Shortly after President Obama signed the $787 billion dollar economic recovery act, a panel of Yale professors discussed the state of the economy at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.  John Geanakoplos, William Nordhaus, and Robert Shiller--all professors in the Econ department at Yale--joined Yale Law deputy dean Jonathan Macey.  The discussion, moderated by Yale president Richard Levin--himself a former professor of economics at Yale--covered the severity of the current recession, the root causes of the global economic crisis, and the specific problems of the banking system.  The panel seemed to be in agreement twhen it came to fiscal stimulus (they think we need it, and we might need more than what the Obama plan provides) and the banks (we can't allow them to fail).  And while there is a lot of talk of gloom, the panelists for the most part) do not give in to the gloom themselves.  And they do provide prescriptions.  Of course, you may or may not agree with them.  As always, share your thoughts by clicking on comments below. 

Here's the full discussion: