SMITH BRAIN TRUST — For years, soda servings have been ballooning. For its first half-century, Coke's main product was a 6.5 ounce bottle. Later came the reign of the 12-oz. can. In recent years, you couldn't get anything smaller than a 20-oz. behemoth-bottle from many vending machines.

By using advanced baseball statistics, it’s possible to predict the monetary value of baseball players' future contributions — and avoid awarding massive multiyear contracts to players whose best days are behind them, according to new research from the Robert H. Smith School, at the University of Maryland.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Clifford Rossi, executive-in-residence and professor of the practice at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, had a front-row seat at the 2008 financial crisis, the subject of the film "The Big Short," which has been nominated for Best Picture in the 2016 Oscars.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — In the most inflammatory chapter yet in the war between the government and tech companies over encryption, a federal magistrate judge has ordered Apple to create software that would help the government defeat the security mechanisms on an iPhone 5c owned by Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, in December.

Professor Anil K. Gupta at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business will join Ratan Tata plus leaders from Google, Airbnb and NextEV in mentoring India tech startups through KStart, an initiative of Bangalore-based VC firm Kalaari Capital.

Despite long-term declines in business creation and slow growth, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of entrepreneurship in the United States. This message, delivered by Kauffman President and CEO Wendy Guillies in the State of Entrepreneurship Address, summarizes key findings in a publication released yesterday called The New Entrepreneurial Growth Agenda.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Tesla's fourth-quarter loss nearly tripled, to $320.4 million, but many investors remained besotted with the cutting-edge electric car company. Its stock has risen 16 percent since the Feb. 10 earnings announcement.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — When you accepted your current job, did you sign a noncompete agreement? "Noncompetes" can lurk among all the routine forms you sign during the hiring process, but they can come back to bite you. Long common in fields such as engineering, and for executives, they are now being pushed on low-income workers, limiting their freedom in the labor market.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Etsy continues to test the compatibility of a commitment to social responsibility with the demands of Wall Street.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — “America is witnessing a political supernova — voter flirtation with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — because both political parties have failed ordinary folks,” says economist Peter Morici at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.