Newsroom Stories

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke coined the phrase “the Great Moderation” back in 2004 to refer to the relative stability of the U.S. economy over the previous two decades. Many believe “The Great Recession” of the past two years has jolted the economy out of its moderate mode and back into a state of high volatility. Washington University in St. Louis economist James Morley disagrees. He argues the Great Moderation is alive and well and will help the economy recovery from this latest financial shock.

Olin Business School is taking its executive education programs on the road and due west on I-70. Destination: Kansas City. Senior faculty will offer the same top-ranked seminars and the 20-month Executive MBA degree program to Kansas City-based professionals as those offered on the St. Louis campus. Olin’s executive MBA program was established in 1983 and has been offered in conjunction with Fudan University in Shanghai, China since 2002. 

The School of Law’s 12th annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series continues Jan. 20 with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture featuring John Payton, J.D., the director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Families with overweight children are sought for a weight-loss study at the School of Medicine.

WUSTL geoarcheologist Jennifer Smith, Ph.D., is featured a History channel documentary that solves a series of geological mysteries about the Sahara’s past. The show, part of the “How the Earth Was Made” series, explains why there are marine fossils embedded in the blocks of stone from which the pyramids are made and drawings of people swimming are scratched into the walls of desert caves.

Lucie Tang, senior research engineer, died Jan. 11, 2010

Loeb Teaching Fellows applications sought

The Record, the source of Washington University news and information since 1974, launches an entirely digital publication today, Jan. 19. It is part of Newsroom, the new comprehensive Web site of the University News Service and Medical News Service that debuts today as well. The digital format will allow more timely coverage of events, sharing to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and seamless integration of RSS and other Web 2.0 technologies.

The third of four University-wide blood drives this year will be held Jan. 26 at nine locations throughout the University. FULL STORY

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will serve as chair of the steering committee for the Advance St. Louis campaign to pass a half-cent sales tax increase to support public transportation in the St. Louis area. St. Louis County voters will decide April 6 whether to pass the increase to provide $75 million annually to expand and operate the Metro system, which includes Metro bus, MetroLink and Call-A-Ride services.