David Kestenbaum

David Kestenbaum appears in the following:

Paul Volcker's costly, but ultimately successful, fight to tame inflation

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Decades back, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had a radical idea to fight against inflation.

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Episode 644: How Much Does This Cow Weigh?

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

The wisdom of crowds is an eerie phenomenon that informs everything from the stock market to the price of orange juice. We put it to the test with a farm animal.

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Episode 189: Why A Dead Shark Costs $12 Million

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Today's show is about the fickle market for art. What makes a dead shark cost $12 million, and a photo of steel wool that looks like a tornado cost only $1,265?

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Episode 418: A Fake Bank For Money Laundering Run By The Government

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

To catch drug traffickers, the U.S. government tried something it had never tried before. It set up and ran a fake offshore bank for money laundering. Fake name. Fake employees. Real drug money.

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Episode 891: Who Won The Bet Over Bitcoin?

Friday, February 01, 2019

Five years ago Ben Horowitz and Felix Salmon placed a bet about the future of bitcoin. Today we announce the winner.

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Episode 688: Brilliant Vs. Boring

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

John Bogle died last week. His creation — the index fund — changed investing. Today, how his invention set off a million dollar bet between some of the biggest brains on Wall Street.

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Episode 539: What's A Penny Worth?

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

We try to figure out what makes cents.

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Episode 676: The First Lottery & How To Beat The Odds

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

The first lottery was a royal affair with poems, golden flatware and invited criminals. Also, how someone won the lottery over and over.

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Episode 534: The History of Light (Nobel Edition)

Monday, October 08, 2018

Bill Nordhaus just won the economics Nobel. In this show: He shows how history of light is the history of economic growth — of things getting faster, cheaper, and more efficient.

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Episode 680: Anatomy Of A Scam

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

You've seen these ads: "You can work from home and get rich. It's easy. Call this number!" So, what happens when you respond?

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Episode 613: Trash!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The line between trash and recycling is moving a lot these days. It's a tough time to be a recycler.

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Episode 472: The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming ... Revisited

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Tax carbon emissions. That's basically the whole plan. What's the hold up?

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Episode 685: Larry vs. The IRS

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

What exactly would happen if you didn't pay your taxes? Today on the show, we follow one man who did just that.

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Episode 671: An Insider Trader Tells All

Friday, March 23, 2018

A man who got caught insider trading explains everything — what he did, how he did it, and why.

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Library for Kids Goes Online

Monday, December 04, 2017

The Internet Archive and the University of Maryland launch such a library, and it's free to anyone with an Internet connection. Kids helped design the library, and they had final say on the books.

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Why The Government Sells Flood Insurance Despite Losing Money

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The National Flood Insurance Program was operates like an insurance company in many ways except one: it just about always loses money. This piece originally aired on Morning Edition in January 2013.

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Episode 594: Board Games

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

On today's show: The story of two guys who tried to cut the pay of a CEO at a small pneumatic tool company.

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Episode 599: The Invisible Wall

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

A man goes looking for the invisible wall that traps poor people in poverty. Finding it almost gets him killed.

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Episode 606: Spreadsheets!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The creation of the electronic spreadsheet transformed industries. But its effects ran deeper than that.

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How Managing Money Creates Huge Profits For The Federal Reserve

Friday, April 29, 2016

The government is getting $100 billion this year, essentially from nowhere. It is the profit made by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is in charge of managing how many dollars are in the economy. It turns out to be a very profitable business, especially since the financial crisis, when the Fed threw an extra $3 trillion into the economy.

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