An eerie, disturbingly uncomfortable hush fell over the audience Friday at Preview Las Vegas 2011 after speaker Jeremy Aguero finished his tale about the rise and fall of a great economy.

Rebecca Winthrop has studied education in some of the world's most violent and conflicted hot spots. The former head of education for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has studied how girls and refugees learn in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Can education cut down on militant extremism?

Nevada, like many states and countries, has always suffered from a flight of human capital, or “brain drain,” as it’s often called.

It’s pretty common knowledge by now that many states are drowning in red ink. Most notably, the weak economy has created operating gaps ranging from the hundreds of millions of dollars in Arizona to the tens of billions in California, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Gov. Brian Sandoval is right to declare himself “proudly optimistic” about Nevada’s prospects as he formulates his first budget.

For many American cities, the decade after 2000 played out in two starkly different scenes: Years of euphoric growth and prosperity followed by a crushing reversal.

When the economy was roaring and housing booming, reining in suburban sprawl dominated the development debate under the name of "smart growth."

Las Vegas is a little like the American auto companies that made a killing for years on big sport utility vehicles and trucks, only to find themselves unprepared when gasoline prices spiked and consumers turned to smaller, more efficient vehicles — usually from Asian manufacturers.

That’s no surprise. He was mostly right.