As Congress debates a compromise $700 billion bill to shore up the nations beleaguered economy, West Virginia University legal and economic scholars will discuss the nations financial crisis Wednesday, Oct. 1, at the College of Law .

The panel discussion,Understanding the Financial Market Crisis,will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom. The event is free and open to the public.

Panelists include:

Michael V. Risch , associate professor of law at WVU . His areas of expertise include patent and copyright law and entrepreneurship.

andre douglas pond cummings , professor of law at WVU . His background is in business organizations, international intellectual property and securities regulation.

George Selgin , the BB&T Chair in Free Market Thought in WVU s College of Business and Economics . His areas of expertise include economic history, monetary economics, banking and macroeconomics.

The panelists will provide information and insight into what has been described by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as the worst financial crisis since World War II. They will discuss topics to aid in understanding the meltdown in the financial markets and what is currently being done to manage the crisis.

The past few weeks have been a calamitous time on Wall Street as the nations largest financial institutions buckle under crippling bad mortgage debt. This weekend the Bush administration and congressional leaders from both parties reached an agreement on a proposed $700 billion bailout intended to stabilize and prevent a potential global financial crisis. Congress is expected to take up the proposal as early as today (Sept. 29).