With the popularity of last year’s “Wall Street in Crisis” panel discussion, “we felt the need to revisit this from the perspective of the struggling working class and assess the proposed solutions outlined in Obama’s economic agenda,” says Professor Christian Johnson, a panelist whose specialty is capital markets, banking, and derivatives. “The national unemployment rate has risen from 4.5% in 2007 to a projected 8.7% in 2009. It’s really bleak out there.”

The forum will also examine the legal and economic origins of the downturn as it spread from the boardrooms of financial institutions to the front doors of small, local businesses. Or as Professor Ralph Mabey, a former U.S. Bankruptcy judge and co-panelist states, "When Wall Street caught pneumonia--resulting in serious casualties, Main Street started wheezing and is now coughing up some blood. This program explores the diagnosis and triage of Main Street."

The discussion will be moderated by Scott M. Matheson, Jr., professor of law.