daily. But Ricahrd did not find a successor declaring of course that no one else understands Dow Theory like he does. Well swell, but looks  like he will be taking that one to the grave. After a mild stroke, he recently decided to find an heir apparent. wanna guess who?  A hedge fund manager, finance professor, or stockbroker, nope, his son Ryan whose most recent job was running a San Francisco restaurant which I supposed closed in the downturn. Do you think the 10,000 will want to read what son Ryan has to say, Dad wrote the letter since the 1950s. Perhaps but it will be hard to work up a track record in a short time.

My point being that you should be wary of someone who says he or she wants someone to come in and take over as they retire, most retire only when they go toes up….

The San Antonio Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors has an active website.

CIA Certified Internal Auditor is a well respected certification, note the international activity on the IIA site. I will be updating you more about this important certification.  I is not a state license but a recognition by a private organization.

You are about to witness and live through a once in a lifetime experience. The major averages have now lost one half of all their gains since the 1931 stock market low. The Dow bottomed at 41 and then advanced to 14,000 in 2007. I traded below 7,000 today.  But we are not at THE low or even a temporary low yet.  The decline accelerated today with a near 300 point loss.  Look for a short recovery Tuesday before the decline resumes. At this point no one knows where the ultimate low will be.  But I suspect it will come amid 

You and I put another $30 B into AIG.

Chick fil A is offering free breakfast in SA and New Braunfels on Thursdays before 10:30 AM in the month of March.  We previously reported that Denny's offered a free breakfast. Selection is limited of course but no coupon necessary. Clearly these retailers are trying to initiate a pull strategy to bring in customers. 

Dell  is on the downside of the product life cycle. That is the hard truth of the matter, a computer is a commodity as surely as  televisions are commodities these days..  But the article fails to mention that instead wishing that Michael Dell could put on his Wizard Hat and put Humpty Dmpty whole again.  it is not to be…

In all seriousness, this will be a very difficult time for Mike Dell. Just a few short years back he was literally the toast of Austin and the high tech world, he was said to have re invented marketing with the make as you sell model over the internet.  He will be desperately trying to make all that  happen again , to re kindle the flame so to speak, but it will be for naught, Dell is the new Sony, yesterday's rainmaker gone dry.