May 23 Revitalizing coal is the solution to our energy crisis Question/Comment: Your item on green jobs was very informative. While I knew that many towns in the coal and manufacturing belt in western Pennsylvania are shadows on their former selves, I did not know how much Pittsburgh has… Continue reading
May 09 What triggered Frontier Airline’s bankruptcy filing? Question/Comment: I would like to have a better understanding of what triggered Frontier Airline's bankruptcy filing. How do credit card processors do business? Why would they suddenly change the rules so drastically? Was it a sign of lack of… Continue reading
May 09 Wars increase production and employment, but this time the US is in a recession. Can we blame globilization? Question/Comment: Wars are inflationary, because goods are being produced in order to be destroyed. Wars increase production and employment but this time around the U.S. is at war and in a recession. Is this the result of… Continue reading
May 07 The housing market has made a major jump in the last thirty years, why? Question/Comment: Paul, in 1965, my dad bought our house in a suburb of Los Angeles for about $3,000. In 1979, he sold it for about $80,000. Why did the market jump so much in just 14 years? This has been… Continue reading
May 07 Aren’t production jobs the foundation of a healthy economy? Question/Comment: Having grown up around workers and plant managers in western New York, and knowing the vibrant history there, one factor stands out as fundamental to our current economic problems today: the massive loss of production jobs… Continue reading
Apr 29 Will oil ever be priced in a currency other than dollars? Question/Comment: Has there been a shift from petrodollars to petroeuros in world energy trading? I read that such a shift would result in less demand for the dollar, resulting in a drop in the dollar's value. Paul Solman: "Petrodollars" was… Continue reading
Apr 29 Can Fed come up with a better system for encouraging long-term savings? By Business Desk Question/Comment: I inherited some money, retired, and moved to Portland, Ore. Now that I have money in the bank, and the Fed has been lowering interest rates, I've been wondering exactly how our banking system actually works. When the Fed… Continue reading
Apr 25 Medicare’s trust fund to run out by 2019? Then what? Question/Comment: Typically the Paul Solman features on the NewsHour are always among the show's most trenchant and perceptive. That is why I have been hoping that you could do a feature explaining the present financial situation of the Medicare Program. Continue reading
Apr 25 Doesn’t Bear Sterns hiding of their problems while continuing to sell mortgage-backed securities as if all was well constitute fraud? Question/Comment: Bear Sterns did not go under overnight. Unless they are incompetent, the executives must have known what was happening for at least a year, maybe longer. So how come they took hundreds of millions in salary and bonuses (maybe… Continue reading
Apr 23 In this current financial mess, why do we not hear anything being said about the repeal of Glass-Steagall? This installment’s “guest vetter” is Robert Glauber of Harvard University. He led the Brady Commission in studying the 1987 stock market crash, was undersecretary of the Treasury for the first President Bush and, until recently, served as chairman of the… Continue reading