For the first time in the 20 years that CNBC has ranked America’s top states for business, Hawai’i came in last place, ranking 50th and last in infrastructure and cost of doing business. The state was also ranked among the worst for cost of living, workforce, access to capital, and business friendliness. This ranking is not a measure of how beautiful the islands are but how much friction we place between a person with an idea and the ability to act on it. The author points out that the Office of Economic Revitalization in Honolulu, which was created to manage the distribution of federal stimulus money during the pandemic, has been criticized for operating with a lack of transparency. The city has since cut its funding and implemented a plan-review tool called CivCheck, which guides applicants to complete, code-compliant submitt through review before it reaches a human reviewer.