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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 Nov 30

Are the French Better Off Than Americans?

The French might be paying less when it comes to triple play packages. Photo by Sami Sarkis via Getty Images. Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on his Making Sen$e…

Economy Nov 09

Income Inequality vs. Wealth Inequality

Photo by Katrina Charmatz via Getty Images Paul Solman answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on his Making Sen$e page. Here is Wednesday's query: David G: I keep seeing an argument that says…

World Nov 08

Greece’s Former Finance Minister Defends Super Mario

Greece's former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou defends European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi's Outright Monetary Transactions plan. Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images. Earlier today, we featured Boston University economist Laurence "Ask Larry" Kotlikoff on the European crisis and his…

Economy Nov 08

Greece’s Former Finance Minister Defends Super Mario

Greece's former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou defends European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi's Outright Monetary Transactions plan. Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images Earlier today, we featured Boston University economist Laurence "Ask Larry" Kotlikoff on the European crisis and his…

Economy Nov 07

They All Got it Right: Polls, Markets, and Models

President Barack Obama's election night rally at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. Photo by The Washington Post via Getty Images. The polls got it mostly right. Ray Fair's economic model forecast a result well within the final…

Economy Nov 06

Why a Romney Win Would Shock the Markets

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop. Photo by Edward Linsmier via Getty Images. As of yesterday, President Obama had already been re-elected. Or so it seemed to Paddy Power, the…

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