Jul 11 ‘Have Wit, Will Travel’ By Paul Solman 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...). Continue reading
Jul 11 ‘Have Wit, Will Travel’: The Life of an Economist And Stand-Up Comic By Paul Solman 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...). Continue reading
Jul 08 Jobs: Dreary Data, a Desperate Viewer, a Pessimistic Professor By Paul Solman Goodness! U-7, our own measure of under-and unemployment, shot up to 18.6 percent Friday morning, a rise that gets us back near the number when we first inaugurated the Solman Scale last December. Friday morning's job numbers:… Continue reading
Jul 07 How an English Investor Dabbled in Cleveland Real Estate…and Got Burned By Paul Solman // Video edited by Elizabeth Shell. As a follow-up to Tuesday's story on abandoned housing demolition in Cleveland, we're posting a short video: A show-and-tell about one vacant property, it covers all the bases - from the… Continue reading
Jul 05 Fannie Mae: What’s Politics Got to Do With it? By Paul Solman // 'Protecting Its Fannie: How Mortgage Giant Primed the Bubble, Covered Its Assets.' Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Tuesday's… Continue reading
Jul 01 Joseph Stiglitz, Barney Frank Respond to ‘Reckless Endangerment’ Allegations By Paul Solman Friday on the NewsHour, New York Times finance specialist Gretchen Morgenson and co-author Josh Rosner, a longtime housing analyst, talk about their new bestseller, "Reckless Endangerment" (no. 17 on the Times list this week). The book is a… Continue reading
Jun 30 Troubled By Our Pension Post? Here’s Our Response By Paul Solman // Watch Paul Solman's report, 'Is Your Pension Safe? States Struggle With Pricey Challenges.' Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Thursday's query:… Continue reading
Jun 29 As IMF’s New Chief, Will Lagarde ‘Keep Smiling’? By Paul Solman Christine Lagarde was nominated Wednesday to head the IMF. Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images. So the synchronized French swim champ with accent-free English whom we interviewed last summer in Paris, Christine Lagarde, will run the IMF. What did we… Continue reading
Jun 24 Making Sense: Sneak Peek At a Rust Belt Success Story By Paul Solman A welder at Lincoln Electric. Photo by Jared Manders. We shot footage for an upcoming piece recently at arc welding manufacturer Lincoln Electric. The company, which we last visited back in 1992, is an improbable Rust Belt success… Continue reading
Jun 23 Making Sense: Is China’s Economic Progress In Trouble? By Paul Solman Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley and now Yale, and author of the book "The Next Asia," has long been among the most astute and independent of economic forecasters. He has also spent much of the past decade… Continue reading