The Topology of US Elections: why politicians must lie, er, flip-flop to be elected

Mike Smitka, Economics, Washington & Lee Univ Under the US primary system for Congress and the White House, politicians must flip-flop i...

China's Auto Industry Meltdown: The Last Shall Be First?

Mike Smitka, economics / Washington and Lee First to exit, that is. The rush to enter China has led to a market with too many players with ...

Methodology for Calculating Demographics-Corrected Normal Employment Level

reposting from my no-longer-active US and Economics blog, original was November 2012 The Great Recession entailed a huge rise in unemploymen...

Cheap Oil Forever? – Disaster for the (Auto) Industry!

Mike Smitka, Economics Dept, Washington and Lee University The global auto industry is placing very large bets on the value of lightweightin...

Really, now: the Fed and "Breaking News"?!

Mike Smitka I was having lunch at a brewpub in Kokomo IN last Wednesday (Dec 16) as the multiple screens over the bar proclaimed "break...

The FTC Opens the Hood

Ruggles December 2015 I hadn’t intended to write this as a standalone piece. And I am guilty of using the title to the post, published on t...

Real Effective Exchange Rates vs Market Rates: the RMB (Chinese yuan)

Mike Smitka, Washington and Lee University Here's a chart I created for my China's Modern Economy class showing the appreciation of...