FIRE Cluster Can Help Grow Economy

Finance, real estate and insurance businesses are one of our best bets for state prosperity.

Back in 2000 to 2003 when the Wisconsin Summits were being sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System, it jumped out that our manufacturing and farm clusters were not producing big new job numbers and that the FIRE cluster – Finance, Real Estate and Insurance – was one of our best bets for state prosperity.

Not many political leaders read or paid attention to the Summit’s distillation of thoughts from the best and brightest minds from across the state, and they keep making bigger and bigger bets on our bedrock clusters of manufacturing and agri-business...