Aired on Wednesday, December 17, 2014: First up on today’s show, since the beginning of this month, Russia’s currency the Ruble lost 25 percent of its value against the dollar, triggering the worst financial crisis in that country in 15 years. Today, intervention by Russia’s central bank seems to have slowed the decline. More on that. And McDonald’s restaurants in Japan will start rationing french fries today. Large and medium sized orders will be taken off the menu, so customers will have to stick to small. Fine, but the reasons why are interesting:  an on-going labor dispute at ports along America’s West Coast. Plus, last Friday was, in general, a particularly lousy day for the stock market. But as Marketplace regular Alan Sloan says, enough already with the Dow.