Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here are a few queries: // We received a flurry of worried responses to our…

Jul 11

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Economics was dubbed "the dismal science" by 19th century English intellectual Thomas Carlyle. The reason: the Reverend Thomas Malthus' grim prediction, around 1800, that population would inevitably outstrip food supply, since the former grows geometrically (1,2,4,8...), the latter, arithmetically (1,2,3,4...).