Feb 24 Making Sen$e: Paying For Public Pensions By Paul Solman Editor's Note: As the fire over collective bargaining and public worker benefits burns across the country, on Thursday's broadcast we're looking at perhaps the issue behind it all: public pensions and how to pay for them. Our story… Continue reading
Feb 23 The Pain in Spain: How Hard Is the Rain Gonna Fall on the Plains? By Paul Solman The specter of Euro-debt default is again roiling the markets. "Worries Over Europe Pose Risks for Euro," read a headline in Monday's Wall Street Journal. "Spain Pegs Cajas' Possible Problem Debt," warned another. (Cajas are the… Continue reading
Feb 22 Tool$ Tuesday: You Cut the Deficit By Paul Solman As the President and Congress wrestle over the particulars of a trimmed-down federal budget, the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, funded by longtime budget nudge Pete Peterson, offers this tool for lowering the debt load… Continue reading
Feb 16 Watch Sen. Bernie Sanders: ‘I’ve Got a Lot of Problems With the President’s Budget’ Judy Woodruff talks to Sen. Bernie Sanders, the longtime Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats and serves on the Senate Budget Committee, about the debate on spending and cuts in the president's budget blueprint for 2012. Continue watching
Feb 16 Merle Hazard and You: And the Winner Is… By Paul Solman We have an update on our country-country lyric contest, inspired by the econo-crooner Merle Hazard. Those of you who frequent these pages often will remember our series late last month where Merle lyricized about the financial crises in… Continue reading
Feb 15 How-To Economics: Irrational Assurance Tips for Valentine’s Day, Part II By Paul Solman In our efforts to maximize your utility in this 'Material World' via behavioral economics, we're unilaterally extending Valentine's Day for 24 hours with a second video tip from Duke's Dan Ariely, who joined us on Making… Continue reading
Feb 14 Watch News Wrap: China Passes Japan to Become World’s No. 2 Economy In other news Monday, China passed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy after Japan's economy shrunk the final quarter of 2010. Japan has placed behind the U.S. for much of the past 40 years. In Iran, protests inspired by… Continue watching
Feb 14 How-To Economics: Irrational Assurance Tips for Valentine’s Day By Paul Solman Our friend Dan Ariely, of behavioral psychology and economics fame, returns to Making Sen$e as a regular presence, starting today. The book that made him famous is called "Predictably Irrational," but we think of Dan as… Continue reading
Feb 11 Introducing How-To Economics: Living in a Material World By Paul Solman Today, we inaugurate a new feature here on Making Sen$e: How-to Economics: Living in a Material World. And to explain the good works we're up to, I talked to Duke's Dan Ariely, who'll be one of our prime… Continue reading
Feb 11 Obama Administration Spells Out Endgame for Fannie, Freddie In a long-awaited report, the Obama Administration unveiled a series of proposals today calling for the eventual end of the troubled and often-criticized mortgage financing giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Treasury and housing officials proposed options for a new… Continue reading