When can a negative be a positive? Apparently when you measure economic confidence across all 50 states.
Despite a slight drop in economic confidence in 2013, Massachusetts was second to only the District of Columbia in economic confidence as measured by the research firm Gallup.
Gallup’s economic confidence index is a composite of Americans’ ratings of current economic conditions and their perceptions of the economy’s direction. The index has a theoretical maximum of +100 (if all respondents rate the economy “excellent” or “good” and say it is getting better) and a theoretical minimum of -100 (if all rate the economy “poor” and say it’s getting worse).
The Bay State’s index was a minus-1, just below the gauge’s midpoint, but up over 2013 from a minus-13 at the end of 2012. The District of Columbia’s index was a positive-19, but that fell 10 points during the year. In fact, the district and only four states saw drops in economic confidence. Massachusetts’ 12-point improvement was the fourth best, behind Nevada and California (each up 13) and Connecticut, which improved 14 points, best in the U.S.
The most confident states after Massachusetts are, in order: Minnesota (a reading of minus-2), California (minus-5) and Texas (minus-8).
The least confident states? West Virginia (minus-44), Alaska (minus-32), Wyoming (minus-29), Kentucky (minus-28) and Arkansas (minus-27).
