THE BLUES: Report on how each state treats its small businesses turns out exactly as expected

Mike Shedlock at Global Economic Analysis points us to an extensive study comparing each state on how well it treats its small businesses. The results are only surprising if you're Paul Krugman, Thomas Piketty or that homeless guy sleeping behind the dumpster at 7/11.

Thumbtack, in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, conducted a Small Business Friendliness Survey... Jon Lieber, Chief Economist at Thumbtack, provided the survey data in spreadsheet form. In turn, the folks at Tableau Software worked with me to create the following interactive map.

...Lieber writes "We've partnered for the third year in a row with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to conduct a survey of about 13,000 small businesses nationwide that use our site. The survey asks small business owners and operators what makes for a business friendly environment and uses the responses to rate which are the most and least friendly states and cities for small businesses. States and metro regions are rated across 11 different metrics."

...Thumbtack put together a slightly different interactive map of small business friendliness that shows less fields than I do, but instead gives A-F grades and changes from last year.

• California, Illinois, and Rhode Island received an overall grade of "F".
• Idaho, Virginia, Utah, and Texas received an overall grade of "A+"

The states that are grayed out did not provide sufficient replies, so it's possible all of the blue states aren't truly the worst of the worst when it comes to opportunity. Hahhahahhahhahahah. Just kidding. Hat tip: BadBlue News.