Professor King Banaian is a professor in the Department of Economics at St. Cloud State University. He holds the Ph.D. in economics from the Claremont Graduate School. He has consulted at the central banks of Ukraine, Egypt and Macedonia and the ministries of finance of Indonesia, Macedonia and Armenia. He is author of The Ukrainian Economy since Independence (Edward Elgar, 1998), co-editor of The Design and Use of Political Economy Indicators (Palgrave, 2008) and more than forty articles and book chapters discussing monetary policy and political economy. He directs the Center for Economic Education at SCSU. He is a fellow of the Armenian International Policy Research Group in Washington, DC and Yerevan, Armenia. He currently represents the north and east portions of St. Cloud and Haven Township in the Minnesota House of Representatives.