May 12 Making Sense: Are Taxes Lower Now Than the 1950s? By Paul Solman Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Thursday's query: Name: Peter Anderheggen Question: I recently heard that in 2011, the nation,… Continue reading
May 12 Are Taxes Lower Now Than the 1950s? By Elizabeth Shell Name: Peter Anderheggen Question: I recently heard that in 2011, the nation, on the whole, is paying substantially less in taxes than it did in the nineteen fifties. I do not know if this is true or just a spin. Continue reading
May 11 ‘Inside Job’: An Oscar Winner Answers Your Questions By Paul Solman Editor's Note: Today we hand over question-and-answer duties to Charles Ferguson, former MIT academic and dot.com entrepreneur who is now a documentary filmmaker, and who created the Academy Award-winning analysis of the Crash of '08, "Inside Job." Last week,… Continue reading
May 10 Elderly Folks at Home and the Curse of Internet Investing By Paul Solman The TreasuryDirect.gov homepage. Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and Web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Tuesday's query: Name: Chris Curry Question: The Bureau of the… Continue reading
May 06 Dueling April Jobs Numbers Cloud Some Good News for Economy By Paul Solman Once again, the monthly unemployment data give occasion for those who have hair to lose more of it. The Household Survey, from which the much-trumpeted "Unemployment number" comes, brings us a rise in official unemployment to 9 percent, due to… Continue reading
May 05 Ask Oscar-Winning ‘Inside Job’ Director Your Questions on the Financial Crisis By Paul Solman // Editor's Note: Producer and director Charles Ferguson won an Academy Award this year for "Inside Job," his documentary about the financial crisis. On Wednesday night's broadcast, we spoke with Ferguson about one of the major… Continue reading
May 04 A Dark Abyss of Blessing or Curse By Paul Solman 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 Wednesday's query: Name: Hillhopper Question: I just listened to a business executive on TV… Continue reading
May 04 A Dark Abyss of Blessing or Curse By Elizabeth Shell Name: Hillhopper Question: I just listened to a business executive on TV say that the investment he made would return in three years based on fuel savings. Why is it that people that make financial decisions are not math savvy?… Continue reading
Apr 27 The Obamas Gave $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation in 2010; What Is It? By Paul Solman Photo of President Obama by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images Editor's Note: The Obama document du jour may be the President's birth certificate, but here on the Business Desk we've been looking into another document: the First Family's tax return. Last… Continue reading
Apr 25 Should Banks Modify Home Loans to Today’s Home Values? By Paul Solman Photo: Getty Images. Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and readers on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Monday's query: Name: Charles Robertson Question: The media estimate 5 to 8 million houses… Continue reading