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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 Jan 07

Strategic Default: Immoral or Not?

Rounding out our series today, those of you considering strategic default might find particular encouragement from the web chat with law professor Brent White of the University of Arizona, who thinks it is both legally and morally okay.

Economy Jan 06

Who Do You Hurt When You Walk Away?

More from the strategic default debate today. Economist Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago, also in our original story, argues there are damaging spillover effects ("negative externalities") when homeowners strategically default. "By walking away, not only do you…

Arts Jan 05

Strategic Default: Right or Wrong?

We've been concentrating on the housing crisis over the past several days here on the Business Desk. For the rest of the week we'll be focusing on the issue of strategic default. If you're an underwater homeowner who can afford…

Economy Jan 03

Should You Swim Away From an Underwater Mortgage?

Your mortgage is underwater. Making the payments is both difficult and demoralizing. Is it ethical for you to walk away? As we've reported, there are arguments both ways. Here's a feature to help you make up your…

Economy Dec 31

The Year in Foreclosure Reports

Mortgage paperwork was a mess. Foreclosures were rampant. Homeowners went through months-long modifications, losing hope when it all fell through. The housing crisis was one of the major stories of the year. And as 2010 draws to a…

Arts Dec 31

Alyssa Katz: How Government Is Failing the Homeowner

We last spoke with journalist and author Alyssa Katz back in October 2009. She had just finished writing "Our Lot," a book on the history of America's housing market. "The issue is that the investors and investment…

Economy Dec 29

Robert the Robot, the Mechanical Man

Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's today's query: Name: Jose Question: In Virginia we have a non-judicial foreclosure process. The…

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