Category: Experts Guide

Quoted: â??Everyone is hunkering down,â? says Timothy Smeeding, Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-author of The Economics of an Aging Society. â??If you are not sure, youâ??re not going to buy whatever that next big thing is.â? In addition to cutting out luxuries, Smeeding says that the housing market is going to be particularly hard hit, as second home purchases have moved off the table.

Quoted: “I understand that [offering medical assistance] makes for dramatic scenes, and it does bring a human face to the whole story, but this has to be treated very carefully,” said Stephen J.A. Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsinâ??s journalism school. Ward says such “emotion-based” reporting has its place, but it can become manipulative and obscure the larger picture.

Quoted: If a similar quake occurred in California, the death toll would almost certainly have been much lower. “Better buildings would have saved lives,” says Chuck DeMets, a tectonic geologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: The traditional rules of journalistic ethics are changing for both good and bad reasons, Stephen Ward, a former bureau chief for The Canadian Press who is now the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told me when I wrote seeking his counsel.

Quoted: Chinaâ??s economic success and rising global clout have convinced its leaders that they can continue defying Washington, but that could prompt a backlash, said Edward Friedman, a China specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Deborah Mitchell, executive fellow at the Center for Brand and Product Management at Wisconsin School of Business, said the campaign may cause confusion in the market place because people have known Dominoâ??s for having a quick, 30-minute delivery, not for flavor.

Quoted: Edward Friedman, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said many people in the West had been clinging to the misguided notion that Chinaâ??s economic development would quickly lead to political liberalization. â??Itâ??s clear that what matters most to the Chinese Communist Party is the survival of the regime and their monopoly on power,â? he said.

Quoted: “His legacy can be summed up in one word: inspiration,” said Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin medical school who advised the makers of Rain Man and who was close to Peek for the past 20 years.

Quoted: The arts, moviegoing and sporting events are all in the same precarious boat now because “people have more options than they ever did before,” said Andrew Taylor, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Is your favorite radio station Twittering? Does your local newspaper have a Facebook page?Kathleen Culver with the UW School of Journalism & Mass Communication says newspapers, TV news â?? and even radio stations â?? have come up to speed, considering most popular social media sites didnâ??t even exist a few years ago.

Quoted: Charles O. Jones, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin, put it this way: â??Dick Neustadt, the greatest of presidential scholars and now deceased, had a principal rule: always be attentive, in making a decision, to the effects of that decision on your prospects for future power. The point being that if you are going to set a deadline then youâ??d better meet it. Otherwise, the judgment will be that you made a mistake.â?

Quoted: â??This is a pretty big concession for Monsanto,â? said Shawn Conley, a soybean specialist at the University of Wisconsin, who said saving seed could save farmers a lot of money.

Quoted: â??The main thing for Obey is his longstanding commitment to the domestic policies that he cares about, especially when the competition for the money is a war he disagrees with,â? said David Canon, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: “I think thereâ??s still plenty of room in the vanguard,” said Chris Thorn, associate director of the Value-Added Research Center, housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The center works with 33 recipients of TIF grants, representing about 50 school districts and more than 100 charter schools nationwide.

Quoted: â??This drug is not a home run,â? Dr. Brad S. Kahl, a lymphoma specialist at the University of Wisconsin, said during a meeting of an advisory committee to the F.D.A. on Sept. 2. â??Itâ??s not even a double. Itâ??s a single.â?

Quoted: “The fact that food stamp usage is up leads us to say the stigma once associated with food stamps is down,” said John Karl Scholz, a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the book “Changing Poverty, Changing Policies,” published by the Russell Sage Foundation, which studies problems facing the poor.

Quoted: “Because it was the first network to emerge, it really saw itself as sort of the equivalent of the BBC in Britain,” said Michele Hilmes, a media professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and editor of “NBC: Americaâ??s Network.”

Quoted: â??The subset of Americans that cares about this issue has been watching the President and hoping he would make an appearance at Copenhagen,â? noted Sharon Dunwoody, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who specializes in environmental communication. â??What Iâ??ve been hearing is: â??Weâ??re the odd country out. Everybodyâ??s doing something, while here in the U.S. weâ??re doing nothing.â??â?

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison pharmacist Warren Rose admitted that it can sometimes be an overkill, and he said heâ??s surprised at the how popular theyâ??ve gotten in the last year.

Promoting early holiday shopping is one way retailers are trying to adapt to the down economy, according to an expert at the Wisconsin School of Business. â??This week there are many, many firms both online and in the brick and mortar stores saying â??come on outâ? says Deborah Mitchell, Executive Fellow, Center for Brand and Product Management at UW-Madison. 

Quoted: Morris A. Davis, an assistant professor in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said the government needs to act quickly before the foreclosure crisis worsens.

Quoted: Morris A. Davis, an assistant professor in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said the government needs to act quickly before the foreclosure crisis worsens.

Today Sesame Street celebrates 40 years on air. An expert in children and TV viewing applauds their efforts over four decades. UW communication professor Marie-Louise Mares says the program was launched with the intent of getting children ready for kindergarten, especially those from lower income families although soon all children became involved.

Quoted: “This really is not a practical issue at this point,” said Dr. Chris Olsen, a professor of public health and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. “Is that to say itâ??s not possible? No.”

Quoted: “Right now, the size of the deficit, the growth of government and the perception of government meddling in the private sector are all things that resonate pretty broadly and especially in conservative areas,” says Charles Franklin, co-founder of Pollster.com and a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: “Borrowers have the choice of defaulting, and thatâ??s what weâ??re going to see,” said Morris A. Davis, a former economist for the Federal Reserve Board who is now an urban land economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “

Quoted: Other research supports the “work hard, play hard” thesis. Janet Hyde, a professor of psychology and womenâ??s studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has found that it doesnâ??t lead to less intimacy in marriage when wives hold paid jobs.

Quoted: Shawn Peters, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the nexus of religion and the law, said the Neumannsâ?? sentencing was not unusual.

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, who tracks political advertising at the University of Wisconsin, says in 2009, something very different is going on.”Thereâ??s certainly been massive amounts of television advertising this time around,” Goldstein says. “But I think the real story is the dogs that arenâ??t barking. So, the last time around, you had the Harry and Louise ads [on Clintonâ??s health plan], you had an enormous amount of expenditures from the pharmaceutical companies. This year the big story is the $100 million, $150 million ads that the pharmaceutical companies are not running.”

Quoted: Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin, said the United States would have to adopt â??calamitously bad policiesâ? to see it cede its reserve status to the euro, yen, yuan or the IMFâ??s special drawing rights (or SDRs).

Quoted: Alfonso Morales, an “open air market” specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said more and more people are trying to turn bric-a-brac – miscellaneous small articles collected for sentimental or decorative interest – into cash to cope with the harsh new reality of lost jobs, slashed hours and dwindling incomes.

Quoted: As far as timing of when to find the best fall colors in Dane County, expect it to be earlier than usual this year, says Laura Jull, associate professor of horticulture at UW-Madison and president of the Wisconsin Woody Plant Society. Thatâ??s due to the unusually dry weather the area experienced through late August and much of September, with no real precipitation for weeks until record rainfall on Wednesday finally broke the drought.

Quoted: â??Many people involved in the health-care debate are discontented with the Baucus proposal,â? said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. â??But this is what compromise looks like.â?

Quoted: The study is “a novel piece of research” that is the first to identify a neural source of personal space in people, says Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Itâ??s also part of a growing series of studies that underscore the importance of the amygdala in human social interactions,” he says.

Quoted: “The new media can be an important tool in a campaign,” said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor. “But itâ??s not by itself a giant killer.”

Quoted: It was Prince Damrong who instituted suffrage for Thai women under the 1897 Local Administration Act, which made Siam the first major country in the world in which women and men achieved the vote on an equal basis and without any record of controversy, says Katherine A Bowie, an American professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: At Eulau, as at several previously excavated Neolithic mass graves, â??the attackers seem to have been members of the same cultural group, perhaps neighbors,â? remarks anthropologist T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.

Quoted: Barry Burden, a professor of political science at University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses his research on U.S. elections, says New York may be ripe for strategic voting, because it has a partisan split between upstate and downstate voters and a high volume of city residents owning upstate homes.

Quoted: The observation is echoed by Peter Carstensen, an antitrust expert at the University of Wisconsin law school who closely watches the dairy industry.

“Where there is a competitive market for buying milk, dairy farmers are paid more. When DFA comes to dominate a market, then farmers are paid less. Monopolists behave like monopolies,” Carstensen says.

People appear divided on how health care should be changed and whether the Obama administration is doing a good job on the issue. Recent polls suggest the heated town hall exchanges may have had an impact on people’s perception on how Congress and the president are doing on health care.

Audio: Charles Franklin: Professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s the co-founder of Pollster.com.

Quoted: Prof. Ann Hoyt, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done extensive research on cooperatives in many industries, said they could serve a useful purpose in health care â?? just as credit unions compete effectively with banks, prompting them to offer higher interest rates on deposits and lower rates on loans.

Video: University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin discusses Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s decision not to run for another term.