Recent content from Evan Ramstad
Ramstad: Misinterpreting data led me to the wrong conclusion about Minnesota retirees
My misreading undermined and distracted from my main point about fewer working-age Minnesotans.
Ramstad: How Rochester is keeping its housing growth on track
Most places in Minnesota are in dire need of more housing. The state's fastest-growing city updated its zoning code to help meet demand.
Ramstad: Think retired people are leaving Minnesota? Think again.
It's a myth that Minnesota is losing retirees because of weather and high taxes. They're responsible for our population growth these days.
Ramstad: Some Minnesota doctors bristle at state employee insurer's view of them
The state budget office runs employee insurance, giving it surprising power over doctors and clinics.
Ramstad: The debate over ethanol's future stalls push for less-harmful gasoline in Minnesota
Environmentalists who favored a low-carbon fuel standard in the past now think its time has gone.
Ramstad: Twin Cities' charter Global Academy is still run by teachers
For years, the school has stood out on the Star Tribune's "beating the odds" report card.
Ramstad: Stop hitting yourself, Minnesota
With the state's population leveling off, there's less room to do things that feel good politically but create economic pain.
Ramstad: Famed tech journalist Kara Swisher burns it all down
In a Minneapolis, Swisher describes her tough-love relationship with Silicon Valley and her admiration for Sen. Amy Klobuchar's attempts to rein in the tech industry.
Ramstad: Readers defend local control of housing, question weather data
It's the first reader feedback column of the year.
Ramstad: Cyberattack shows UnitedHealth is too big to fail
The finances of hospitals and clinics across the country were disrupted by a cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group.
Ramstad: Roman's hard choices as CEO put 3M on cleaner, leaner path
Bill Brown takes the reins at 3M, after Mike Roman checked off a daunting to-do list in his final year.
Ramstad: U.S. immigration needs a remedy, and Minnesota's economy could benefit if done well
It's hard to say whether we're getting our fair share of costs or benefits from the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ramstad: After a remarkable decade atop Target, CEO Cornell is still fixing big mistake of 2022
Brian Cornell forecasts more store growth for Target than anytime in his tenure.
Ramstad: The house next door may become a duplex, and you'll be just fine
Here's why it's a good thing that the Legislature will likely to erode local control over zoning and other property rules.
Ramstad: Most of Minnesota's logging happens in winter, when there is a winter
The state's timber crews got a late start and an early finish to their busiest time of the year.
Ramstad: High winds, high claims brew an insurance storm in Minnesota
Recoveries take time these days as contractors charge more and insurers try to restrict payouts.
Ramstad: Minnesota fell behind on child care, now needs it to get more parents working
Beyond economics, help for child care means deciding to invest in kids before age 5.
Ramstad: Minnesota's top lawmakers show they sensibly grasp immigration and economic needs
The national immigration debate is a mess, but Minnesota's legislative leaders understand its complexity and economic importance.
Ramstad: There's never been a better time to buy a diamond ring
Technology is changing the jewelry we wear as fast as it is the cars we drive.
Ramstad: Walz says he's willing to say 'no' to legislative allies
With budget constraints showing, Minnesota governor anticipates 'one of the more challenging' legislative sessions he's faced.
Ramstad: Ice-melt entrepreneur says it's time to change the way we combat slick sidewalks
For about five years, Mitch Vestal has been trying to sell people on a proactive approach to icy sidewalks and driveways.
Ramstad: This Minnesota town can defy rural trends of decline, but first must overcome prejudice
A food processing town, which found the spotlight because of a local fight on workforce housing, is taking a deeper look at its economic future.
Ramstad: Why Minnesota's biggest development initiative starts with Black home ownership
A $5 billion effort led by the McKnight Foundation to help Black entrepreneurs and families represents a change in thinking.
Ramstad: Minnesota's affordable-housing providers should be trying to go out of business
Fresh off a funding windfall is the wrong time to ask taxpayers for more money.
Ramstad: Interest rates crimp Minnesota's new home construction, which we need for affordability
Residential real estate is a mixed picture in a market that needs construction to maintain its affordability.
Ramstad: We've got to stop telling ourselves we can't be as good as other countries on child care
Americans always tell themselves they can't be like Scandinavians. With child care, the time may come to try in Minnesota.
Ramstad: Minnesota has worked one side of the child-care problem. The next step is to copy Iowa.
The idea of incentives for employers to create child-care centers in workplaces is taking off in Iowa and New York.
Ramstad: As a new year begins, it's OK — even valuable — to be uncertain
Politicians will say things are certain. Businesses will seek teamwork and certainty. Innovation and change happen when things are not certain.
Ramstad: It's time for Minnesota to allow taller buildings with a single staircase
The state needs to keep housing affordable, and that can only happen if more types of housing are allowed to be built.
Ramstad: Those connected jetbridges at MSP looked funny, but they did the job
With construction outside Concourse G, where Delta's international flights arrive, the airport needed a secure way to funnel passengers to U.S. Customs.
Ramstad: As year ends, 3M's resort is still for sale and many Minnesota employers still seek workers
Our columnist catches up with some of the people who helped him out this year.
Ramstad: New dean of U's Carlson business school arrives amid university transitions
Jamie Prenkert came from Indiana and right away picked up on a particularly Minnesota trait.
Ramstad: Oops, Minneapolis economists explain to me how inflation can cool without recession
In this reader response column, our business columnist admits he fell for conventional wisdom about inflation, which economists here in Minnesota challenged 50 years ago.
Ramstad: Hamline University class tests AI, discovers it's no replacement for critical thought
Political scientist David Schultz, after letting students use AI as they wished in classes this fall, finds it wasn't a game-changer.
Ramstad: State spent everything everywhere all at once, then reality bit
Revenue poured into state coffers over the last two years, leading to a huge jump in spending. That's all over now.
Ramstad: Minnesota is losing independent pharmacies, victims of scale, efficiency
Legislation to relieve financial pressures on pharmacist-owned drugstores was stymied in Minnesota. Industry consolidation and PBMs have made it challenging for independent pharmacies.
Ramstad: In the St. Paul school district, a play for student market share is paying off
After closing some schools in 2021 and 2022, St. Paul Public Schools opened East African Magnet Elementary this fall and regained some market share lost to charters and nearby districts.
Ramstad: Minnesota will never see an economic force like the one created by women in last 40 years
NAWBO-Minnesota is hitting stride again by bringing young entrepreneurs together with the women who changed Minnesota's business scene over the last few decades.
Ramstad: Switching bus fleets to electric will be more of an evolution than revolution
The expectation that EVs would quickly take control of the car market took a big hit in 2023. Transit operators are also learning some hard lessons about battery-powered buses.
Ramstad: How one of Minnesota's best-performing colleges confronts declining enrollment
Gustavus Adolphus scores highest of any Minnesota school on New York Times and Wall Street Journal college rankings.
Ramstad: Minnesota's nursing troubles are puzzling, damaging and could get worse
The failure of a nurse staffing bill, opposed by Mayo Clinic, was the biggest drama at the end of the Minnesota Legislature this spring. That's just the opening act.
Ramstad: New inflation data marks watershed moment for interest rate outlook
Tuesday's consumer data triggered a notable shift in investor sentiment on interest rates, but impactful cuts could take some time to unfold.
Ramstad: For Owatonna, a stunning new high school is a bet on the future of its kids and itself
Owatonna residents for years rejected building a new high school. Then, some of Owatonna's biggest businesses, eager to attract employees, put millions into it.
Ramstad: Minnesota's Paid Family Medical Leave law hits first speed bump
The paid leave program will cost more than lawmakers' minimal levels, an outside assessment found. That has restarted the debate over costs and benefits.
Ramstad: Readers with excessive rent hikes question columnist's opposition to rent control
Readers also propose ideas on rural broadband, AI and drug pricing. Also, what about that unrequited love?
Ramstad: Minnesotans love Boston, but Massachusetts' growth problem is worse than ours
Both places are rich without growth and need to bring more people into the workforce.
Ramstad: Did Minn. leaders expand the source of $17B surplus? Time will tell.
Dziedzic, Hortman and Walz didn't just spend the surplus. They kept the source of it running.
Ramstad: Affordable housing should be built across the Twin Cities, but instead we keep fighting
Minnesotans shouldn't live in bubbles of race or affluence. The state's affordable-housing financiers and developers should be building everywhere in coming years.
Ramstad: Here's what you can't see as hundreds of millions are spent to fill broadband gaps in Minnesota
About 400,000 Minnesotans can't access or afford high-speed networks.
Ramstad: Slim chance, but demand for weight-loss drugs may crack Big Pharma
It may be too much to hope for, but diet drug dynamics could be what finally breaks the pharmaceutical industry's pricing control in U.S.
Ramstad: Minnesota businesses are known for civic engagement, but it's weakening
Business and community leaders warn that the erosion of engagement may limit Minnesota's ability to tackle tough problems.
Ramstad: Capitalism has an image problem among college students
College students always flirt with alternatives to capitalism, but the views in a Hamline classroom suggest something has changed.
Ramstad: Rent control is the issue no one will talk about in Minneapolis election
The rent control debate lurks in the background of the moderate vs. progressive battle for control of the Minneapolis City Council.
Ramstad: MSP Airport to get $1B upgrade next year, impressively without taxpayer money
At a cost similar to U.S. Bank Stadium — and free of political debate — MSP is able to pay for itself and grow according to market demands.
Ramstad: Minnesota companies' stocks are a microcosm for the U.S. market in 2023
Most Minnesota companies are underperforming a stock market that has effectively stalled for the last two years.
Ramstad: Minnesota is a car collectors' paradise, ranking 'friendliest' for the hobby
The state's car collectors are a large and varied group, encouraged by state policies. And now, they're getting ready for winter.
Ramstad: Delta's change to SkyMiles fixes a business problem and hurts a lot of us
Delta's focus on dollar spending for rewards makes sense, though it will end the thrill of the chase for many customers.
Ramstad: It's hard to accept, but America's dominance in global food trade is ending
Brazil now exports more corn than the U.S., another sign of strengthening competition in a basic industry.
Ramstad: Minneapolis' 2040 Plan mired in housing vs. environment clash among progressives
My question: Where does growth fit into the conversation for a city and region in desperate need of it?
Ramstad: In NFL stadiums, teams now watch fans more than fans watch games
The Vikings tailor their in-stadium experience on insights from a new breed of data firms that study crowds.
Ramstad: As colleges learn to navigate AI, a Hamline professor goes all in
Colleges are a key proving ground for the chatbots that may someday have a big impact on American business.
Ramstad: Readers scoff at rosy economic perceptions, ponder U hospital's future
High prices are painful, but something unexpected is going on as inflation falls without a big jump in unemployment.
Ramstad: Shift in U.S. trade policy targets problems narrowly, moves away from big deals
The U.S. isn't pursuing sweeping trade deals that tended to benefit farmers more than makers of other goods, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said during a visit to the Minnesota State Fair.
Ramstad: Within Minnesota's financial industry, conflict lurks like it did with the U's hospitals
State regulators are taking a case-by-case approach to mergers in financial services. That can't go on forever.
Ramstad: This Minnesotan at Harvard says college applications should be a lottery
Michael Sandel, the Minnesota-born star professor at Harvard, says the meritocratic drive is harming colleges and society. His bold proposal: Elite universities should use lotteries to admit students.
Ramstad: Inside the happiest place in downtown Minneapolis
Kobi Co. began as a teenager's fundraising project but turned into a mother-daughter business.
Ramstad: If things stay this good with the economy, what will we complain about?
Politicians will never play it straight, and the media always sees a glass half-empty. But things are good right now.
Ramstad: Tech leader Archie Black, a master on building buy-in during change
There's always a bias within a business toward the existing market. Black led SPS Commerce to resist that again and again to help build one of the Twin Cities' most successful tech companies.
Ramstad: An era ends for the plow that built John Deere — and America
More and more farmers use no-till planting practices that don't need to turn over soil.
Ramstad: How a Native couple forge compromise to help others build careers
Nick and Nyree Kedrowski have helped hundreds of Native Americans find good-paying jobs by teaching about compromise and sacrifice.
Ramstad: University of Minnesota research could lay foundation for future beetle-fighting business
Scientists at the U are eyeing a spore that's abundant on the East Coast to kill Japanese beetles and their lawn-destroying grubs.
Ramstad: Rural Minnesota's child care shortage is an economic problem. Luverne offers a solution
One of the big obstacles to growing Minnesota's labor force is a shortage of child care.
Ramstad: Sanford is out of the picture, but U still needs direction for medical system
The heat may be off now that Sanford no longer plans to merge with Fairview, but university and state leaders need to stay on it.
Ramstad: For now, AI threatens your privacy more than your job
The immediate challenge when using a generative language program is how much information you are giving to it.
