Happy Halloween! Watch out for cannibals. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

I'm Ricky Maldi, joint today by Jim Gilley's Gym. Good to see ya!

It's good to be seen, Ricky.

You know, we're going to keep it a little later on Halloween. You just got back from Las Vegas,

so you see anything weird out there?

What was it weird out there? Yeah, Vegas. This was my first time going to Vegas where I wasn't working.

So in the past, when I've gone to Vegas, it's been like, you know, maximum 48 hours, usually less,

you know, occasionally less than 24. Fly in, go give a talk talk in a hotel conference room.

Maybe they buy you dinner. Hopefully they buy you a cab back to the airport. You fly out.

So this is the first time I've actually gone and experienced Vegas. And yes, the whole...

The one thing that struck me was the sheer amount of raw naked capitalism flowing through that city.

And I was with my significant other, who last time she was there was 23 years ago, and she was

commenting constantly how it has grown from then. And she says, I thought it was pretty crazy then.

My inner, hard-charging capitalist was very impressed by the price of everything and how everyone

was willingly paying it out. If you are gauging the American economy for signs of recession,

do not go to Vegas. As much as I like paying for $23 cocktails and 95 to $100 filet mignons,

I am happy to have at least spent a few days out of the Grand Canyon Hoover Dam and I'm now safely

back home. Wait, you said you were impressed by the price of things. It was, it's not cheap,

like very expensive. Yes, extremely expensive. And from what I understand, that's not usually the way

it used to be. You know, you went to Vegas and everything was super cheap. Yeah, no, they have

decided that making money from gaming, although of course they've also changed the odds on some

of their gaming stuff to favor them. So, you know, there's no $10 blackjack on the strip anymore.

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