Before concluding Gov. Mark Dayton has built nirvana on the Mississippi, be sure to sort through the hyperbole.

Minnesota scored 51.1 in the Mid-America Business Conditions Index, down from 51.3 in April.

Whatever is good about the American economy is largely the result of the Hamiltonian developmental tradition.

The co-author of the St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report finds signs of favorable business activity as well as some potential difficulties.

It’s hard to overstate how few solid conclusions have emerged out of a century of macroeconomic research.

Current University of Minnesota applied economics professor Laura Kalambokidis will take over as state economist, making her the first woman to serve in the role since the position was created in 1975. Stinson, 70, was first named state economist since 1987, holding a job for decades that economists before him only held for several years at a time.

Some of the freezes have been short-term affairs, and largely symbolic. Others have been launched as multiyear cost-cutting efforts. But these sometimes have reverse consequences, adding new, semi-permanent layers to the bureaucracies they're tasked with trimming.

Americans have grown gloomier about both the economy and the nation's direction over the past three months even as the U.S. shows signs of moving from recession to recovery.

Reported by Charley Shaw, at the Minnesota Capitol

Reported by Charley Shaw, at the Minnesota Capitol