Congress is facing a number of deadlines in the coming weeks, and one of them involves passing a new, half trillion dollar farm bill. For months, the fight has been over cuts to the food stamp program funded through the bill, but there are also changes being considered on how the government helps prop up the price of milk. You may have met them since the Great Recession — college grads working retail cash registers or as baristas. More than a third of recent graduates are considered “under-employed,” meaning their jobs don’t require degrees. But new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests this is not a new phenomenon. And if you think times are tough now, let us walk you through 400 years of financial crisis history.

Today, Greece takes over the presidency of the European Union for the next 6 months. Greek authorities have imposed an 18 hour ban on protests amid plans for demonstrations against the EU from groups sick and tired of all the austerity that followed the country’s debt crisis. In the U.S., today marks 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson declared his famous War on Poverty, and the battle is still going on. And, you may find it harder to get a mortgage in this new year. The rules are more strict in an effort by the government to make the housing market safer. We take a look at the new mortgage rules.

There was a fascinating moment yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas when Intel CEO Brian Krzanich turned the discussion to human rights. Intel says it will make sure that none of the raw materials in its chips comes from parts of the world where the proceeds lead to armed conflict and death, especially when they are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Today, a federal appeals court hears arguments challenge a new rule forcing company to disclose the use of so-called conflict minerals. There’s news China has lifted a ban on video game consoles in its free trade zone surrounding Shanghai. And, if money is power, then one place we have the most power is how we invest our savings. This is part of a larger movement called values investing. 

This week, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will be in Germany to meet with his counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble. On the adgenda is the U.S. Treasury’s criticism that Germany is putting too much emphasis on selling to the rest of Europe, instead of buying more. If you want to get on the Concorde, you have to go to a museum these days. But private-sector supersonic flight may not be competely dead.  A company called Spike Aerospace is working on an  $80 million private jet due in 2018 that promises to fly from New York to London in less than 4 hours. And, we talk to the CEO of a company based in San Francisco that helps Muslim investors around the world chose stocks and other investment vehicles based on which comply with Islamic teaching and which do not. 

More than 30,000 machinists could vote today on Boeing’s latest contract proposal. At stake is production of the 777X plane, which Boeing says it might move out of Washington after machinists rejected an earlier offer. The stakes are high for machinists, who worry about voting themselves out of jobs, but there are risks for Boeing as well. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plans to retire after 10 years in power. Twenty years ago, if you mapped where most of the world’s poor were concentrated, the result would was that 90 percent lived in the poorest countries. But today, three quarters of the world’s poor live in countries that have supposedly graduated to middle income status — places like India and China. And that’s complicating things for aid organizations like the World Bank.

China has lifted a one-year ban on new stock listings, and a handful of companies are preparing to sell new stocks as early as today. The market for initial public offerings was frozen by the government in 2012 as it pushed to bring rigor and heft to a trading system seen as too risky. And, in this new year, you could hit a paywall when it comes to watching local TV news. Also, the S&P 500 went up 29 percent in the year gone by. The Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 40 percent. But this has prompted an argument that stock prices in 2013 were like cotton candy, lots of size, but not a lot of substance. 

Today is the first day of health insurance coverage for people who have signed up for Obamacare. More than two million people are now covered by insurance, and millions more by Medicaid. Also, the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force twenty years ago today. NAFTA created the world’s largest free trade zone, and a lot of controversy. Then-President Bill Clinton promised more jobs, while folks like billionaire businessman Ross Perot warned NAFTA would push jobs south.

On this last day of trading for 2013, a reminder that the stock market is by no means a measure of well-being. Case in point, Europe. And it was a year of change in China — a new president, new policy roadmaps for the future of the country. But as Marketplace’s China Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz reflected on 2013, one detail that’s come up again and again is how many regular Chinese people have turned to him and other foreign journalists as their last resort for justice. Also, business consulting is about selling outside expertise. But did you know companies like Disney and MTV are also in the consulting game?

This morning, there’s word Saudi Arabia has made a huge pledge to Lebanon, money that will be used to buy arms to counteract the role of Hezbollah, the Shia militia and political group backed by Iran. As many commuters know, there’s a way to take money out of your paycheck to pay for bus and rail tickets. The perk designed to encourage mass transit means you pay with pre-tax money, so the tickets are effectively cheaper. Starting January 1, a change in the tax code lowers the limit in a way that could cost many commuters about $1,000 a year. And, what color is the year 2014? There are several of them.