Imagine for a moment that financial advisers and wealth managers were paid based on their performance. What if they couldn’t make money unless they made money for their clients?

I’m not one to study a problem to death. I’m usually in favor of action rather than talk, pragmatic solutions rather than unending analysis.

The year was 1943, the world was at war and Dick Bertolucci cruised the streets of Sacramento in his first car — a black ’33 Chevy Roadster. He was 13 and didn’t have a license.

Millions of dollars could soon be available for rural health care providers across the nation.

Last November, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen gave a speech on the national economy and put the prospects for the commercial real estate market in stark perspective.

For decades, the contours of the Capital Region economy seemed etched in stone. Government, manufacturing and construction employed the bulk of the population. After the boom and bust of the past decade, however, the job profile of the future could be almost unrecognizable.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A lawyer dies young and arrives at the Pearly Gates. 

“There must be some mistake!” he wails. “I’m only 31!”

St. Peter consults the records and disagrees. “Judging by the number of hours you’ve billed, you’re at least 73.”

Five years ago, Truckee’s Martis Camp fell out of the hands of land planners and golf-course designers and into the hands of lawyers.

When boom went bust in Truckee, the mountain town wasn’t left empty-handed. Everywhere you look are reminders of the high times in the ski town’s real estate market — not only new homes, but new trails, a community center, a new middle school and affordable housing; the list goes on.

Several new doors have opened in the Tahoe area the past five years, but few are as grand as those at the $300 million Ritz-Carlton at Northstar.

Several projects are in the pipeline that could strengthen the Port of West Sacramento as a hub of green activity as soon as 2011.