Las Vegas' Growth Is Like Walmart's?

(Above) Graphic showing Las Vegas growth

Can Vegas Stay Ahead Of The Curve?

There is a mathematical model that mimics the biological growth of a bacterial colony in a petri dish - I forget the name of it, it's been a while since I took biology in High School, but it is called something like "The Growth Curve". It models all kinds of processes in nature and mankind's institutions: from the rise and fall of financial markets to the birth, peak, and fall of entire civilizations. There is a characteristic rapid exponential growth to some peak or plateau, followed by the inevitable rapid decay as whatever fixed limit in the environment ( money, food & water, individual creativity & vision ) can no longer sustain the earlier rapid growth.

Unfortunately as the dinosaurs and Anasazi Indians have shown us, nothing seems to be able to grow forever in this world. Including Walmarts & (shudder to think) even Vegas!

Interesting Video Showing Walmart's Rapid Growth

MSN Money asks: Is this the end of the Walmart era?

Growth Of Walmart (animation)