Notre Dame panel discusses credit crisis

Some of us are feeling the pinch more than others as we fight through this troubling economic time.

We've all had so many questions since the market crashed.

How did this happen?

Where to we go from here?

Monday night, a panel of financial experts at Notre Dame gave us their thoughts about the unfolding credit crisis.

John Rosenthal, Chief Executive of Northern Indiana Region of Old National Bancorp says, “I saw dark clouds on the horizon, but no one probably saw the depth and the magnitude of the problem here today.
The acid bubbles that we had in terms of inflated home prices, etc., were tell tale warning signs.”

Margaret Forster, Associate Professional Specialist in Finance says, “We are all to blame. The subprime borrower who took money when deep down they knew they couldn't afford to pay back, the bankers who made the loans because they were making loans just based on the fact that home values were going to increase, they had a wrong assumption, and our regulators, who allowed this to happen.”

“There's an idea in which the government would come in and become a shareholder of troubled banks. My only concern and the risk is the government is not an impartial shareholder. The government may have a social agenda.”

“Working through this will still be very painful and take quite a while we need to be patient.”

Rosenthal says, “The first thing is we can't panic. Don't let fear overrule our intellect. I really think it's important that consumers understand the strength and safety of the banks that they're dealing with so they should be asking questions about the capital structure of the banks, the liquidity, the earnings, the trends, their debt ratings, etc.”

“Diversify your holdings, whether you have monies in brokerages or banks it may not be the world's worst idea to spread some of those deposits among various institutions. There are plenty of wonderful companies out there that still make great products and services that we need well into the future.”

If you'd like to hear more from the panel of financial experts who spoke, there will be a video of the event available on the Mendoza College website.

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