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Paul Solman

About Paul

Paul Solman has been a correspondent for the PBS News Hour since 1985, mainly covering business and economics.

While attending Brandeis University, Solman joined the Brandeis newspaper, The Justice, and eventually became its editor. He got his first journalism job in 1970 at the alternative weekly Boston After Dark.

Solman became founding editor of the rival alternative weekly The Real Paper in 1972 and went on to become a feature writer and investigative reporter.

Solman received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978.

After a few years of local PBS reporting, he inaugurated the PBS business documentary series, ENTERPRISE with fellow Nieman Fellow Zvi Dor-Ner.

In the 1980s, Solman produced documentaries, returned to local reporting, and joined the Harvard Business School faculty, teaching media, finance and business history in the school's Advanced Management Program. He also co-authored “Life and Death on the Corporate Battlefield” in 1983, which appeared in Japanese, German and Taiwanese editions. He joined the MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1985.

In the '90s, with sociologist Morrie Schwartz, a teacher of his at Brandeis, Solman helped create -- and wrote the introduction to the book "Morrie: In His Own Words," which preceded "Tuesdays with Morrie.” In 2015, Solman co-authored “Get What's Yours: the Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security.”

Solman has lectured on college campuses since the '80s and has written for numerous publications, including the Journal of Economic Education. As a one-time cab driver, kindergarten teacher, crafts store co-owner and management consultant, he was also the author and presenter of "Discovering Economics with Paul Solman," a series of videos to accompany introductory economics textbooks.

In 2007, he joined the faculty at Yale, where he contributed to the university's Grand Strategy course for a decade. In 2011, he was the Richman Distinguished Visiting Professor at his alma mater, Brandeis, where he taught a seminar, "Economic Grand Strategies: From Chimps to Champs? Or Chumps?" He has taught regularly at West Point, the Naval War College and was an adjunct faculty member at Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT, where he created the evening program, “Yale@Gateway.” In 2016, he was a Visiting Fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford University.

Since 2019, Solman has chaired the board of the anti-polarization American Exchange Project, a nonpolitical nonprofit domestic "foreign exchange" program that introduces high school seniors from everywhere in America to each other, sends and embeds them, for free, in communities unlike their own.

Solman took up tennis at 50. His father was the American expressionist artist Joseph Solman. He is married with two children and seven grandchildren.

Full Bio

Paul’s Recent Stories

Economy May 17

Inequality Today: Worse Than a Century Ago?

The entrance at the 1912 Democratic National Convention held in Baltimore, Md. The theme of the presidential campaign of 1912 was economic inequality, but looking at the data, the problem is worse today than it was more than 100 years…

Economy May 17

Inequality Today: Worse than a Century Ago?

By Paul Solman The entrance at the 1912 Democratic National Convention held in Baltimore, Md. The theme of the presidential campaign of 1912 was economic inequality, but looking at the data, the problem is worse today than it was more…

Economy May 02

What Are the Risks of Low Interest Rates?

When the Federal Reserve buys up Treasury bonds to keep interest rates low, is this risky? Paul Solman answers a reader's question on the potential consequences and explains why this Federal Reserve practice -- known as "quantitative easing" -- may…

Economy May 02

What Are the Risks of Low Interest Rates?

By Paul Solman When the Federal Reserve buys up Treasury bonds to keep interest rates low, is this risky? Paul Solman answers a reader's question on the potential consequences and explains why this Federal Reserve practice -- known as "quantitative…

Economy May 01

Long-term Unemployment: Is This Blatant Age Discrimination?

Is age discrimination a hushed secret or a blatant action by employers filling vacant jobs? Nick Corcodilos explains why the practice continues despite some companies' worries that they are losing out on the institutional knowledge and experience that older workers…

Economy May 01

Long-term Unemployment: Is This Blatant Age Discrimination?

By Paul Solman Is age discrimination a hushed secret or a blatant action by employers filling vacant jobs? Nick Corcodilos explains why the practice continues despite some companies' worries that they are losing out on the institutional knowledge and experience…

Economy Apr 25

Will We Ever Get to ‘Full Employment’?

A man enters a Shoe Carnival store in Morton Grove, Ill. Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images. Paul Solman answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on his Making Sense page. Here is Thursday's query:…

Economy Apr 25

Will We Ever Get to ‘Full Employment’?

By Paul Solman A man enters a Shoe Carnival store in Morton Grove, Ill. Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images. Paul Solman answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on his Making Sense page. Here…

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