News Sources: More Wall Street Regulation Urged

A top Federal Reserve official told a Senate committee on Thursday that Washington must increase its regulation of Wall Street in order to prevent other banks from needing rescues similar to the one at Bear Stearns. The official, Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, called for a simpler, more stringent supervision over financial institutions and urged banks to put in place more fail-safes to prevent the liquidity problems that claimed Bear Stearns last month. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts
from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including (click on names for contact information):

Ann Owen - Associate Professor of Economics, Hamilton College - Owen served as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors before joining Hamilton College. She is a frequent media commentator on issues related to Federal Reserve decisions, Social Security, and various economic indices for outlets including MarketWatch, Associated Press, The New York Times, UPI, Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Baltimore Sun. She also serves as director of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College.

Charles R. Geisst -Professor of Economics and Finance, Manhattan College - Geisst has 10 years of investment banking experience. He is the author of 10 books, including Wall Street: A History, as well as trade articles and interviews in the International Herald-Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and Investors Chronicle.

John H. Mutti - Sidney Meyer Professor of International Economics, Grinnell College - A former international economist with the Office of International Tax Affairs and a former senior staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Mutti conducts research and teaches courses on international economics, international trade policy, international finance, public finance, financial policy and development economics.

Bowdoin Project Puts Major Focus on Majority Leader

The Bowdoin College Library has inaugurated a three-year oral history project to document the life and career of U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, a member of the Bowdoin College Class of 1954. Mitchell, former majority leader of the U.S. Senate and architect of the Northern Ireland Good Friday peace agreement, is currently chairman of the Global Board of DLA Piper, one of the world's largest law firms.

The State of U.S. Intelligence Post-9/11

The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq have raised a number of questions about the state of U.S. intelligence. Leading intelligence scholars - featuring a range of academic experts along with representatives from the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - will gather at Williams College on April 12 to offer insights about the future of U.S. intelligence.

News Sources: Islam Overtakes Roman Catholics

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism to become the world's largest single religious denomination, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, compilier of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican yearbook, figures for 2006 showed that Catholics accounted for 17.4 per cent of the world population while Muslims accounted for 19.2 per cent. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including (click on names for contact information):

Selva Raj - Professor of Religious Studies, Albion College - Raj is an expert on religious leaders and Eastern religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as a scholar of Christian religions. His book, Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines, is in production. A colleague of the late Mother Theresa, Raj pinpoints characteristics of religious leaders and their teachings and determines the attraction by devotees/disciples.

David O'Brien - Director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, College of the Holy Cross - O'Brien is among the nation's top historians on American Catholicism. He is the author of numerous books on the subject, including From the Heart of the American Church: Catholic Higher Education and American Culture and The Renewal of American Catholicism.

William C. Placher - Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Wabash College - Placher is recognized as one of the great contemporary theologians. He is the author of The Domestication of Transcendence: Where Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong and A History of Christian Theology.

Study Looks at Different Approach to Alzheimer's

An Illinois Wesleyan University professor and student are testing a drug that takes a different approach to Alzheimer's disease. Curent results show that Guanfacine may be effective at improving memory impairments.

The Fairness Doctrine and Talk Radio

While talk-radio hosts certainly do attract large and loyal followings, the worry that the talkers have a huge or unfair influence on public policy is exaggerated, says DePauw Unviersity communications professor Jeffrey McCall. And he says the Fairness Doctrine would be an ineffective and perhaps unconstitutional remedy to limit the reach of such political-talk-show hosts as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

News Sources: Gov't Response to Mortgage Crisis

When an election campaign coincides with both a crisis on Wall Street and soaring home foreclosures across the country, the traditional ideological battles over “more government” or “less government” become blurred.But while their philosophies might seem starkly different, in reality both parties have come to the conclusion that major government involvement is needed to rescue the financial and housing markets. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including (click on names for contact information):

John Caskey - Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College - An expert on the use of financial services by low-income U.S. households. Author of "Fringe Banking: Check-Cashing Outlets, Pawnshops, and the Poor" (1994), which examines banking alternatives for poorer people. He has also researched community development banks and economic development in poor communities.

Karl Case - Professor of Economics, Wellesley College - Case is a nationally recognized expert on real estate markets and prices. He has authored several studies that attempt to isolate the causes and consequences of boom and bust cycles and their relationship to regional economic performance.

Kevin McIntyre - Economics/Business Assistant Professor, McDaniel College - McIntyre is an expert on all things macroeconomics including the Federal Reserve, gas prices, inflation, retail markets, financial markets, international markets, and monetary policy.