The national GDP expanded 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harrah's reported record 3rd quarter losses, but Wynn reported a better profit than expected and Las Vegas Sands is so far looking forward to a stronger 2010. Nevada hadn't seen much federal stimulus aid until just recently, but Harry Reid is now touting $92 million heading here for renewable energy and possibly the creation of many thousands of badly needed jobs.
Is the worst over? Yes, it looks like it.
Is the recession over? Most likely, yes.
But are working class families feeling the "recovery" yet? I'm not so sure.
Wall Street is rallying over the GDP numbers, and gaming stocks seem to be using the LV Sands earnings report as further reason to rally. But really, how is Main Street doing? Do we have reason to hope?
I hope so, but so far I'll just say I'm "cautiously optimistic". At least the stimulus is finally working and we're now seeing a real economic boost from it. However, unemployment is still far too high and that's confirming my early suspicion that the stimulus wasn't large enough and targeted enough to job creation. I really do think The White House and Congress need to spend more time and money on real efforts to put people back to work before they even consider offering up any more bailouts to the big banks.
After all, how can people spend money if they don't have jobs making them money? It's common sense that we need to get folks back to work. Hopefully we'll see some improvement as more of the stimulus money is released (like in today's announcement of $92 million for green energy here in Nevada), but I'm also hoping for even more help to get people working again.
Still, we're at least on the right track. The economy is growing again. Consumers are slowly starting to spend again... And even take trips to Las Vegas again! And perhaps with some additional help from Washington, we'll get more of those free spending tourists and perhaps even some well-paying non-gaming jobs as well.
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