South Dakota

South Dakota exploited regulatory arbitrage to build an unlikely financial services cluster. In 1981, Citibank relocated its credit card operations to Sioux Falls after South Dakota eliminated usury limits, allowing any interest rate the market would bear. Other banks followed, and today financial services employs thousands in a state with fewer than 900,000 residents.

Mount Rushmore draws tourists, but the real draw for wealth is South Dakota's trust laws. The state has become a haven for dynasty trusts, attracting billions in assets from families seeking perpetual tax-advantaged wealth transfer. Combined with no income tax and no inheritance tax, South Dakota offers structures unavailable in most states.

Agriculture remains important—cattle ranching on the western plains, corn and soybeans in the east—but financial services provide the high-value employment growth. The state's small population means that a few thousand financial jobs significantly impact per capita metrics. South Dakota demonstrates how regulatory choices can create economic niches, though critics argue its trust laws facilitate wealth concentration and tax avoidance that harm the national fiscal system.