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 Watch Dismal Unemployment Report Suggests Recovery May Be Stalling The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June as employers added the fewest jobs in nine months. Jeffrey Brown discusses the grim jobs reading and the stubbornly high employment gap between black and white Americans with Pomona College's… Continue watching
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 Watch Raze the Roof: Cleveland Levels Vacant Homes to Revive Neighborhoods Business correspondent Paul Solman reports from Cleveland on the economically troubled Ohio city's efforts to tear down thousands of empty foreclosed homes in hopes of putting eyesore and dangerous properties back to productive use -- perhaps as community gardens, new… Continue watching
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$e page. Here's Tuesday's… Continue reading
Jul 01 Joseph Stiglitz, Barney Frank Respond to 'Reckless Endangerment' Allegations By Paul Solman Friday on the NewsHour, New York Times finance specialist Gretchen Morgenson and co-author Josh Rosner, a longtime housing analyst, talk about their new bestseller, "Reckless Endangerment" (no. 17 on the Times list this week). The book is a… Continue reading
Jun 30 Watch White House Chief of Staff Daley: U.S. Default 'Will Not Happen' Daley: U.S. Default 'Will Not Happen'… Continue watching
Jun 30 Troubled By Our Pension Post? Here's Our Response By Paul Solman // Watch Paul Solman's report, 'Is Your Pension Safe? States Struggle With Pricey Challenges.' Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Thursday's query:… Continue reading