May 18 Making Sense: The Two Faces of Dominique Strauss-Kahn By Paul Solman Paul interviewed Strauss-Kahn in September of 2009. Watch the interview here. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was as urbane and well-mannered an interviewee as ever you'll meet. Sensible and clear, as in a NewsHour interview during the heat of… Continue reading
May 17 Can You Make it Through the Month? Financial Decisions of the Poor By Paul Solman Here's an online "game" found for us by one of our most trusted advisers, Boston University Finance Professor Zvi Bodie. "Spent" was created through a collaboration between Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina and the advertising firm… Continue reading
May 16 ‘Demand’ Driving Inflation? A Viewer Begs to Differ By Paul Solman A complaint lodged with the PBS Ombudsman that was passed along after Friday's broadcast and seemed worth answering in a public forum. "I do not understand why Paul Solman did not challenge Roberto Rigobon when he said… Continue reading
May 13 Extremist Economics and Printing Dollars By Paul Solman John Williams is an economic extremist. He thinks a collapse of the U.S. dollar and hyperinflation are just around the corner and that gold is therefore the best bet around. He thinks the government manipulates the economic data to… Continue reading
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$e page. Here's Thursday's query: Name: Peter Anderheggen Question: I recently heard that in 2011, the nation,… Continue reading
May 11 ‘Inside Job’: An Oscar Winner Answers Your Questions By Paul Solman Editor's Note: Today we hand over question-and-answer duties to Charles Ferguson, former MIT academic and dot.com entrepreneur who is now a documentary filmmaker, and who created the Academy Award-winning analysis of the Crash of '08, "Inside Job." Last week,… Continue reading
May 10 Elderly Folks at Home and the Curse of Internet Investing By Paul Solman The TreasuryDirect.gov homepage. Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and Web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$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