Business Columnist

Evan Ramstad is a Star Tribune business columnist.

He moved to the Twin Cities and joined the Star Tribune in 2013. Ramstad previously worked for The Wall Street Journal in Seoul, Hong Kong and Dallas, and the Associated Press in New York, Washington and Dallas and briefly at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, where he got a start in journalism at radio station KGRN.


Ramstad: It's easier to assess a for-profit business than Minnesota's government

Accountability can be a bit dodgy, as the state has shown in recent weeks.


Ramstad: Alarm over foreign buyers of Minnesota businesses has become excessive

Election-year politics add drama to deals.


Ramstad: Minnesota needs to work on its slow growth future now. Just ask South Korea

On a trip to Asia, our columnist meets people who wish they'd acted sooner on the demographic slowdown.


Ramstad: Minnesota should be impolite, call a special session and pass a bonding bill

Minnesota legislators seem to have forgotten their first job is to make the state run.


Ramstad: After 11 years as Minnesota's state economist, Kalambokidis leaves the post

She learned a lot by working with people who make big decisions about money.


Ramstad: Amid high interest rates, dividend investing back en vogue

Interest rates aren't going back to ultralow levels, which means companies paying dividends have an edge attracting investors.


Ramstad: Cutting out I-94 seems fantastical, especially in slow-to-grow St. Paul

It could happen, though, and that would change the metro economy massively.


Ramstad: Gustavus president Bergman calls aid glitch a 'massive disruption'

While attention focused on Gaza protests, colleges don't know who will be enrolled this fall.


Ramstad: Minnetonka council meeting shows compromise on affordable housing is possible

Making change in an old neighborhood takes tough negotiating and thick skin.


Ramstad: In a tight labor market, job fairs have changed to find people on the margins

Organizers are trying to help people who have been on the margins of the labor market, as demand for workers remains high.