Mar 18 Deflation: Inflation’s Evil Twin By Elizabeth Shell Name: Doug Shoaf Question: Given the harm that inflation does to the personal finances of almost every individual in the country, and its tendency to encourage spending and discourage saving, why do so many of our public officials and business… Continue reading
Jan 27 Watch Unmasking Interest Rates, Honky-Tonk Style In the latest installment in his series of reports making sense of financial news, Paul Solman explains how interest rates are set, with a little help from economic country musician Merle Hazard. Continue watching
Oct 27 Paul Solman Answers Students’ Economic Questions By PBS News Hour Economics correspondent Paul Solman takes his Business Desk blog inside classrooms across the United States to respond to high school students' most pressing questions about Wall Street, the recession and unemployment. Continue reading
Aug 24 More on Our Correction to Friday’s Segment Paul Solman: There’s more to add to our earlier correction to Friday’s segment: We have heard from Social Security and it is indeed the case that benefits do NOT go… Continue reading
Aug 21 Watch Reviving the Economy Tests Convential Views on Inflation With the economy showing hints of a recovery, the threat of inflation is testing policy makers at the Federal Reserve as they work to determine how quickly to unwind emergency moves taken during the height of the financial crisis. Paul… Continue watching
Apr 15 Can We Prepare for Inflation? Editor’s Note: The government reported Wednesday that consumer prices fell in March, indicating a weakened demand for goods and services. But while this price drop raises the specter of deflation, many economists contend that the real risk to… Continue reading
Apr 15 Consumer Prices Fall in March on Energy Costs By Admin, PBS News Hour Consumer prices fell in March, the government reported Wednesday, indicating that weakened demand for goods and services during the economic downturn has kept a damper on energy and food costs. Continue reading
Apr 07 Why Is Deflation Bad? Question: Why is deflation so bad? I have certainly benefited from the drop in gas prices, so I wonder what is wrong with things becoming cheaper in general? And wouldn’t that make up for previous inflation? Paul Solman: Another good… Continue reading
Mar 27 Was Depression-Era Debt as High as It Is Now? Question: When we hear comparisons between today’s economy and that of the Great Depression, I wonder: Had as many people and institutions been as highly leveraged then as now? Were personal and institutional debt as high then as they are… Continue reading
Dec 23 I’m Not Sure It’s My Responsibility to Go Out and Shop to Keep Businesses Afloat. By Business Desk Question/Comment: It seems to me there’s been a shift in market thinking in the recent past. I’m not sure that it’s my responsibility to go out and shop to keep businesses afloat; I always thought that it was business’ responsibility… Continue reading