PBS NewsHour - Making Sen$e

Can bitcoin be a currency if you never know its value? Living outside the traditional banking network by design, its fluctuating value makes it too cumbersome for petty transactions. Yet despite the hurdles, bitcoin and its underlying technology is seen as a kind of "digital gold." Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

America's growing trade deficit is one of President Trump's main arguments for imposing tariffs on China. And yet most economists would agree instead with the doctrine of trade deficits and its benefits for consumers. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

The basic idea of bitcoin is simple: Instead of a financial institution holding a bank ledger, a chain of computers linked through the internet are all using the same software to record and verify every transaction. But how can a cryptocurrency be worth anything in the first place? Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

Social media giant Facebook says it now believes that up to 87 million people had their data improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm that worked for the Trump campaign, and that public profiles for most of the platform's 2 billion users were likely accessed by outsiders without explicit permission. John Yang reports.

For the love of sneakers, a billion-dollar secondary market has bloomed, where collectors buy and sell rare kicks for hundreds or even thousands. Economics correspondent Paul Solman profiles two so-called “sneakerheads”: one a major collector and brand ambassador who’s turned his obsession into a career, the other a seller who snaps up the latest products before the public even has a shot.

When journalist Scott Tong began reporting on China's explosive economy, he was advised to look past the new skyscrapers of Shanghai and take the long view. In “A Village With My Name,” he explores his own family's history, finding stories that reflect some of the most important moments of modern China. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

At "Sneakerhead" conventions around the country, anyone can buy, sell or trade a pair, and much-hyped limited releases demand premium prices. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on what drives this specialty sneaker culture.

Peter Navarro is one of the key White House figures who has made a case for imposing stiff new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. What ideas and philosophy drive Navarro? Economics correspondent Paul Solman revisits his profile of Trump's right-hand man on trade to consider what President Trump’s tariff announcement means for the global economy.

Students and educators were gunned down at their school in Parkland, Florida, two weeks ago, and corporate America is responding. Kroger announced that stores will no longer sell firearms and ammunition to buyers under 21, joining Walmart and Dick's this week in restricting sales of various items. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports other companies are distancing themselves from the NRA.

As public demand for action on gun control gains traction in the wake of the Florida school shooting, companies such as Delta Air Lines and Walmart are taking steps to distance themselves from the NRA. Hari Sreenivasan is joined by Nancy Koehn of the Harvard Business School to discuss what is triggering corporate America to engage in the gun debate and whether this can lead to change.

The welfare of humankind has never been better, according to psychologist Steven Pinker, but whether it continues to get better depends on making collective wellbeing our goal and using science and reason to achieve it. Pinker, who pushes his case in his recent book "Enlightenment Now," joins economics correspondent Paul Solman for a conversation.

Can an immersive, mystery funhouse help revive a state like New Mexico? Economics correspondent Paul Solman visits Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe hippie artist collective turned business that convinced the "Game of Thrones" author to buy and lease them a defunct bowling alley so that they could turn it into a techno-netherworld, crafted by more than 150 artists, who are now making good salaries.

The stock market took another nerve-wracking ride on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrials dropping more than 1,000 points. One explanation of this week's jitters is the idea that market prices are out of whack. So how low could we go? Economics correspondent Paul Solman puts today's market in historical perspective -- and it isn't especially reassuring.

How do you drive investors to spend money on cutting-edge cancer treatments? One idea, according to economist Andrew Lo, is to sell securities in a megafund of research projects. Economics correspondent Paul Solman explores how financial engineering could be the starting point for curing cancer.

While much of the U.S. economy is on the rebound, New Mexico remains in the dumps since the recession hit a decade ago. Part of the problem may be a statewide brain drain: educated young people taking their careers -- and expertise -- elsewhere. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on New Mexico’s mission to bring back its young, energetic entrepreneurs.