May 10 Old Folks at Home and the Curse of Internet Investing Name: Chris Curry Question: The Bureau of the Public Debt sent a letter to account holders of Legacy Treasury Direct notifying them that the program was being phased out (in favor of the online TreasuryDirect system) beginning May 1, 2011. Continue reading
May 09 My Least-Favorite Investment Vehicle (Except For All the Other Ones) By Elizabeth Shell Name: Will G. Knox Question: Safety of TIPs? Paul Solman: The shortest question ever received on the Business Desk demands a rather more discursive answer. As longtime readers of this page may recall, my own family's retirement fund… 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
May 02 Keynes vs. Hayek, the Rematch: Keynes Responds By Paul Solman Late last week the makers of the 2009 rap video "'Fear the Boom and Bust' a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem" came out with a follow-up: "Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two". John Maynard Keynes… Continue reading
Apr 28 Keynes vs. Hayek: Round Two By Paul Solman "We've been going back and forth for a century." So began an economics rap between two long-dead English economists, interventionist John Maynard Keynes and governmentophobe Friedrich Hayek that went viral. The rap's dress rehearsal debuted on the NewsHour back in… 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 27 The Obamas Gave $131,000 to the Fisher House Foundation Last Year. What Is It? By Elizabeth Shell 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 week we ran an infographic illustrating their… Continue reading