David Kestenbaum

Two years ago, in January 2013, oil was about $100 dollars a barrel. At that time, towns near new oil fields expanded rapidly, filling up with workers and overflowing revenue. But how...

Inflation is so low that it's nearly nonexistent now. But it most certainly wasn't always that way. The Planet Money team tells the story of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volck...

The Fed created the money after the financial crisis to try to help the economy, but the money could eventually create inflation or cause bubbles. (This piece initially aired on Oct. 23, 2015 on ATC.)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has been hashed out line-by-line. All 6,000 pages of it. It will set the rules for roughly one-third of world trade. It has precise requi...

The Planet Money team explains how to make $3 trillion disappear, which is what the Federal Reserve will be trying to do. It created the money after the financial crisis to try to hel...

We shop around when we get a plane ticket or buy a couch. But we spend thousands of dollars on health care without comparing prices. What happens when you pay patients to choose the cheaper option?

The original chocolate sandwich cookie was discontinued in '99. Ellia Kassoff, who grew up with Hydrox and wanted to bring it back, learned that if someone isn't using a trademark, it's up for grabs.

Economic news coming out of China often rattles or rallies global markets. But how reliable is that news? It turns out basic measures like Gross National Product may be far from accurate.

Some people write a squiggle. Others just write an initial. Our Planet Money team takes a look at the history of the signature. (This piece initially aired on Sept. 14, 2014 on All Things Considered).

You can spend millions on lobbyists or ads to influence the presidential election, but it is mostly illegal to bet on who will win the White House. But centuries ago, people bet on the papal election.

Planet Money put a picture of a cow on the Internet and asked how much it weighed. The idea was to understand the phenomenon that drives everything from the stock market to orange juice prices.

The economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandkids would work just 15 hours a week. He imagined by now, we would basically work Monday and Tuesday, and then have a five-da...

A group of cancer doctors is trying to create a database on cancer drugs. It would give a score for each drug, reflecting how well the drug works. It would also list how much the drug costs.

Some casinos are switching out slot machines for games of skill. This story originally aired on April 29, 2015, on All Things Considered.

Greece is on the verge of an economic nightmare scenario of the modern world. The financial plumbing in Greece is starting to shut down, and the Planet Money podcast finds out the widespread and weird effects.

It's been 7 years since the financial crisis nearly took down the global economy. Our Planet Money team wondered what the next big mess might be, so they asked three economists for their thoughts.

Machines have been taking jobs forever. Computers and software are doing things people were paid to do. They are booking airplane flights. Filing our taxes. And they are getting better all the time.

The economist John Maynard Keynes imagined a future world where people no longer need to work. NPR's Planet Money podcast brings you a work of audio fiction inspired by Keynes' question.

The Obama administration's new budget plan proposes closing a Social Security loophole. The loophole allows some couples to get up to $50,000 extra.

When young people go to casinos, they aren't playing slot machines. Our Planet Money team talks to a man who thinks he can make slot machines that younger people will want to play.