2016 Election – Sound Economics

The Problem with the Electoral College

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Alex Shaw — No Comments ↓

It seems that while Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote, Donald Trump has won the election due to the Electoral College. Out of 57 Presidential elections, there have been 4 instances where the candidate that won the popular vote lost the election because of the electoral college. This happened in 1876, 1888, 2000, and now 2016, which is a failure rate of 7%. Another interesting quirk of the electoral college is that it gives disproportionately more votes to smaller states and takes votes from bigger states. This seems to benefit the GOP because many of the states that typically vote Continue reading The Problem with the Electoral College→

This Tuesday, 10/25: Debate on WA Initiative 732 regarding a carbon tax.

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Garrett Milam — No Comments ↓

Where: McIntyre 107 When: 4 – 5pm, Tuesday 10/25 The Economics Department is hosting a discussion of WA initiative 732 which seeks to create a revenue neutral carbon tax in Washington state to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Advocates from both the ‘pro’ and ‘con’ camps will be speaking. Yoram Bauman, economist for CarbonWA.org and one of the founders of I-732 will speak in favor of the measure. Brandon Houskeeper from the Association of Washington Business will make the case against the measure.

The Economics of Our Candidates, Part 3

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Nicky Smit — No Comments ↓

Welcome to part three of my three part series on our presidential candidates’ stances on economic issues. In case you missed it, here’s the first on taxation and the second on financial reform. Again, we lost some candidates since last I posted. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina will be sorely missed, as well as Jim Gilmore, I guess. For this final week, the issue is the Fed! First, a woefully short description of the Federal Reserve (aka the Fed). They deal with monetary policy, playing some role in deciding the value of the dollar by controlling the federal funds rate. Banks and Continue reading The Economics of Our Candidates, Part 3→