Eastern professors have their opinions about the Bush administration’s plan to make the stock market stable and the financial crisis facing the United States.

According to CNN, as of Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 160 points. With the drops in stocks, the Bush administration have asked Congress to approve $700 billion to buy bad mortgage debt and to help stabilize the recent declines in the stock market.

Economic professor Noel Brodsky said he strongly disagrees with President George W. Bush’s proposal.

“Authorizing a blank check to (the) tune of $700 billion to (the) executive branch to do what they please with, with little or no oversight, is just plain unconstitutional,” Brodsky said.

He believes if people allow the market to fail, people will then realize there is a huge problem.

By doing this, he said, people will analyze the situation, instead of acting without looking into it from other perspectives.

Microeconomics professor Tesa Leonce said her first reaction was shock on Monday morning.

“The Average American would be shocked on Monday,” Leonce said.

Leonce said those who followed the stock market closely, slowly saw the decline and knew this was going to happen. The way she views the stock market and economy right now has to do with her age, she said.

“The reactions depend on age because it depends whether or not a person is going to retire soon,” Leonce said.

On Tuesday at the Federal Intervention in Financial Markets, senators were able to discuss and ask questions on the proposal the Bush Administration has asked for.

Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, was one of the officials who answered senators’ questions.

Paulson said with Bush’s plan there is less risk for the taxpayers, C-Span, a public service network, reported.

“We are not making expenditures, we are buying expenditures,” Paulson said.

He said there were two possible approaches for this situation we are in now, and the $700 billion plan would be the best, C-Span reported.

With the Dow declining, Leonce said she believes it does not show exactly how the economy will be in the future because it is based on only 30 public businesses.

“It’s hard to predict right now and depends if the proposal gets passed on Congress,” Leonce said. “You would hope if it works out, the market would be stabilized.”

The cost of crude oil has also gone up, and delivery of crude oil in October is expected to increase.

Brodsky said he believes Bush’s plan will not help the growth of the stock market.

“We must allow the market to punish them or they and others will simply do the same thing again,” Brodsky said.

He believes Congress should reinstate the Glass-Steagall separation between banking and security firms. The Glass-Steagall was an act passed by Congress in 1933 during The Great Depression that prohibited commercial banks from working with firms and bank investments. It was taken away in 1999.

He said the act would have to be modernized if it ever came back.

According to CNN, an announcement is expected by the end of the week whether or not Bush’s plan will be used.

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7942 or at bmgarcia@eiu.edu.