Apr 16 Watch BeadforLife Program Helps Lift Ugandans Out of Poverty A program that helps Ugandans sell beads in America has brought hundreds of families out of extreme poverty through a woman-to-woman network focused on sales at house parties and a Web store. Spencer Michels reports on the program and the… Continue watching
Apr 15 Are Americans Becoming Savers? Tonight’s NewsHour features a piece called “The Paradox of Thrift.” The phrase refers to the potential downsides of squirreling money away, especially if all of us do it at once. While saving is often a good thing – and something… Continue reading
Apr 10 Watch Questions Remain on Fate of Disputed Exec Bonus Pay As frustration continues over extravagant pay to executives of companies receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer aid, Paul Solman travels to AIG headquarters and Washington to explore options for getting some of the money back. Continue watching
Apr 10 “We Want Our Money Back” A story about clawbacks slated to run on the NewsHour tonight features a protest disrupting a speech by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Yesterday, the protesters struck again during a session with Larry Summers,… Continue reading
Apr 08 As the Amount of Money in Circulation Increases Rapidly, How Does the Fed Prevent Hyperinflation? By Business Desk Question: If the Fed and Treasury have increased the amount of money in circulation by $1.6 trillion in an effort to stave off deflation in the near term, how does the Fed take this money back out of circulation to… Continue reading
Apr 07 Why Does the United States Have to Borrow Money From Other Countries? Question: If the federal government (and/or Treasury) can just create money, why does it have to borrow it from other countries? Paul Solman: Great question. Because it’s so cheap to do so right now, the thinking goes, why… Continue reading
Mar 31 What’s the Purpose of the G20 Meeting? Question: What scenarios are associated with the G20 conference for the U.S. and global economy? Paul Solman: We want the rest of the world to spend more money stimulating their economies. Except for China, most countries seem to be… Continue reading
Mar 27 Watch Historian Discovers Positive Lessons, Community Values From Great Depression Great Depression historian Robert McElvaine found that economic downturns can lead people away from conspicuous consumption to a more community-oriented way of life. Continue watching
Mar 25 Can the Dow Fall Into Negative Numbers? By Business Desk Question: My high school daughter asked me a question I can’t answer. Can the Dow fall to zero or into negative numbers? Paul Solman: Ah, at last. A question I can definitively answer: ABSOLUTELY… Continue reading
Mar 23 Should the Government Break Up Big Banks Into Smaller Ones? Question: Can the government loan the FDIC money (which banks will pay back through the FDIC) to take over Citibank and Bank of America, et al., pay off… Continue reading