The rhetorical respite comes as President Hu Jintao heads to Washington this week, after months of friction with the U.S., and was in full evidence this weekend at an international meeting designed to showcase Chinas growing reach as an economic and diplomatic powerhouse.
Senior Chinese officials repeatedly sidestepped major issues roiling the global economy. Asked about the Chinese currency - which Washington wants to see rise in value to right trade imbalances - the central bank governor said now was not the time to discuss it. When it comes to regulating the risky Wall Street practices that contributed to the global - - - - >

The earnings report came a day after the Irish government announced plans to pump more billions into the shattered banking sector and unveiled its terms for taking on the most toxic debts.
The bank has changed its financial year to coincide with the calendar year, as other Irish banks do, and did not detail comparisons for the final nine months of 2008.
During the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, Bank of Ireland made a profit of euro18 million, with impairment charges amounting to euro1.44 billion.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced Tuesday that the states “bad bank” - the National Asset Management - - - - >

The Treasury Department said Monday it will begin selling its stake in Citigroup Inc. at a potential profit of about $7.5 billion - not a bad haul for an 18-month investment.
The move is a major step in the governments effort to unravel investments it made in banks under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program at the height of the financial crisis.
Yet a year and a half after Congress passed the big bailout, other parts of it - particularly troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler and insurer American International Group - show no signs of being profitable.
Despite the returns from - - - - >

Bernanke, in a speech to the Independent Community Bankers of Americas meeting in Orlando, Fla., argued against a Senate proposal that would scale back the Feds banking duties.
Close connections with community banks give the Fed a better understanding of the nations financial risks, including problems in commercial real-estate and small-business lending, according to Bernankes prepared remarks.
A Senate bill to overhaul financial regulation would strip the Fed of its power to supervise state-chartered banks and bank holding companies with assets of less than $50 billion. That would leave the Fed overseeing only 35 big bank holding companies. The legislation, written by - - - - >

Matthew Lee, a former Lehman senior vice president, was fired days after questioning the accounting tricks in a letter to his superiors, attorney Erwin Shustak said. Shustak gave a copy of the letter to The Associated Press.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. imploded in September 2008, becoming the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. The collapse sent financial markets across the globe into a free-fall and prompted a massive bailout of the U.S. banking system.
An examiner appointed by the bankruptcy court said in a 2,200-page report last week that Lehman hid its debt and perilous financial condition by using an accounting gimmick - - - - >

The bank raised the benchmark repo rate - at which the central bank makes short-term loans to commercial banks - to 5 percent and raised the reverse repurchase rate - the rate at which it borrows from commercial banks - to 3.5 percent, with immediate effect.
“These measures should anchor inflationary expectations and contain inflation going forward,” the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement after trading hours Friday. “As liquidity in the banking system will remain adequate, credit expansion for sustaining the recovery will not be affected.”
Most economists had expected a rate hike, but not until the banks scheduled - - - - >

A global consensus? Even harder.
Efforts are raging on three continents, with at least as many ideas about the proper fixes. Unless the U.S., Europe and Asia adopt uniformly strict regulations, banks and high-risk traders will shift operations wherever rules are loosest. Experts warn another crisis could follow.
The global proposals are clashing on several levels. Among the differences:
- The Obama administration wants to restrict banks size and ability to take risk. European officials have called that plan unworkable in a region with roughly 40 cross-border banks.
- European Union officials want to crack down on financial derivatives, which they blame for worsening - - - - >

The FDIC seized Washington Mutuals flagship bank in 2008 and sold its assets to JPMorgan for $1.9 billion. The sale resulted in the two banking companies and the government agency trading lawsuits over roughly $4 billion in disputed deposit accounts.
WaMu attorney Brian Rosen told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath on Friday that JPMorgan has agreed to turn over the money to Washington Mutual after deducting $172 million as its share of tax refunds received.
In return, JPMorgan will get 70 percent of expected tax refunds resulting from WaMus prior operating losses that are valued at about $3 billion, with Washington Mutual - - - - >

The data was stolen by a former information technology employee about three years ago, the Geneva-based unit of HSBC said today in a statement. French authorities, which seized the data, have told their Swiss counterparts that they wont use the information “inappropriately,” the bank said.
“The bank does not believe that the stolen data has or will allow any third party to access any client account,” HSBC said in the statement. The accounts were all opened before October 2006, the bank said.
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As many as 10 wineries and vineyards in Napa will change hands in distressed sales or foreclosures this year and next, up from none in 2008, according to Silicon Valley Bank. In a bank survey of vintners, 7 percent called their finances “very weak” or “on life support.”
“We have 250 vintner clients saying this downturn is the worst in 20 years,” Bill Stevens, manager of the banks wine division in St. Helena, California, said in an interview. “Anybody who was late to the party wont have - - - - >