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Paul Solman

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Paul Solman

About Paul @paulsolman

Paul Solman has been a business, economics and occasional art correspondent for the PBS NewsHour since 1985.

As you can see below, he used to have lots of hair. In the '60s, his father found it amusing to say, "you don't need a haircut so much as an estimate." His intramural softball teammates at Brandeis University dubbed him "the Black Medusa."

That same year, 1963, he joined the Brandeis newspaper, The Justice, and eventually became its editor. He got his first paid journalism job in 1970 at the alternative weekly Boston After Dark, where the picture was taken. Then and now, he did much of his work on the phone.

Paul became founding editor of the rival alternative weekly The Real Paper in 1972 and went on to become a feature writer and investigative reporter. He became interested in business when he set out to do a story about municipal bond rates (this was 1976) and realized he was clueless. As was, he realized, the entire booming generation in his wake. Here was an opportunity. But how to seize it? How about going to business school?

Having no money for tuition, Paul applied for a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard and lucked out, joining the Harvard Business School MBA class of 1977-8. He embarked on a career as a business reporter at WGBH Boston immediately thereafter. It was about this time, as one grandchild later put it, "your hair got lost."

After a few years of local PBS reporting, he inaugurated the PBS business documentary series, ENTERPRISE with fellow Nieman Fellow Zvi Dor-Ner. (There was also a Nieman felon in their class, but that's for someone else's biography.)

In the 1980s, Paul 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 a better-than-average-seller, Life and Death on the Corporate Battlefield (1983), which appeared in Japanese, German and a pirated Taiwanese edition. He joined "MacNeil/Lehrer" in 1985, two years after it become an hour-long news show, and has been the program's Economics Correspondent ever since, with occasional forays into art and sport.

In the '90s, with sociologist Morrie Schwartz, a teacher of his at Brandeis, Paul helped create -- and wrote the introduction to -- the book "Morrie: In His Own Words," which preceded "Tuesdays with Morrie" by a year or more, but failed to outsell it by several orders of magnitude.

In 2015, Paul co-authored an actual bestseller (#1 on Amazon for four straight days!), Get What's Yours: the Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security. It had to be revised in 2016 because Social Security provisions were changed, perhaps in response to the book.

Paul has lectured on college campuses since the '80s and has written for numerous publications, including the Journal of Economic Education. He thinks he's the only person, besides John Kenneth Galbraith, to have written for both Forbes and Mother Jones magazines; he was for years East Coast editor of the latter. A one-time cab driver, kindergarten teacher, crafts store co-owner and management consultant, he is also the author and presenter of "Discovering Economics with Paul Solman," a series of videos to accompany introductory economics textbooks.

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In 2007, he joined the faculty at Yale, where he added a dose of communications know-how and economics 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 lectured at campuses across the country, has taught regularly at West Point, and at Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT. In 2016, he was a Visiting Fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford University. He is also president of the new making-friends-across-the-political-divide group, "Us."

Paul took up tennis at 50 and plays with a knee brace. He'd like to shave off his mustache but is afraid to. He wears a hat because his doctor insists. He is married with children and grandchildren. He loves them to death.

Full Bio

Paul’s Recent Stories

Economy Mar 30

As more people order delivery, workers fear virus exposure

More than 250 million Americans in 30 states have been asked or ordered to stay at home. Although some still buy essentials in person at stores, many are ordering online instead. As a result, warehouse and delivery workers and professional…

Nation Mar 24

2 views on balancing medical risk and economic pain

The tragedies we see playing out in Italy and around the world are why most public health officials say it’s far too soon to plan when people can return to work. But President Trump says he wants to see much…

Making Sen$e Feb 27

New book explores the schemes and scandals of Deutsche Bank

The fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis revealed that some of the world's most powerful banks were involved in reckless financial dealings. Germany’s Deutsche Bank took a particularly aggressive approach -- the consequences of which are still playing out…

Making Sen$e Feb 20

Why more older workers are finding themselves unemployed as retirement approaches

Many Americans plan to save for retirement in their 50s. But what happens if you're laid off at that age instead? According to researchers, the situation is common, and older workers have a harder time finding a new job --…

Economy Jan 30

Can peer pressure be harnessed to fight climate change?

Economist Robert Frank studies peer pressure and how its power can be leveraged for good. In his new book, “Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work,” Frank explains the idea of “behavioral contagion,” which he says can drive people…

Making Sen$e Jan 09

Is this Las Vegas hospitality workers union the future of American labor?

Organized labor in the American workforce has declined since the 1980s, with many unions struggling to attract workers as companies voice opposition to them. But in Las Vegas, one union has broken through to much of the city’s hospitality sector…

Making Sen$e Dec 26

How these 2 Nobel winners are challenging popular economics

Arts Dec 17

Best-selling children’s author Mo Willems on sparking creativity and joy

Author and illustrator Mo Willems has sold millions of children’s books and created beloved characters, including the Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny, and Elephant and Piggie. Now he’s the Kennedy Center’s first education artist-in-residence, making new kinds of work for both kids…

Making Sen$e Dec 12

Americans are drowning in medical debt, so this nonprofit is buying — and forgiving — it

Collectively, Americans owe nearly a trillion dollars of medical debt, and Congress is trying to figure out a policy response. But in the meantime, economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on an unusual non-profit’s effort to relieve the burden of medical…

Economy Dec 09

Remembering former Fed chair and economic giant Paul Volcker

Paul Volcker, who served as chair of the Federal Reserve for two presidents, died Monday. His passing came 40 years after he drove interest rates to record highs in an effort to tame double-digit inflation. Known for his height and…

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