My most controversial post yet. In the bizarre debate about fraud in Minnesota, here is my nominee for most bizarre headline. From KSTP-5 TV, Somali Minnesotans drive economic growth, pay…
The economics of housing affordability The big buzzword in politics right now is “affordability.” Things aren’t affordable, the argument goes, or are becoming less so, and voters will reward the…
Yesterday, I wrote about Minnesota’s performance on the raw labor components of human capital; the number of people employed and the average number of hours each of them works annually.…
Over the last few weeks, I have been looking at various data to judge how Minnesota’s economy and Minnesotans economically have fared since Gov. Walz took office in January, 2019.…
According to newly released US Census Bureau data, in 2024, 9.3 percent of Minnesotans were in poverty. This is the same rate as in 2023 and 2021. Among the 50…
Since 2019, Minnesota has had a former educator in the governor’s office — an “Educator-in-Chief,” as nicknamed by Tim Walz himself and his teachers’ union Education Minnesota. “Thank you to…
Academic performance on the reading and math Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) is slightly down from last year, and more than half of public school students statewide remain below grade-level proficiency.…
Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau publishes the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. This is the country’s only source for state and local spending data, allowing a…
On its own, fraud is disturbing. It presents a failure on the state government to safeguard taxpayers’ money, eroding trust. But in a high-tax, high-spending state like Minnesota, the continued…
Cut the waste, save the budget. Eight years ago, American Experiment asked Minnesotans in our quarterly Thinking Minnesota Poll if they thought state government spends too much, not enough, or…
The latest Thinking Minnesota Poll shows widespread support for the changes mandated for Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump…
That was then… Back in 2023, there was much excitement among Minnesota’s political leaders and journalists when our state placed fifth on CNBC’s annual ranking of “America’s Top States for Business.” Some…
It takes at least 18 months of combined education and work experience for a high school graduate to become a daycare teacher in Minnesota. Across the border in Wisconsin, it…
Gov. Walz needs to drop the comedy routine and make Minnesota competitive again. In late May, while he was embarking on his national town hall tour, Gov. Tim Walz needled…
Census Bureau data show that, between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2024, Minnesota’s population grew by 1.4%, a rate slower than in 31 other states, as Figure 1 shows.…
Back in 2023, I noted that childcare is relatively expensive in Minnesota because, as my colleague Martha Njolomole has written at length, the regulatory burden on providers is relatively high…
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a piece last week about the frontrunner in the headlong rush for more solar and wind power, California. The unfortunate result is that the…
Net domestic migration — whether more people are moving to Minnesota from other parts of the United States than are moving from it to other parts of the United States…
The Energy Information Administration published a brief article today forecasting a steady increase in residential electricity prices. The EIA expects electricity prices to rise through 2026, as prices have outpaced…
On Wednesday night, Governor Tim Walz delivered his seventh State of the State Address. During one part of his speech, he notably emphasized Minnesota’s generous welfare system as a point…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how the growth rate of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be broken down into the shares that come from growth…
The claims In March 2025, the University of Colorado, Boulder (UCB) published a study claiming 1 in 15 U.S. adults had been on the scene of a mass shooting, and…
Last week, I wrote about how the growth rate of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be broken down into the share that comes from growth in human capital,…
Back in November, I told the story of former Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson: Elected in 1970, the 37-year-old former Gopher and Olympic hockey player from St. Paul’s East Side faced a Legislature controlled…