David Kestenbaum

Some casinos are trying to attract players by switching out games based on luck for games relying on skill. This story originally aired on All Things Considered on April 29, 2015.

Some casinos are trying a new strategy to attract players. They're switching out games based on luck for games of skill. NPR's Planet Money goes to Atlantic City to try one of these experiments.

NPR's Planet Money profiles a Hungarian immigrant who pioneered computerized trading. Thomas Peterffy struggled for years and experimented with many techniques, including a typing robot.

The online furniture company Wayfair is now one of the most shorted stocks. Our Planet Money team talks to its CEO about what it's like to be running a company when investors are betting on your fall.

Economics jokes can be hard enough to understand, let alone laugh at. NPR's Planet Money team recently tried some of its own jokes out on a live audience at a small comedy club in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Economists often use computer models to try to understand the economy. Planet Money checks back in on a model it used a few years ago to predict what would happen with unemployment.

Our Planet Money team shorted the entire U.S. stock market. The team learned they had some good company in their short, billionaire George Soros also shorted the S&P — but his strategy was different.

Looking at the list of the ten most shorted stocks out there can tell a lot about the economy and human nature. David Kestenbaum from our Planet Money podcast takes us through the list.

Greece has been renegotiating its bailout deal with the European Union. The man guiding the country is new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. A few years ago he was working for a video game company.

For most of U.S. history, there was no minimum wage. Politicians passed laws tiptoeing toward one. But the Supreme Court struck those laws down. We look at how the U.S. finally got a minimum wage.

Our Planet Money team talks to a well-known short seller who tells the story of one stock he bet against. He made a bunch of money, betting against a stock a lot of people liked.

If you own a stock, you're betting that the company will be worth more in the future. But there is another kind of bet you can place: A bet that will make you money if things go bad.

Our Planet Money team has a story about a man who realized at the time that he was the only person in the world with his job. It was a job selling something almost no one wanted.

A jubilee is an idea that dates back to Biblical times. The idea was that every 50 years or so there would be this moment where debts would be forgiven. The jubilee has not gotten a l...

Members of OPEC meet this week. It used to be the world held its breath when this happened, worried what the meeting would mean for oil prices. But experts say times have changed.

On the most recent episode of our show, we told you the story of two guys who think they've found a guaranteed way to buy low and sell high. Their secret strategy — buying and selling used textbooks.

Bob Peterson told us he got the idea after he watched ...

Most Americans feel relieved when they see a drop in prices at the pump. Jason Bruns feels the opposite. A higher price of oil is good for him. He owns 10 oil wells in Kansas that produce about two barrels a day.

The price of new textbooks has gone through the roof. But what students spend on books has barely budged.

The signature is supposed to say, "This is me." But why do we still use it?

The 1964 World's Fair showcased jet packs and other miracles of science. Here's how people back then thought the future would look (and how it actually turned out).