Now that President Barack Obama has signed his stimulus package into law, the following DePaul University faculty members are available to provide commentary on various aspects of the program and its likely impact on the U.S. economy:

Rebel A. Cole, associate professor of real estate and finance

Expertise includes Obama’s economic team, financial institutions, bank failures and takeovers, credit market meltdown, how the bailout proposal addresses concerns of small businesses, sub-prime lending, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Cole served as a financial economist for the Federal Reserve Board from 1991 to 1998. “Surprisingly, this package essentially ignores the fundamental causes of the current recession: the growing housing/foreclosure crisis and the continuing banking/credit crisis. Instead, it looks like a grab bag of political payoffs to Democrat interest groups, most of which won’t be spent during FY2009, and, therefore, won’t contribute much to economic growth this year.”

Phone: (312) 933-0584; e-mail: rcole@depaul.edu

Joe Schwieterman, professor of public policy and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development

Schwieterman is a top national expert on urban transportation issues, transportation spending, interrelationship between highways, railroads and public transportation and the airline industry. “The Obama stimulus package is a mix of good and bad.  Critical funds for deteriorating roads and rail lines are coupled with budget-busting expenditures on programs with little lasting impact.  We missed a golden opportunity to create a package that would revitalize our country's sagging infrastructure from top to bottom. The enormity of the package will likely crowd out funding for other infrastructure investment for the next several years.”

Thomas Mondschean, professor of economics

Mondschean has expertise in financial institutions, bank regulation and international economics. He served as an economic research consultant with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. “The devil is in the details.  Politics will likely dilute the effect of the economic gain of the stimulus package.”

Phone: (312) 362-5210; e-mail: tmondsch@depaul.edu

Antonio Morales-Pita, adjunct professor of economics

Morales-Pita, who is fluent in Spanish, can address the intersection of economic and political issues.  He is a former economist in the government of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who is critiqued in his memoir “Habana-Merida-Chicago: A Journey to Freedom.”  “The most effective way to get out of recession is to increase spending, especially by the middle- and lower- income groups, since wages and salaries make up more than 70 percent of U.S. income.  Household consumption in America accounts for more than two-thirds of overall economic activity, and it fell at a 3.5 percent annual rate during 2008, the seventh biggest drop on record.”

(312) 362-5613; E-mail: amorale1@depaul.edu

David G. Ehrlich, visiting assistant professor, School of Public Service

Ehrlich has 15 years of experience as a senior analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office.  “The important questions for each spending item are: how many jobs does it preserve or create; how good are its long-term investments; and how fast will it move into the general economy through a multiplier effect?  These are answerable questions.  They should be estimated before an item is funded, monitored during the project or program, and evaluated after the funds are spent.”

(312) 362-6794; E-mail: dehrlich@depaul.edu