Full Episode
Saturday, Sep 13
PBS NewsHour
  • Episodes
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletters
  • The Latest
  • Politics
    Politics
    • Brooks and Capehart
    • Politics Monday
    • Supreme Court
  • Arts
    Arts
    • CANVAS
    • Poetry
    • Now Read This
  • Nation
    Nation
    • Supreme Court
    • Race Matters
    • Essays
    • Brief But Spectacular
  • World
    World
    • Agents for Change
  • Economy
    Economy
    • Making Sen$e
    • Paul Solman
  • Science
    Science
    • The Leading Edge
    • ScienceScope
    • Basic Research
    • Innovation and Invention
  • Health
    Health
    • Long-Term Care
  • Education
    Education
    • Teachers' Lounge
    • Student Reporting Labs
  • For Teachers
    Education
    • Newshour Classroom
  • About
    • Feedback
    • Funders
    • Support
    • Jobs

Clarity when it matters most

With federal funding gone, your monthly support powers PBS News
Donate now
PBS News

Get news alerts from PBS News

Turn on desktop notifications?

Paul Solman

  • Full Episodes
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletters
  • Live
Paul Solman

About Paul @paulsolman

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 Feb 14

The Man and the Thinking Behind the Minimum Wage Hike

President Obama is pushing a controversial hike in the minimum wage. It is surely no coincidence that his chief economic advisor is Alan Krueger, an economist who became famous in the 1990s for research supporting minimum wage hikes.

Economy Feb 13

Obama Says We Must Never Default, But Would It Really Hurt Us If We Did?

After defaulting on their debts in the 1840s, state governments, like Pennsylvania's, learned to disallow budget shortfalls. This is the lesson that we should learn from history and never repeat. Photo by Flickr user Brendan Lynch. Paul Solman: President Obama…

Economy Feb 13

Obama Says We Must Never Default, But Would It Really Hurt Us If We Did?

After defaulting on their debts in the 1800s, state governments, like Pennsylvania's, learned to disallow budget shortfalls. This is the lesson that we should learn from history and never repeat. Photo by Flickr user Brendan Lynch. Paul Solman: President Obama…

Economy Feb 11

Ask Larry: What’s the Best Age to Take Spousal or Survivor Benefits?

Photo by Flickr user GabeB. *Larry Kotlikoff's [Social Security original 34 "secrets"](http://www.pbs.org/ newshour/businessdesk/2012/07/social-security-secrets-you-ne.html), his [**additional secrets**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/08/on-the-qt-a-few-more- social-se.html), his Social Security ["mistakes"](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/08/11-social-security-mistakes-pe.html) and his [**Social Security gotchas**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/09/ten-of-the-worst-social- security-gotchas.html) have prompted so many of you to write in that we now feature…

Economy Feb 11

Ask Larry: What’s the Best Age to Take Spousal or Survivor Benefits?

Photo by Flickr user GabeB. *Larry Kotlikoff's [Social Security original 34 "secrets"](http://www.pbs.org/ newshour/businessdesk/2012/07/social-security-secrets-you-ne.html), his [**additional secrets**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/08/on-the-qt-a-few-more- social-se.html), his Social Security ["mistakes"](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/08/11-social-security-mistakes-pe.html) and his [**Social Security gotchas**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/09/ten-of-the-worst-social- security-gotchas.html) have prompted so many of you to write in that we now feature…

Economy Feb 08

Why We Should Kill the American Penny

Paul Solman answers questions from Next Avenue readers about what the U.S. Mint can learn from Canada about the penny and why Germany is pulling their gold from the New York Fed. Photo by Flickr user hto2008.

Economy Feb 08

Why We Should Kill the American Penny

Paul Solman answers questions from Next Avenue readers about what the U.S. Mint can learn from Canada about the penny and why Germany is pulling their gold from the New York Fed. Photo by Flickr user hto2008.

Economy Feb 07

The Youth Unemployment Crisis: A Fix that Works and Pays for Itself

Economist Bob Lerman proposes a solution to the youth unemployment crisis in the United States arguing the quickest way to getting unemployed kids off the streets and onto the payroll is through work apprenticeships. Unlike internships, apprenticeships train…

Economy Feb 06

What Good Do Money Management Firms Have to Offer?

When a feline can pick stocks better than a human, money manager Jon Shayne argues there are still very good reasons to have money management firms actively pick stocks and invest your money. Photo by Tom Noser. Paul…

Economy Feb 04

How Maximizing Social Security Can Lead to Marriage or Murder

Image by Flickr user couscouschocolat. Larry Kotlikoff's Social Security original 34 "secrets", his additional secrets, his Social Security "mistakes" and his Social Security gotchas have prompted so many of you to write in that we now…

Jump to the First Page Previous Page
1 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 85
Next Page Jump to the Last Page

Support Provided By: Learn more

Educate your inbox

Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

Form error message goes here.

Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.

PBS News

© 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

Sections

  • The Latest
  • Politics
  • Arts
  • Nation
  • World
  • Economy
  • Science
  • Health
  • Education

About

  • About Us
  • TV Schedule
  • Press
  • Feedback
  • Funders
  • Support
  • Newsletters
  • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • X
  • TikTok
  • Threads
  • RSS

Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins

Form error message goes here.

Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.

Support our journalism

Support for News Hour Provided By

  • BDO
  • BNSF Railway
  • Consumer Cellular
  • Raymond James
  • Viewers Like You