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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., assembled a panel of experts to help clear up D.C. residents’ concerns about the economic crisis during a forum Tuesday night on Capitol Hill.

The congresswoman said the nation’s legislators “are all just feeling (their) way” in the financial crisis.

W. Chris Smith, a property developer in the District, reported that D.C.’s property markets are remaining stable throughout the turmoil in comparison to the rest of the country.

He said the city’s real estate markets were the still among the strongest markets in the nation.

Smith added that since many jobs in D.C. are in government, health care and education, the District should be able to provide its citizens with the most secure economy in the nation.

Alice Rivlin, a Georgetown University professor who helped establish the Congressional Budget Office and served as its first director, said the housing market, which appeared strong, fooled the American people.

“They were the victims of a collective delusion that housing prices were going to continue to go up,” Rivlin said.

She said Congress’s $700 billion aid package did more than bail out failing financial institutions.

“It wasn’t a bailout of financial institutions as much as it was an effort to prevent the recession from getting worse,” Rivlin said.

The panelists devoted much of the discussion to caustic accusation, however.

Emma Coleman Jordan, a Georgetown Law professor, claimed the “talking heads” of the media were falsely reporting that the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 – which some analysts say encouraged banks to make unsafe loans to members of their communities – was instrumental in creating the crisis.

But Jordan said the creativity of the American people will save the nation from financial ruin regardless of what caused the economic crisis.

G. Edward DeSeve, a University of Maryland professor, made optimistic predictions about the future of the economy, but remained critical of the bailout. He advocated a more Keynesian approach to solving the country’s financial problems, proposing that the government should raise the gasoline tax to fund construction projects that will generate jobs.

Norton’s recent actions for D.C. residents corroborate DeSeve’s proposals. She recently helped win funding from Congress to construct the new Department of Homeland Security headquarters in D.C. and said that the District’s economy will benefit for years to come from the jobs and tax revenue that will be generated from the new headquarters.

During the forum, Norton told residents that she is in negotiations to provide D.C. residents primary access to the work that the Homeland Security Project will create in order to keep D.C.’s economy strong.