HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?
As sung by President Obama

In the midst of the controversy over President Obama’s negative comments about Las Vegas comes more bad news for Sin City.

The Ritz-Carlton Las Vegas Hotel will close in May. It is a 348 room, five-diamond property. It is only seven years old. The owners cite decreased demand and revenue.

The current owner is actually Village Hospitality, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank's German American Capital Corporation. It bought the hotel in a foreclosure sale in February 2009. Ritz-Carlton, the original owner, is a division of Marriott International .

One of the effects of the closing will be the loss of 350 jobs, although some may be relocated to other Ritz-Carlton properties. For a city already hit hard, this is bad news.

Some of the slow down in luxury hotel business is called the "AIG effect". It is named after the public’s anger at American International Group’s decision to send their top brokers and executives to a luxury hotel\resort right after AIG was bailed out by the government. You know, hey we are broke, we need help. Thanks for the help, we’re going on an expensive vacation to celebrate. Sucker.

Exacerbating the situation are comments by the President and other politicians about Las Vegas and corporate activities. This is ironic since Harry Reid, from Nevada, has been a staunch supporter of the President’s legislative package.

No good deed goes unpunished.

And, the law of unintended consequences applies. Obama rode to office on the breathless support of exactly the kind of people losing their jobs with the help of his comments.