WashU Experts

WashU cybersecurity expert Ning Zhang explains the growing capabilities of machine learning models such as Mythos and their threat to internet infrastructure and security.

A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump threatens to destabilize the financial system by reducing lending regulations and rolling back oversight, according to Brittany Lewis at WashU Olin Business School.

The rise of institutional investors in the housing market is a symptom, rather than the cause, of an extremely tight housing market and the overall housing affordability crisis, according to Carol Camp Yeakey, the Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts & Sciences at WashU.

Sports betting is “all around us, all the time,” says WashU’s Noah Cohan, who studies sports and fan cultures. In this Q&A, Cohan discusses the rise of online gambling, the formative impact of fantasy sports and how structural changes are reshaping the fan experience.

High prescription drug prices are not caused by any single company or practice, but by the system itself, said WashU Law’s Rachel Sachs. If Congress wants lower drug prices, it has to fix the structure and incentives of the entire supply chain, said Sachs, an expert on prescription drug pricing.

Jeffrey Plunkett, a professor of practice in accounting at WashU Olin Business School, answers common questions about new tax rules, how changes in Internal Revenue System staffing could impact the filing process and who needs an accountant.

Widespread promotion has started for so-called Trump Accounts, including an ad during the Super Bowl. The accounts allow parents to opt in to claim investment seed money of up to $1,000 for their children. But that opt-in part is problematic, say two experts on child development accounts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Over the last few decades, Christianity in America has become synonymous with conservative causes. But it wasn’t always that way. As faith leaders join protesters in the Twin Cities, they’re showing the next generation of American young people that there are multiple ways to be a Christian, according to Ryan Burge, an expert in religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has called for a phaseout of the state’s income tax, a move that would cause the most pain to the state’s low-income residents, says an expert on tax law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The markets essentially shrugged when the U.S. removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a special operation. But that could change if the U.S. follows through on other geopolitical threats, says political scientist Timm Betz at Washington University in St. Louis.