There are new figures out this morning about the number of foreclosures in the U.S. in the first half of this year, and they may shed some light on the so-far elusive housing recovery. For the past few years, China has had a much higher economic growth rates than we’re seeing in the U.S., but when it releases its latest GDP figures tomorrow, forecasters are expecting the worst growth in three years. And another big warship, the USS Iowa, has opened for tourists in San Pedro, California. It’s one of dozens of decommissioned ships that operate as museums around the country.

In Ceder Falls, Iowa, the brokerage firm Peregrine Financial filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code amid accusations from federal regulators that Peregrine misused customer funds. In Washington today, the House Agriculture Committee is set to take up the Farm Bill — which sounds like legislation that’s all about farming, but in fact about three-quarters of it goes to fund food stamps and other nutrition programs. And in today’s Money Matters segment, we focus on the financial decisions that families face when caring for an elderly relative.

Tomorrow in London, there’s going to be a major conference organized by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to bring the focus back to family planning. We speak to Melinda Gates on why it is such an important cause for her and the foundation. The struggling maker of BlackBerry smartphones holds its annual shareholders meeting today in the Canadian town of Waterloo. Shareholders are hoping to hear some reassuring news. And Pepsi gets into the yogurt business.

A new earnings season begins today, and all eyes will be on Alcoa, the big aluminum producer that is also a big bellwether for the rest of the economy. About 45,000 people in the U.S. will be pretty disappointed this morning when they try to go online and don’t have an internet connection because of a cybercrime called “click fraud.” And we speak to the director of a new documentary airing tonight on HBO about unemployment in an unexpected place: Long Island.

The June employment report from the Labor Department comes out today. But while today’s numbers offer us a snapshot they won’t give us the long-term trends — one of which is shaped like a “U.” Following last week’s big Supreme Court ruling on health care, states like Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina have said they won’t expand Medicaid programs. And Cyndi Lauper explains how she hopes to end LGBT youth homelessness.

The latest focus for Congressional Republicans is what they call the “onerous burdens” of Wall Street reform, as in the Dodd Frank regulatory overhaul of the financial sector. They say the new regulations are hurting small community banks far from Wall Street. Europe’s tallest skyscraper, the Shard, is opening today on the south bank of the Thames River. And as we all recover from a long day of beaches, barbeques and fireworks, Marketplace economics correspondent Chris Farrell gives us a snapshot of American economic dependence through the years.

Happy Fourth of July! Independence Day is a big day for sales of American flags, but when it comes to sales of red, white, and blue, — we’re actually in the red. The so-called “living wills” of the nine largest U.S. banks are now available for viewing. And on the day when we celebrate American independence from Britain, an American, former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, is about to be hauled before a British parliamentary committee after allegations the bank rigged a key interest rate.

The London-based financial services giant Barclays is accused of rigging the level of a key interest rate; now both is chairman of the board and CEO Bob Diamond are stepping down. A group of former bank regulators, company CEOs and U.S. senators is trying to make some waves in Washington this election year. GlaxoSmithKline, the huge British drug-maker, will pay $3 billion in fines and compensation to the U.S. government and the states for pushing doctors to prescribe drugs for uses that weren’t approved by the FDA. And in many towns in America this Fourth of July, fear of forest fires is leading to cancelled fireworks displays.

In Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto of Institutional Revolutionary Party has taken the presidency. He inherits an economy that’s on the upswing, and there are even indications that more of those “Made in China” items Americans buy may soon say “Made in Mexico” instead. Wild storms across much of the U.S. have left sweltering heat and massive power outages in their wake, and one of the casualties has been the Internet. And now that it’s July, new regulations are in for for-profit colleges and other vocational programs.