This chart from Business Insider tells us that 49 out of 50 states have lower business activity than last year. The states on the left have experienced the most decline with West Virginia leading the way. US Person has no explanation for the sole positive outlier in this bleak picture. Could it be that North Dakota's state-owned central bank, the Bank of North Dakota, is responsible for insulating the rural state from the malaise overtaking the rest of the country? Or has a new gold mother lode been discovered there?