David Kestenbaum

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

We try to figure out what makes cents.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.