Wight Martindale '60 to explore the Wall Street crisis

	Wight Martindale '60 will address the Wall Street crisis at a special Chaplain's Forum Wednesday.

Wight Martindale ’60, Martindale Center Fellow, will discuss the current Wall Street crisis during an open Chaplain’s Forum at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Martindale’s presentation, which is free and open to the Lehigh community, will be in Room 200 of Linderman Library.
The forum comes in the midst of growing concern over the status of the Bush Administration’s proposed $700 billion financial bailout plan, which failed to pass the U.S. Congress early Monday afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped a record 777 points on news of the congressional vote.
The controversial measure failed to gain widespread bipartisan support after days of contentious negotiations on Capitol Hill, capping a month of international financial turmoil. Over the past few weeks, Wall Street has had to deal with the failure of Washington Mutual—the largest bank failure in history, Lehman Brothers and its bankruptcy filing, and the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, among other developments.
Martindale will seek to put the crisis in context while exploring its implications, both here and abroad. The title of his talk is, “The Wall Street Crisis: We’re all involved … and always were.”
A one-time financial editor for BusinessWeek magazine and former institutional bond salesman for Lehman Brothers, Martindale '60 knows the Wall Street scene well. He is the founder of West Fourth Street Advisors and has also served as managing director of high yield and distress securities at Guggenheim Capital Markets.
“The current Wall Street crisis is certainly a moral crisis for the nation at this moment as our elected officials face the challenge of working together to address a problem that will affect the well being of the American people as well as millions of people around the world,” says Lloyd Steffen, professor of religion studies and university chaplain.
“How we got into this situation and how we get out of it are certainly issues worthy of our attention, and the hope is that this event might create an opportunity for us at Lehigh to think about where we are going and what values should guide us as we seek solutions to the crisis and work to allay anxieties and restore confidence, he says.
The forum is sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office.
--Tom Yencho
Photo by John Kish IV