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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 Sep 09

How to Invest $100,000 if You’re 45

Photo by Kick Images via Getty Images. Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making Sen$e page. Friday's query is being posted today since it was bumped by the Democratic…

Economy Sep 06

Keynes or Say? How Do I Vote?

Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on the Making Sen$e page. Here is Thursday's query: Name: Brian Christopher Question: Hi, Paul. Just read your post on Keynes vs. Say's…

Economy Sep 05

Is Academia Becoming an “Idea Graveyard?”

Photo credit: j.gresham via Flickr Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on the Making Sen$e page. Here is Wednesday's query: Name: Michael Shinder Question: Science and technology don't seem to…

Economy Sep 04

Which Economists Can See the Future?

Nassim Taleb and Nouriel Roubini predicted the last collapse. But even they don't think that means they'll be able to predict the next one. Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on…

Making Sen$e Aug 17

Where Are All These Summer Workers Coming From?

If you’ve been to the beach this summer, chances are you’ve run into seasonal workers from abroad. Our own Lee Koromvokis, esteemed NewsHour producer, said they were everywhere on a recent trip to Cape May, N.J.: “The waiter who served…

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