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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 Jul 02

In Choosing Assets, What’s Safer than U.S. Bonds?

Silver coins and bullion bars sit on display in the window of a bank in Vienna, Austria. Photo by Akos Stiller/Bloomberg/Getty Images Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making…

Economy Jun 06

More Pain in Spain

People take part in a protest in front of a BBVA bank office in Barcelona. Photo by Josep Lago AFP/Getty Images This week here at Making Sen$e, we'll be featuring dispatches from Europe's financial front lines - mainly and plainly,…

Economy Jun 05

Who Benefited from JP Morgan’s Losses?

JPMorgan Chase World Headquarters on Park Avenue in New York City. Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images. Paul Solman answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news here on his Making Sen$e page. Here is Tuesday's…

Economy Jun 04

The Heavy Load of Student Debt

// We first set out to cover the student-debt story last year when we read David Graeber's book, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" and listened to him speak (online). Graeber was pushing a proposal for mass repudiation of student…

Economy Jun 04

The Heavy Load of Student Debt

// We first set out to cover the student-debt story last year when we read David Graeber's book, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" and listened to him speak (online). Graeber was pushing a proposal for mass repudiation…

Economy May 25

Is Long-Term Care Insurance a Good Idea?

Registered nurse Susan Eager pays a house call visit to a patient in Denver, Colo. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images. Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making Sen$e…

Economy May 24

Do You Get Back All Your Money From a U.S. Bond?

A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making Sen$e page. Here is Thursday's query:…

Economy May 09

Making Sen$e: Hot TIPS on Where To Invest

Photo by Kick Images via Getty Images. Readers of this page regularly ask about Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (see note below), which I've long said are my own preferred investment vehicle. Do TIPS still make up more than half the family…

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