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MinnEcon Blog
Paul Tosto

We’re number 8!

Go Deeper.

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I'll admit a love - hate relationship with rankings. I mostly hate them because they rarely tell you anything enlightening and are, at best, cheap entertainment.

But I like cheap entertainment, too.

So with that, I stumble into CNBC's recently published America's Top States for Business 2010 where I discover that, as far as CNBC's concerned, Minnesota's a good place to do business, coming in at number eight.

Even more intriguing, Minnesota's number five when it comes to the state's overall economic health in 2010, better than 2009.

There are lots of numbers to wade through. Some of it's goofy -- most of the "Top Workforce" states are weak union states in the South. (I'll take Minnesota's highly educated workforce any day.)

But one thing jumped out at me -- CNBC ranked Minnesota 19 for "Access to Capital," one of the best Midwest states in that category and far better than Wisconsin, which ranked 30th.

There's no doubt Minnesota backed an angel investor tax credit this year in part because Wisconsin has one and there was fear about keeping Minnesota start-up companies from crossing the St. Croix.

The CNBC report -- warts and all -- suggests that maybe Minnesota is a better place than we think to raise money for business.

Overall, we're not talking about Minnesota being one of the worst places for business in the U.S. We're talking about it being one of the best. As we slog though the Great Recession, that's one place where we can hang some hope.

What's Minnesota's business climate look like in your part of the state? Post something below or contact us directly at MinnEcon and tell us what you see.