Airing on Thursday, April 16, 2015:  The finance minister of debt-burdened Greece is in Washington today for a round of meetings that includes some face time with President Obama. Yanis Varoufakis has new trouble today, after a downgrade for his country’s debt. More on that. Biking to work is cool and doesn’t burn fossil fuel unless you ate fossil fuel for breakfast. But we should remember that many people have to bike if they can’t afford the car, the insurance, the parking. A new program in Savannah, Georgia is helping people in the second group get the bikes they need.

Airing on Wednesday, April 15, 2015: The news today that the Chinese economy grew at its slowest rate in six year. The numbers are for January to March, and annualized it’s down to a 7 percent growth rate. Magnificent by U.S. standards but lackluster by China’s standards which has to keep creating jobs for people pulled into the economy from the hinterlands. Next, with the patents and trademarks people celebrating the 225th anniversary of the Patents Act this month. we reach out to Michelle Lee, the newly confirmed director at the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, about the so-called patent trolls. This is kind of patent holder who is less interested in using a patent and more interested in holding up other people for licensing money even if they haven’t actually infringed.     

Airing on Tuesday, April 14, 2015:  There’s news today of merger talks between two telecommunications equipment makers, Nokia of Finland and Alcatel Lucent of France.  And there are a few strands of American DNA in there. Lucent is descendant of the old AT&T, bell labs, the people who invented the laser. Plus, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo report earnings today. The news from General Electric last week implied that the bloom has come off the rose for finance: it’s no longer the sexy, risky, vast-amounts-of-money-making machine that it used to be, and many firms that aren’t banks want to get out of it. But what about companies that have finance as their core business? Finally, we speak to our own producer Josh Woo about what his Wheel of Fortune win means for him this tax season.     

Airing on Monday, April 13, 2015: Etsy, the online site for handmade and vintage goods, is taking a new approach to its initial public offering. According to sources close to the deal, the retail platform plans to target small investors and keep big investors to a minimum. Reportedly, this is part of the Brooklyn-based website’s effort to stay true to its “socially responsible business practices.” Is this a risky tactic? Next, the feds have issued a critical, but short-of-scathing report that, despite investing billions, not enough patient data is being shared. We look at whether this new report puts any serious pressure on vendors to step up and make it easier (and cheaper) to share the data. Plus, we talk to art critic Blake Gopnik about the idea of selling art in museums to make money.

Airing on Thursday, April 10, 2015: Stocks in Asia are climbing a mountain of optimism. More on that. Plus, the Summit of the Americas takes place this weekend and is being called ‘historic’ because, for the first time, the presidents of Cuba and the U.S. will both attend. We look at a broader question though – what can the U.S. do, especially in economic terms, to retain influence in a fast-changing region? And Spring has yet to full take hold in many parts of the country and talking more about the dismal science wouldn’t help. So, Marketplace’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell looked into a part of his beat that we hope is uplifting: the economics of festivals.

Airing on Thursday, April 9, 2015: Greece’s government is caught between its promises to ease austerity there and the bills is owes international lenders. But one milestone was just reached.  We talk to Theo Leggett, business reporter from our partner broadcaster the BBC, about the large sum of money that’s due today. Next, Harvard Business School has launched a new program to deal with a persistent imbalance; just 41 percent of its MBA students are women. Its outreach goes like this. For a fee of $500, women can take a peek at the business school by trying it out for a weekend. Finally, you typically measure the economy by counting when dollars change hands. That means dollars spent on bad things—like fixing a car after a crash—count the same as good things. We look at a key alternate measure called the Social Progress Index, which also looks at health, education, safety, access to information, personal freedom and other measures across the globe. 

Airing on Wednesday, April 8th, 2015: There’s news this morning that Shell–Royal Dutch Shell–will merge with another huge natural gas and oil company BG group for just under $70 billion in cash and stock. BG provides a lot of the liquified natural gas in America and you know Shell already. Plus, California is experiencing the worst drought in a thousand years. A look at how that is hurting power generation. Finally, The government thinks patients, once released, are coming back to the hospital too soon. So a couple of years ago, the department of Health and Human Services decided to penalize a hospital’s Medicare reimbursements if the number of patients who came back to the hospital within 30 days exceeded the national average. The result…. hospitals are spending lots of money to find ways to keep patients from coming back. 

Airing on Tuesday, April 7, 2015: First up, more on news that FedExwill acquire TNT Express, a Dutch delivery company. Plus, we’ll talk with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, about the company’s education initiative, Race Together, and activist CEOs.

Airing on Monday, April 6, 2015: The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, spent several hours of her Easter Sunday with the finance minister of Greece, who offered assurances that his country will pay what it owes the IMF. Half a billion dollars is due the IMF on Thursday. It’s not clear if Greece has the money, which has to come from somewhere. For that, we turn to John Psaropoulis, an independent reporter based in Athens. Plus, entrepreneurs are supposed to be able to sum up their company and why you should invest in it very quickly. That so-called elevator pitch usually takes place in offices, board rooms, coffee shops, even in elevators. But a business accelerator in Albuquerque, New Mexico came up with a new twist on this tradition: Do it on a ski lift.