DENVER -- "I think we can officially say we're in panic mode now," said Dr. Mac Clouse, Professor of Finance at the University of Denver as the Dow Jones Industrial average fell another 679 points Thursday.

More than 60 students and interested faculty members attended an Economic Crisis forum at the Daniels College of Business Thursday.

When it was scheduled days ago, organizers hoped the worst would be over.

Instead, students say they're spending half of each class period discussing the latest twists and turns.

"It's rare that the things that you learn about in terms of theory you find actually happening in real life. And these last few weeks have just been amazing," said Basil Shah, an international MBA student.

"How are the government or the asset management companies going to price these bad assets?" asked one student.

"How were these assets rated investment grade?" asked another.

They learned that the crisis came from good intentions as government leaders from both parties, over several White House administrations, encouraged banks to find ways to help more people enjoy the American Dream of home ownership.

That lead to lowered credit standards and owners in homes they could not have qualified for in previous generations, thanks to extremely low interest rates.

Add risky investments based on those home mortgages and exotic, down-payment free loans and you have as one panelist called it, the start of an economic and policy a "hydra."

"As brilliant people developed more and more products." as one speaker told the crowd, Wall Street became more and more enamored with confusing products that supposedly helped diversify risk.

But there was no insulation for overall market risk.

And when overbuilding, over-extended owners, and increasing foreclosure rates collided, it became a wave of bad news that's still proving difficult to ride.

"People are afraid. It's not really that bad. It's not like the world is going to shut down. What people are realizing is it's just not going to be fixed quickly," Dr. Clouse said.

Clouse believes a lack of communication is part of the ongoing market volatility.

He hopes Treasury Secretary Paulson will explain exactly why he is considering taking an ownership share of some banks and exactly how that would happen.

"Where does the U.S. come out of this in terms of a financial superpower?" asked one student.

One panelist suggested this may be the beginning of a very different financial reality where the U.S. no longer leads the rest of the world economically.

"60 percent of the market capitalization for investing is outside the United States," she said.

A financial planner encouraged investors not to make decisions based on emotion and said now is not the time to try to get out of the stock market.

Eventually, the panelists repeated, the U.S. financial markets would clean themselves out and start producing gains again.

None would speculate on how long that might take.

Count at least one student among those ready to jump in with new dollars.

"We may have lost a little step but we'll get back to it," Shah said.