Jan 25 Who Are the Workers Who Have Stopped Looking for Jobs? Question: One of society’s most enigmatic and growing populations is the one referred to as “those who’ve given up looking for work.” Who are these folks? How are they counted? What do they do after hanging it up? Such a… Continue reading
Jan 22 Would Dividing Commerical and Investment Functions Be Enough to Prevent Risky Behavior? Question: Since our largest banks became large by joining together many regional banks and became rich enough to practically own Congress, it seems to me we should take them apart for our own safety, and divide commercial from investment functions… Continue reading
Jan 21 How Does Goldman Sachs Make Its Profits? Question: How is it that Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Street firms are able to earn such huge profits and pay out such huge bonuses? Do the firms whose CEOs testified before Congress… Continue reading
Jan 20 How Can We Base an Economy on Consumption? Question: I have heard and read many times that consumer spending is a major part of our economy. Reading the paper on a recent morning, I read that consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. It is… Continue reading
Jan 13 What I’d Ask the Banking Chiefs Paul Solman: As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission gets under way this morning and the heads of biggest U.S. banks answer questions about what caused the financial crisis – and what to do to avoid a similar crisis in the… Continue reading
Jan 12 Should We Cut Taxes in this Economic Climate? Question: Since the beginning of the Reagan revolution, there has been a strong effort at state and local levels by both Republicans and Democrats to cut taxes in order to spur economic growth. Given the fact that many state governments… Continue reading
Jan 11 Which Econ Textbooks Are the Most Popular? Question: How would one find out what upper division macro-econ textbooks have been used in the last decade, which are used currently or are planned for use in the coming year(s) at the big shot departments of economics in the… Continue reading
Jan 08 Where Are They Now: Are the Jobless Finding Jobs? Paul Solman: Given that today marked the first unemployment number of the new decade, or the last one of the old, we thought we’d contact some of the jobless we’ve interviewed over the past year and see how they’re… Continue reading
Jan 06 Why Can’t We Let Too-Big-to-Fail Companies Fail? Question: Paul, I want to ask you about the “bigness” issue — “too big to fail.” If the big corporations produce most of the economy’s products, such as those companies listed in the Dow & S&P 500, percentage-wise, but employ… Continue reading
Jan 05 How Can We Recover if New Jobs Are Low Paying? Question: How can we recover if even the few jobs out there are so low paying? Income has not kept up since the mid-‘80s when so many people lost their jobs the first time. When spending was down, banks and… Continue reading