Dec 17 The Year Ahead: What’s the Economic Indicator to Watch? Paul Solman: More in our look this week at The Economic Year Ahead. Today: What’s the economic indicator to watch in 2010? Again, as you’ve come to expect from the NewsHour, a divergence of views. Not that Robert Shiller… Continue reading
Dec 17 Samuelson on Consumer Surplus Paul Solman: Today’s Paul Samuelson excerpt explains the concept of “consumer surplus.” See the other transcripts we posted this week on the basics of economics here and here.) To Samuelson, it was the justification for the market system. Continue reading
Dec 16 The Year Ahead: Conventional Wisdoms that Get It Wrong Paul Solman: Next up in our week-long series on The Economic Year Ahead: conventional wisdoms economists think are wrong. After asking economists to weigh in on the next crisis and what would surprise them most about the… Continue reading
Dec 16 More Basics of Economics with Paul Samuelson Paul Solman: On Tuesday, we posted the first transcript from a series of interviews I’ve done with Paul Samuelson over the years. This installment picks up where the last left off, explaining the most basic ideas of economics —… Continue reading
Dec 15 The Year Ahead: Economic Surprises Paul Solman: Another dauntingly thought-provoking group of responses today as part of our week-long series on The Economic Year Ahead (yesterday’s feature on the next crisis garnered some particularly interesting contributions). Today’s question: What economic development in… Continue reading
Dec 15 The Basics of Economics with Paul Samuelson Paul Solman: I’ve done numerous interviews with Paul Samuelson over the years. Invariably, he was funny, imaginative and deep. Particularly memorable was a long session on the basics of economics about 10 years ago, in his office at… Continue reading
Dec 14 The Year Ahead: The Next Crisis Paul Solman: As the end of a tumultuous economic year approaches, we’ve asked a number of economists to weigh in on the year ahead. We’ll be featuring their responses here all week. The responses to today’s question –… Continue reading
Dec 14 Remembering Economist Paul Samuelson Paul Solman: A few years ago, my father, the artist Joseph Solman, and I had a meal with Paul and Risha Samuelson at the house of mutual friends. My dad was in his ridiculously hardy ’90s at the time; Paul,… Continue reading
Dec 11 Are Banks Slow-Rolling Foreclosures to Avoid Losses? Question: It seems that banks are slow-rolling foreclosures to avoid recognizing losses. This would imply their balance sheets are weaker than stated. Is the FDIC concerned about this? Paul Solman: I haven’t been in… Continue reading
Dec 10 Where Do Temp Workers Fit in the Latest Unemployment Figures? Paul Solman: Another Twitter question, this one from a Chicago actress who goes by the handle “alipoombayay” ‘could surge mean unemp ran out for lst yr`s laid off and they can finally temp wo losing benefits?’ She means the surge… Continue reading