New reporters cover high finance at forum

CSU, SACRAMENTO, Sacramento, Calif., USA - Reporters from my two sections of beginning news writing covered a forum on finances sponsored by the CSUS Economics Department Monday afternoon.

While a good deal of the economic jargon from the five expert professors went over the reporters' heads as they scribbled in their reporters' notebooks, most of the students came away with a greater understanding of what caused the most recent financial debacle and what the nation can expect in coming years.

They heard about asset-backed derivatives, credit swaps, unemployment rates and how the nation shouldn't worry about entering another Great Depression. Or about the growing unemployment rate.

Whenever someone says, "Don't Worry," I generally start to worry more - much more.

I asked a couple of questions, one about what the group thought about the sudden plummeting of oil prices and were they concerned about such wild swings in prices.

The expert panel said not to worry about that either.

Hmm....

The reporters will be taking their full notebooks to class Wednesday and attempting to write a 300-400 word story about the event.

Here's a brief video of some of the proceedings.