Japanese companies are gaining confidence in the global recovery, but an uncertain outlook at home is fueling a worrisome retreat in corporate spending, a key central bank report showed Monday.

President Barack Obama may have some tough words on Monday for executives of top U.S. banks as he pushes them to step up small-business lending and get behind legislation to overhaul Wall Street regulations.

The Senate on Sunday passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal government, including health, education, law enforcement and veterans’ programs.

Japanese companies are gaining confidence in the global recovery, but an uncertain outlook at home is fueling a worrisome retreat in corporate spending, a key central bank report showed Monday.

Risking the wrath of Democrats, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., threatened Sunday to join Republicans in opposing health care legislation if it permits uninsured individuals as young to 55 to purchase Medicare coverage.

As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions.

If a currency represents a country’s standing on the global stage, then China has been poorly represented until now. Loosely pegged to the U.S. dollar and subject to tight capital controls, the yuan or renminbi — the people’s money — is today anything but an international currency.

China is unlikely to raise interest rates in the first quarter of 2010, a senior government economist said in remarks published on Monday.

President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.

President Barack Obama may have some tough words on Monday for executives of top U.S. banks as he pushes them to step up small-business lending and get behind legislation to overhaul Wall Street regulations.