Here's more "great" news about our home town of Las Vegas, Nevada: it's just been ranked as one of the worst economies in the world. Not worst in the United States... worst in the WORLD! A fresh report from the Brookings Institution and London School of Economics shows that the Las Vegas area is 4th from the bottom of 150 major metropolitan areas worldwide in terms of economic performance.Here's the worst part: before the global recession began in 2007 Las Vegas was ranked in the top 15 cities for best economic performance. In gambling that's called a swing... a really big, ugly swing. Experts say that the chances of the city pulling itself out of this horrible economic slump anytime soon are very poor, mainly because of Vegas's dependence on tourism and the (currently dormant) construction industry as well as its ugly housing market.
According to Alan Berube of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program:
“If the first year (of recovery) is any indication for Las Vegas, it could be a long, slow road ahead with the overhang from a damaged real estate market... It was globally one of the fastest growing regions leading up to the recession and sort of the Dublin of the Rocky Mountain West... It was mentioned up there with some of the Eastern European cities that were highfliers up until the crash because they found themselves heavily overinvested in real estate. They had a significant portion of their economies in construction and real estate finance, and the jobs went poof when the housing bubble burst worldwide... The economy that Las Vegas had before the recession is not a recipe for growth in the new economy. There has been talk about the need to diversify and find new sources of economic growth, and that is imperative in the long run.”
Many experts believe that, in order to save itself from years of stagnating economic growth, Las Vegas must diversify its economy, improve education, and figure out how to attract even larger numbers of foreign tourists. The city also must find a way to attract more gamblers who spend more money in order to bring real growth back to the local economy.
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