business

We've been a bit blown away by the chaos on the stock market. What can we do but go looking to the Internet for crowd wisdom? Here's our breakdown of nice local blogs and the most useful national ones we know of. Click on...

Local blogs run by realtors: Alex Stenback's Behind the Mortgage is pretty much the gold standard, and he reminds us that despite popular opinion, it's actually not hard to get a decent mortgage right now. Minneapolis Real Estate Blog by Jennifer Kirby has some useful tips and nice photos. LakeVermilionRealEstate.com is run by Bill Tibbetts, up by Lake Vermilion. Marvin Strong runs the Brainerd Real Estate Blog. Sharlene Hensrud has the HomesMSP Real Estate Blog with a lot of practical info about things like home inspections.

The Skinny by Jeff Allen looks at frozen pizza and the economy. Scott Ficek on Minnesota Investment Property Blog has a lot of details about things like tenant law and the finer points of mortgage deals. Teri Eckholm runs the Minnesota Real Estate Update, mainly looking at the suburbs. Bonnie Erickson runs Real Estate Snippets, and recently wrote about what's going around the realtor community. Lisa Dunn offers Real Sage Advice, specifically focusing on senior housing.

Fiscal Issues & Geeky Stuff by Assistant Professor Zhirong (Jerry) Zhao at the U's Humphrey Institute has plenty of useful data sources for people curious about local numbers.

We can't forget the Growth & Justice blog, an effort by the think tank now headed up by former Strib scribe Dane Smith. The faith-based coalition behind A Minnesota Without Poverty weighs in.

For the Minnesota State University take, be sure to see Phillip Miller's Market Power, written from MSU-Mankato. He's got a lot of good stuff about the economics of stadiums and baseball, in particular. Of course, King Banaian at SCSU Scholars has been turning out great econ posts for a long time (he's always a PIM Morning Report favorite).

The Minnesota Horizons Blog looks at rural economic development. The Philanthropy Potluck by the Minnesota Council on Foundations has new material about nonprofits facing the economic downturn. The Minnesota Budget Project (minnesotabudgetbites.org) talks about their testimony at the 21st Century Tax Reform Commission.

On the busy St. Paul Real Estate blog, Erik Hare writes about the adaptive re-use of sites like the old Schmidt Brewery complex. The Twin Cities Real Estate blog by Aaron Dickinson has a lot of detailed material, but hasn't gotten updated in a few weeks (though the Twitter is still busy).

We've got a few favorites on the national level: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis by Mike Shedlock is one of the most highly regarded money blogs, and The Big Picture is another top pick not to be missed. Calculated Risk also gets top marks.

The Affordable Housing Institute's US blog by David Smith has a big slices of snark and wonky details - two key elements of a decent econ blog. EconBrowser has a lot of thumbnail posts for many different angles.

Jonathan Miller's Matrix had the handy 'September madness' tournament-style brackets of financial institutions, so you can chart which ones will be the last one standing! Bubble Tracking takes a national view.

Agonist.org has a nice collaborative tone from many veterans of the finance industry (PIM staff favorite); bonddad is well-regarded; PrudentBear.com has a ton of news and solid columns such as the Credit Bubble Bulletin by Doug Noland. Cryptogon has our favorite banner image - a seriously depressed-looking Treasury Secretary and Fed Chairman. Roubini Global Economics with Nouriel Roubini is very highly regarded, as is Seeking Alpha.

The Implode-O-Meter series of sites keep on blowing up: Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, the Bank Implode-O-Meter, the Hedge Fund Implode-O-Meter and Home Builder Implode-O-Meter are all chugging along!

The blog on Inman News covering the national real estate industry. Harvard econ prof Greg Mankiw has both humor and the details. Mises.org has the Ron Paul-friendly view on today's situation.

More obscure sites riding the Zeitgeist include Capitol Gains and Games, HousingWire, HouseBubble.com, Bubble Tracking, Bubble Meter, Blown Mortgage, Dr. Housing Bubble, Housing Fear, Housing Panic, and the Boom Bust Blog.

Additionally, there are a lot of excellent popular regional blogs like Urban Digs covering Manhattan and SocketSite for San Francisco.

Here's wishing you happy doom-blog surfing from the PIM team!

Many St. Paul businesses along West 7th Street are disappointed by the drop-off in business they’ve experienced during the Republican National Convention.

And the letdown in sales during the week of the RNC hasn’t been for lack of trying.

The Glockenspiel restaurant, 605 W. 7th St., is adorned with a banner on its facade that says “WELCOME CONVENTIONEERS.”

Another sign advertises breakfast at 8 a.m. for the week of the RNC. Glockenspiel manager Rusty Hill says the breakfast was a one-time feature for the restaurant that was intended to draw RNC visitors. He staffed the breakfast with a bartender and server in addition to other staff.

Forbes published the 2007 Best States for Business rankings, today.

Minnesota moved up from 14th place in 2006 to 10th in 2007. That's terrific news for all of us and in particular, for GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty (who's off in NYC today trolling for GOP 2008 convention contributions).

Perhaps most significant to the Minnesota political psyche is our "quality of life" ranking: We're number 1!

Earlier this month, Forbes ran a story about The Best and the Worst States to Get Sued In. These rankings are based on polling done by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. Minnesota rates as the second best legal environment for business in 2007. "Minnesota ... is now viewed more favorably by business since Lori Swanson replaced Michael Hatch as attorney general in early 2006."

Hmmmm.