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Alarmed by widening accounting debacles at U.S.-listed Chinese companies, American regulators are scrambling to stem the damage from gaps in laws adopted to protect investors after the Enron scandal a decade ago.

U.S. investors had risked billions of dollars on hundreds of companies based in China—under a belief they were subject to U.S. rules when they sell and list shares in the U.S.—but a lot of that money has gone up in smoke.

The accounting blowups have humbled some prominent American investors, such as top hedge fund manager John Paulson and former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, spawned lawsuits and prompted a broad investigation by U.S. regulators.

Since March alone, more than two dozen U.S.-listed Chinese companies have announced auditor resignations or accounting problems, and there have been similar debacles in Canada.

Regulators and exchanges also have appeared flat-footed in the face of the growing scandal.

U.S. laws, including the sweeping 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley reform act meant to root out accounting fraud, lose some of their power with Chinese-based entities. The U.S. has no extradition treaty with China and the evidence gathering process in China is impeded by state secrets laws.

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The Inlet House condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., was once the kind of place the 55-and-older set aspired to. It was affordable. The pool and clubhouse were tidy, the lawns freshly snipped. Residents, push-carts in tow, walked to the beach, the bank, the beauty parlor, the cinema and the supermarket. In post-crash America, this was a dreamy little spot. Especially on a fixed income.

But that was Inlet House before the rats started chewing through the toilet seats in vacant units and sewage started seeping from the ceiling. Before condos that were worth $79,000 four years ago sold for as little as $3,000. And before the homeowners’ association levied $6,000 assessments on everyone — and then foreclosed on seniors who couldn’t pay the association bill, even if they didn’t owe the bank a dime.

Normally, it’s the bankers who go after delinquent homeowners. But in communities governed by the mighty homeowners’ association, as the sour economy leaves more people unable to pay their fees, it’s neighbor versus neighbor.

“What the board is doing is trying to foreclose on people to force people out the door,” says Mike Silvestri, 75, who stopped paying his dues at Inlet House in protest over what he considers unnecessary and unaffordable assessments.

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The weak jobs number out of the United States on Friday has raised the question of whether there is a “skills gap” that is preventing Americans from finding jobs and pushing companies abroad to look for cheaper talent.

Tony Nash, global director, custom research at Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC that the biggest worry at the moment was that job seekers would lose the skills they have or need to stay “current.”

The recent jobs report that showed the U.S. created only 18,000 new positions in June, also said that one-third of the unemployed had been that way for more than a year, clearly highlighting the mismatch that exists between available jobs and skills.

“One of my clients has 2,500 job openings in the United States, but they can’t find the people with the right skills,” said Nash.

He added that this problem was being compounded by unrealistic salary expectations of job seekers. “A lot of people are looking to regain that wage they had before the crisis — and it’s problematic.”

In order to avoid paying a premium for local hires, he said, U.S. companies were shifting hiring to global financial centers such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which offer access to cheaper labor.

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Swiss drugs industry supplier Lonza is to buy U.S.-listed Arch Chemicals for some $1.2 billion, creating the world’s largest player in the microbial control market, the groups said on Monday.

Lonza will pay $47.20 per share for Arch Chemicals [ ARJ 46.86  +4.69 (+11.12%) ] in cash, a premium of 36.7 percent to the U.S. group’s average closing price over the last 30 trading days, and the bid has the unanimous backing of Arch Chemical’s board.

The move will boost Lonza’s life science unit, help protect the Swiss group against the impact of the strong Swiss franc, and make it the market leader in the rather fragmented microbial control market, which is currently valued at around $10 billion and is growing at some 4 to 6 percent per year.

Lonza is eyeing cost synergies of at least $50 million per year by the second year and the deal is expected to be earnings per share accretive in the first year, the groups said.

Based on the offer price for all the outstanding shares, Arch Chemicals’ enterprise value would be around $1.4 billion.

Arch Chemicals had sales of around $1.4 billion in 2010. Lonza, which will finance the deal through debt, is expecting to complete the buy before the end of 2011.

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Hopes of a speedy recovery for the US economy where dashed by Friday’s disappointing jobs number that showed only 18,000 jobs where created by the world’s largest economy in June.

“The report was a timely reminder that the world’s biggest economy is still fragile, and that its health seems inconsistent with the current level of the prices of many risky assets,” Julian Jessop, the chief European economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note following the data.

Noting that total US employment remains seven million below its 2008 peak of 138 million, Jessop warned that commodity markets could be volatile as there are plenty of signs that the US and many other economies are struggling.

Others are concerned that Friday’s data was weak across the board with very few mitigating factors but see better times ahead.

“While the weak labor market reports suggest increasing downside risk on our forecast it is also important to stress that US data remains mixed,” Flemming J.

Nielsen, a senior analyst at Danske Bank in Copenhagen, wrote in a note to clients.

“While auto sales remain weak there are signs of improving retail sales in June on the back of lower gasoline prices and we still expect growth to improve in H2 on the back of stronger private consumption,” Nielsen added.

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After months of effort, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are right back where they started as they try to avert a looming debt default: arguing over taxes.

With a “grand bargain” to tame the national debt seemingly off the table, Obama, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other top leaders will try for a more modest deal when they resume their discussions at the White House on Monday afternoon.

But negotiators will have to confront a divide over taxes that has prevented them from reaching a deal so far. Democrats say new tax revenues need to be part of the equation, while Republicans say they won’t back any increase in taxes.

A highly anticipated Sunday meeting broke little new ground. Obama and his fellow Democrats repeated the need for a “balanced” approach, while Republicans restated their position that tax increases would further burden the already shaky economy. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid lectured Republicans for backing away from tough decisions, sources said, while Boehner was largely silent.

A source familiar with the meeting described it as a “frank exchange of views” — Washington-speak for “acrimonious.”

The post-meeting rhetoric seemed to bear this out.

“It’s baffling that the President and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

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Even as the labor market languishes and fears of a double-dip recession cause the market to swoon, retail stocks have outpeformed.

Retail stocks tend to outpace the SP 500 Index [ .SPX 1328.07  -15.73 (-1.17%) ] coming out of a recession, but last week the SP Retail Index [ .RLX 551.27  -3.45 (-0.62%) ] hit 559.79, its highest level since the index was created in 2007.

The move followed a batch of stronger-than-expected retail sales reports for June, but there are structural changes in the retail industry that may be supporting the move higher.

Global Hunter Securities analyst Richard Hastings said even if one goes back as far as February 2003, there has never been a comparable period, especially since the crash of 2008, when the momentum in consumer/retail stocks has repeatedly exceeded the broader market outside of ordinary cyclical recovery rallies.

Even with Friday’s pullback, the ratio of the retail index to the SP 500 Index is still pretty close to its all-time high of 2.40 from November 2010, according to Hastings.

What’s interesting is that Hastings still believes there is a case to be made that there is a new level of intrinsic value emerging from the sector. Why?

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European aircraft builder Airbus aims to win a large plane order from AMR Corp‘s American Airlines by offering $6 billion in preferential financing to woo the American carrier away from rival Boeing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Airbus wants to break Boeing’s monopoly at American Airlines and has assembled a team of lenders and leasing firms to help the European company win the deal, people familiar with the proposal told the newspaper.

Airbus’s offer has a catalog value of almost $23 billion, but that is being heavily discounted, the people told the paper.

The European plane maker is offering American, a unit of AMR Corp [ AMR 5.41  -0.09 (-1.64%) ], 130 of the current-generation A320s and 130 of the more fuel-efficient A320neo, the new engine option slated to enter service in 2015, the newspaper said.

American Airlines, which currently operates an all Boeing [ BA 74.38  -0.69 (-0.92%) ] fleet, might make a decision about its airplane order as soon as next Wednesday, the people familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, Boeing is offering 737-800s and 737-900 Extended Range planes, people familiar with the matter said.

However, the price and financing terms were unclear, the paper said.

Boeing is also racing to develop a product strategy for its best-selling 737 model to compete with redesigns of the A320.

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Texas pipeline company Southern Union, which is the subject of a takeover bidding war, held talks with at least nine potential suitors beginning in 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Southern Union [ SUG 41.80  -0.35 (-0.83%) ] was in talks with two of the companies earlier this year, but the discussions ended after the suitors conducted due diligence and came back with lower offers, the newspaper reported in its electronic edition.

Southern Union is expected to disclose the talks in a filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the newspaper said.

Last month, pipeline operator Energy Transfer Equity [ ETE 44.70  -0.30 (-0.67%) ] struck a sweetened $5 billion deal to buy Southern Union. Rival bidder Williams Companies [ WMB 29.05  -0.53 (-1.79%) ] is expected to raise its offer to compete with Energy Transfer, the newspaper reported.

The companies could not be immediately reached for comment.

Southern Union shares were unchanged in light premarket trading.

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A dismal U.S. jobs report. A European debt crisis for which there is no quick fix. Slowing growth in China.

There are a number of reasons to be cautious about the prospects for the global economic recovery.

It’s against this background that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will step before Congress for his semi-annual testimony on Wednesday. He will likely be barraged with questions about Friday’s jobs report — a report so across-the-board disappointing that JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli called it “worse than Spinal Tap’s ‘Shark Sandwich.’”

The U.S. economy created just 18,000 jobs in June, much less than the 90,000 economists had expected.

A U.S. retail sales report may offer a little bit of hope on Thursday if it shows Americans spent money left over from a recent retreat in gasoline prices on other items.

“We’re in a situation where the data is noisy and choppy,” said Michael Hanson, a senior economist at Bank of America.

“For a central banker, you’re now in risk management mode: ‘We want to be ready to calm the markets in case we get more bad data, but we don’t want to jump the gun, either.’”

Bernanke has argued that the biggest factors affecting growth in the first half of the year are temporary in nature: supply disruptions due to the Japanese earthquake, inclement weather and a surge in oil prices earlier this year.

He is expected to stick to that assessment.

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The federal magistrate judge who is mediating the labor dispute between NFL owners and players has scheduled another session for July 19 in Minneapolis.

Judge Arthur J. Boylan set the meeting on Saturday, just before starting his vacation. But he also made clear that both sides should continue their own sessions in the interim as they work toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

The principals in the fight over how to split up over $9 billion in revenue met all week in New York, but still have not reached a new deal as the lockout has dragged on for more than four months.

The urgency, it appears, is starting to heat up. Several teams have already canceled their traditional out-of-town portions of training camp and the Hall of Fame game between Chicago and St. Louis is less than a month away.

Boylan ordered both sides to continue mediation without him “in an effort to define and narrow the differences between their respective settlement positions.” He also ordered attorneys from both sides to be ready to meet with him on the evening of July 18 “for an in-person agenda- setting session” that presumably would set the stage for meaningful, fruitful talks the following day.

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The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of sports fishing expeditions in the Amazon that may have been used as covers for Americans to have sex with underage girls, according to newly filed court papers.

The investigation and two related actions — a parallel criminal inquiry in Brazil and an unusual lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia — could provide a rare look at the business operations of the multibillion-dollar international sex tour industry, which has increasingly focused on Brazil.

“Brazil is taking over from Thailand as a premier sex tourism vacation” spot, said Kristen Berg, an official of Equality Now, an advocacy organization in New York that helped bring the lawsuit in Georgia.

That lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of four Brazilian women who claim that they were coerced as minors to serve as prostitutes for Americans on Amazon fishing expeditions operated by an Atlanta-area businessman. One of the women said that she was 12 years old at the time.

Ms. Berg said the lawsuit was the first time that a federal law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, had been used to seek damages from someone accused of operating sex tours.

On Thursday, the defendant in that case, Richard W. Schair, filed a motion asking that the lawsuit be stayed. The motion cited continuing criminal investigations in the United States and Brazil.

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Betty Ford, the former first lady whose triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center in California, died at age 93, a family friend said.

Her death Friday was confirmed to The Associated Press by Marty Allen, chairman emeritus of the Ford Foundation. Family spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski said later that the former first lady died at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Other details of her death were not immediately available.

Ford’s husband, former President Gerald R. Ford, died in December 2006.

“She was a wonderful wife and mother; a great friend; and a courageous First Lady,” former President George H.W. Bush said in a statement on Friday. “No one confronted life’s struggles with more fortitude or honesty, and as a result, we all learned from the challenges she faced.”

While her husband served as president, Betty Ford’s comments weren’t the kind of genteel, innocuous talk expected from a first lady, and a Republican one no less. Her unscripted comments sparked tempests in the press and dismayed President Ford’s advisers, who were trying to soothe the national psyche after Watergate. But to the scandal-scarred, Vietnam-wearied, hippie-rattled nation, Mrs. Ford’s openness was refreshing.

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June’s miserable jobs report has put the fear of a double dip recession back into the markets.

The U.S. economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent as laid off government workers continued to join the ranks of the unemployed. There were also 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported for April and May.

“Even the hours worked slipped. It’s just a horrific report. Unemployment going up is not good,” said Marc Chandler, Brown Brothers Harriman chief currency strategist.

Stocks were battered, and bond yields slumped as investors rushed to the security of bonds. Investors also sold oil futures, which were rising before the report, and drove up the price of precious metals.

The dollar was higher but off its highs against the euro, as the single currency reacted to assurances from Italy’s central bank governor Mario Draghi that Italian banks have enough capital and will pass the stress test.

“In addition to the shock value…we need to seriously question whether a double dip is there. I would say it’s back on the table,” said David Ader, chief Treasury strategist at CRT Capital.

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“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” now rules this year’s box office as the blockbuster sequel became 2011′s top domestic hit with $261 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Paramount Pictures’ sci-fi smash starring Shia LaBeouf remained No. 1 in its second weekend with $47 million and shot past “The Hangover Part II” to first-place on the domestic chart.

Debuting in second place with $28.1 million domestically was the Warner Bros. comedy “Horrible Bosses,” featuring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as bumblers plotting against their nasty supervisors.

Opening at No. 3 with $21 million was Sony Pictures’ family tale “Zookeeper,” with Kevin James as an animal tender who gets romantic advice from the talking critters in his care.

Domestic business dipped overall, with revenues totaling $158 million, down 18 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Despicable Me” led with a $56.4 million debut, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Despite predictions of a monster summer that would easily surpass last year’s anemic one, revenues since the first weekend in May have slipped slightly behind those of summer 2010, according to Hollywood.com. With tickets costing more this year than last, that means admissions are down even further compared to summer 2010, when domestic attendance was among the lowest in the past decade.

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The Inlet House condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., was once the kind of place the 55-and-older set aspired to. It was affordable. The pool and clubhouse were tidy, the lawns freshly snipped. Residents, push-carts in tow, walked to the beach, the bank, the beauty parlor, the cinema and the supermarket. In post-crash America, this was a dreamy little spot. Especially on a fixed income.

But that was Inlet House before the rats started chewing through the toilet seats in vacant units and sewage started seeping from the ceiling. Before condos that were worth $79,000 four years ago sold for as little as $3,000. And before the homeowners’ association levied $6,000 assessments on everyone — and then foreclosed on seniors who couldn’t pay the association bill, even if they didn’t owe the bank a dime.

Normally, it’s the bankers who go after delinquent homeowners. But in communities governed by the mighty homeowners’ association, as the sour economy leaves more people unable to pay their fees, it’s neighbor versus neighbor.

“What the board is doing is trying to foreclose on people to force people out the door,” says Mike Silvestri, 75, who stopped paying his dues at Inlet House in protest over what he considers unnecessary and unaffordable assessments.

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Instead of sending Minnesota’s elected leaders into a frenzy of activity, the nation’s only state government shutdown has deepened the political paralysis that led them to their budget standoff. Top Democrats and Republicans have given no sign when they will talk again about how to resolve the stalemate.

After blowing May and June deadlines to agree on a budget, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders have met only twice — once for less than 30 minutes — and have made no apparent progress since most of state government closed July 1. There’s little sense of urgency, even with 22,000 state employees idled, 100 road projects stopped, 66 state parks barricaded, an assortment of services discontinued and the state’s top credit rating tarnished.

The lack of action contrasts with what’s been happening in Washington, where an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling has lawmakers scrambling for a deal that would keep the U.S. from a potential default on its debt. President Barack Obama has summoned leaders for a rare weekend session and aides are trading proposals behind the scenes.

While the consequences of the state’s inaction hardly reach that scale, that’s little consolation for public workers who won’t be getting paychecks or people with disabilities who have lost social services.

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President Barack Obama has ordered the suspension of $800 million in aid to the Pakistani military, his chief of staff said Sunday, as part of what experts say is a tougher line with a critical U.S. partner in the fight against terrorism.

Top aide William Daley described the U.S. relationship with Pakistan as “difficult” and said it must be made “to work over time.” But he added that until “we get through that difficulty, we’ll hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers are committed to give” Pakistan.

The suspension of U.S. aid, first reported by the New York Times, followed a statement last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan’s security services may have sanctioned the killing of a Pakistani journalist who wrote about infiltration of the military by extremists.

The allegation was rejected by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, which has historic ties to the Taliban and other militant groups and which many Western analysts regard as a state-within-a-state.

Daley, interviewed on ABC television’s “This Week,” suggested the decision to suspend military aid resulted from the increasing estrangement between the U.S. and Pakistan, especially since the U.S. raid in May that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden not far from Pakistan’s equivalent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

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U.S. President Barack Obama sought on Sunday to break an impasse with Republicans on how to cut the U.S. deficit and avert a debt default in an unexpectedly brief meeting at the White House.

The president’s gathering with leaders of both parties came a day after Republicans shied away from a broad $4 trillion deficit-reduction deal over 10 years and urged a focus instead on a $2 trillion plan that would rely mostly on spending cuts without the tax increases that Democrats are seeking.

Congressional aides predicted late last week that Sunday’s session would last four or five hours. Instead it ended after after 75 minutes.

More talks are scheduled for Monday and the White House said Obama would hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) before reconvening with congressional leaders.

Obama made clear at the start of Sunday’s session that they were racing the clock. Asked whether a deficit-reduction deal could be reached within the next 10 days, he told reporters: “We need to.”

The U.S. Treasury has said it will exhaust its borrowing capacity by Aug. 2, meaning it will run out of money to pay all its debts. Republicans have balked at raising the congressional-set $14.3 trillion debt ceiling without steep spending cuts.

Failure to seal a deal by Aug. 2 could put the United States at risk of another recession, Treasury officials and private economists have warned.

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As the second quarter earnings season begins, the focus will be on what more can corporate America tell the markets about the state of the economy.

A handful of big earnings reports are on the calendar in the coming week, starting Monday with Alcoa [ AA 16.38  -0.11 (-0.67%) ], and including JPMorgan [ JPM 40.74  -0.58 (-1.40%) ], Google [ GOOG 531.99  -14.61 (-2.67%) ] and Citigroup [ C 42.03  -0.60 (-1.41%) ]. But stock market investors may be even more focused on the reports expected on retail sales, jobless claims and inflation as they attempt to piece together a picture of the economy after Friday’s shockingly poor June jobs report.

“This earnings season is going to be trumped because who is going to care about what Alcoa did a quarter ago when the weekly unemployment claims are determining what the second half is going to be. The market is going to be concerned about claims, retail sales and ISM. They’re not going to be concerned so much about what somebody made last quarter. They’re going to be looking out the front window, not the rearview mirror,” said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.

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The dismal state of employment offers more proof that President Obama’s economic plan isn’t working, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told CNBC.

Speaking just after the government said unemployment rose to 9.2 percent last month, the firebrand Minnesota congresswoman and Tea Party leader delivered a blistering critique of the White House’s handling of the jobs picture, focusing specifically on the $800 billion stimulus that has failed to drive down the unemployment rate.

“The president’s own policies have clearly failed the American people,” Bachmann said. “The answer is not to double-down and continue to do more of the same. The answer is to work on what went wrong, to reverse course and have a pro-growth job agenda.”

Defying consensus estimates that the economy had merely hit a soft patch and was on its road to recovery, the latest jobs news instead shows just 18,000 jobs created in June and the unemployment rate when taking into consideration those not looking for work at 16.2 percent.

Bachmann’s campaign has caught fire as polls show her in a virtual dead heat in Iowa with presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney.

In her live interview, Bachmann focused on the voices she has heard while campaigning and the angst among business owners about how Washington policies have hindered business growth.

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Large Wall Street banks are starting to scale back compensation on trading desks as shareholders grow increasingly restless over weak returns.

Goldman Sachs [ GS 134.08  -0.93 (-0.69%) ], Morgan Stanley [ MS 22.30  -0.70 (-3.04%) ] and some other large U.S. investment banks are not just laying off weak performers and back-office employees. They are also cutting the pay of those they are keeping, scrutinizing expense reports and expecting even the most profitable workers to bring in more business for the same amount of compensation.

“Put simply, in order to get your $1 million bonus before, you had to generate X amount of revenue; now it’s X plus 50 percent,” said Mark Poerio, a partner at law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky Walker who advises banks on pay.

Wall Street has been overhauling pay practices over the past 2-1/2 years to better align incentives with risk. Banks have lifted base salaries, deferred bonus payments and introduced clawback provisions to protect against trades and deals that seem profitable at first, but may later go awry.

Wall Street pay reached new heights in 2009 and early 2010, in tandem with rising markets, but now the game appears to be changing. With the securities industry entering its fifth consecutive quarter of stagnant trading income — and expecting more difficulty once regulatory reforms take effect — banks are bolstering profits by restraining costs.

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Phone Scandal Poses Defining Test for a Murdoch Son

Week Ahead: Markets Will Be Hyperfocused on Economy After Dreadful Jobs Report

Debt Talks: What Needs to Be Resolved-And Soon

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Minnesota lost its top credit rating on Thursday as Fitch Ratings downgraded the state’s general obligation bonds one notch to AA-plus, citing the budget impasse.

Minnesota’s state government has been shut since last Friday, when Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and the Republican-led legislature missed the July 1 deadline for a budget.

The governor’s latest plan totals about $1.4 billion more than the GOP’s $34.2 billion proposal.

The credit agency faulted Minnesota’s use of so-called “one-shots”, or nonrecurring revenues, to close deficits during the recession, a pattern it said likely will be repeated in the new budget.

Fitch also cited “an increasingly contentious budgeting environment” though it said the rating outlook was stable.

Almost all states have a July 1 deadline for their budgets, and despite the lingering damage to revenues inflicted by the recession, Minnesota is the only state that had to shutdown.

Minnesota has furloughed more than 20,000 of the 36,000 state employees, suspended the lottery and dozens of road construction projects, and closed state parks during their peak season.

Options for balancing the budget could include further delaying a $700 million payment to schools, Fitch said.

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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has agreed to testify at a September hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee, lawmakers said Friday.

Google [ GOOG 531.99  -14.61 (-2.67%) ], a global leader in search engine advertising, is in the midst of an antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over alleged abuses of its market power.

The hearing will examine online competition, subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl said.

“This will allow us to have a truly informational and thorough public hearing,” Kohl said of Schmidt’s attendance.

Schmidt vacated his CEO seat to co-founder Larry Page in April and now oversees government affairs.

He said earlier in the week that the company would cooperate fully with U.S. antitrust regulators.

Google runs an estimated 69 percent of Web searches worldwide, and can make or break a company depending on its search ranking.

The FTC is expected to look into complaints from Google’s rivals that its search results favor the company’s own services.

“I look forward to discussing a number of important issues relating to Google and Internet search competition,” said Senator Mike Lee, the top Republican on the subcommittee.

A specific hearing date has not been set.

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Despite a “choppy” economy, WD-40 continues to hire and invest as its expands globally, CEO Garry Ridge told CNBC Friday.

Speaking the same day the Labor Department reported weak hiring data, Ridge said his company has been “hiring right through the last 12 or 18 months” because sales outside the U.S. are up 60% “and we have to support that.”

Late Thursday WD-40 [ WDFC 44.43  +2.75 (+6.60%) ], the maker of solvents, degreasers and cleaning products, reported a 4 percent rise in fiscal third-quarter sale but a 12 percent fall in net income for the period. Ridge attributed that to high commodities costs, particularly in oil, as well as the investments the company is making in its marketing activities.

In the current economy, business needs to lead and “continue to focus on longer-term opportunities,” Ridge said. “We must continue to make sure we have an environment where people can perform very well. We’ve gotta turn up the volume on learning and education to equip our people in these new times.”

The “biggest disabler in life is fear,” he added. “People didn’t stop spending when business slowed down, they stopped spending when they were afraid business had slowed down.”

The U.S. government can help business by creating an “environment without uncertainty. Then we as [business] leaders can get on and do it.” (See the whole interview in the video)

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BP PLC [ BP 44.51  -0.03 (-0.07%) ] wants to limit future claims related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster as the region’s economy recovers, the oil company said in a document made public Friday.

The Gulf economy is strong and “there is no basis to assume that claimants, with very limited exceptions, will incur a future loss related to the oil spill,” BP said in a paper filed with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

Oystermen, whose beds have been destroyed by crude should be considered for future payments, the British oil company said.

Kenneth Feinberg is the administrator of the $20 billion GCCF fund established at the urging of President Obama to compensate people and businesses for losses related to the BP oil disaster.

“The GCCF welcomes any and all input from any interested sources including BP,” Feinberg said in an email. “We take all of the submissions ‘under advisement.”‘

At the beginning of July, the GCCF had paid $4.5 billion claims to 195,000 claimants. There are also about $430 million worth offers that are under consideration by Gulf Residents.

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Warren Buffett acknowledges that this morning’s June jobs report is disappointing, but he’s sticking with the economic optimism we heard in yesterday’s CNBC live interview.

While some are saying the economy may be heading back to a recession,Buffett tells Bloomberg this morning, “I would bet very heavily against that.  How fast the recovery will come, I don’t know.  I see nothing that indicates any kind of a double dip.”

HOW BUFFETT WOULD FIX THE DEFICIT

Even so, he says President Obama can’t be happy with this morning’s report from the Labor Department that payrolls increased by just 18,000 in June as the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent.

“It means that we’re still a ways off from getting to where we should be.  We’re seeing growth around the world, but it’s not mushrooming.”

Buffett repeated his belief that once the residential construction rebounds, “We will come back big time on employment.”

He’s predicting a decline to an unemployment rate of 6 percent “within a few years.”

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After trending steadily higher, hours worked by employees fell in June—a signal employers are not only hiring less, but starting to ask current employees to work less because of weak demand.

Average weekly hours fell to 34.3 from a 34.4 reading in both May and April, according to Friday’s jobs report from the Department of Labor.

The 34.4 hours worked is the highest since September 2008 and up from a low of 33.7 in June 2009. The SP 500’s 70 percent-plus run began in March of that year.

“What adds to my angst about this report is that current employees, despite job losses, are not being asked to work more hours,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “In fact, average hourly earnings and average work week were down.”

The report, which showed a disappointing addition of just 18,000 payrolls in June, indicated that average hourly earnings fell by a penny to $22.99. On an annual basis, hourly earnings are up just 1.9 percent, less than the rate of inflation.

“Average workweeks, partly due to technology advances, also continue to be tightly managed,” said Brian Sozzi, equity research analyst with Wall Street Strategies, in a note following the report.

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Economists at top financial institutions expect the U.S. unemployment rate to fall in 2011 and 2012 despite a surprisingly weak jobs report on Friday, a Reuters poll found on Friday.

Though the economists at primary dealers are calling for unemployment to remain at historically high levels through 2012, they ascribe only a 20 percent chance of the U.S. Federal Reserve undertaking another stimulus program of Treasurys purchases in the next two years, the poll found.

Most of the economists at primary dealers—the 20 large financial institutions that do business directly with the Fed—expect stubbornly high unemployment will contribute to the U.S. central bank holding official interest rates at current levels near zero through the first half of next year.

The poll was conducted after the government said on Friday that the unemployment rate hit a six-month high of 9.2 percent in June, while nonfarm payrolls grew by a mere 18,000 last month. The lackluster jobs growth stunned most economists, as the median of forecasts was for growth of 90,000.

“It is a pretty jarring result, especially on the back of a weak May report,” said Omair Sharif, U.S. economist with RBS Securities in Stamford, Connecticut. “But we know that a number of data sets are going to improve in the third quarter, especially in respect to the factory sector with auto production and so on.

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President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders hope to trim budget deficits by as much as $4.5 trillion over 10 years as part of a landmark deal that would tame the national debt and avert a looming default.

The Treasury Department has warned it will run out of money to cover the country’s bills if Congress does not raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2.

Though Democrats and Republicans agree on the need for trillions of dollars in budget savings, they remain sharply divided about how to get there.

Following is a summary of the debate:

Annual Spending

The two sides have tentatively agreed to limit the growth of the annual discretionary spending that covers everything from law enforcement to airport security and the military.

Earlier talks yielded possible savings of $900 billion to $1.3 trillion, aides from both parties say.

First they must agree on the starting point. Should it be the budget that was in effect in January, the slimmed-down version that passed in April or the even lower level that Republicans hope to have in place later this year? That could make a difference of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Another area of disagreement: Democrats want a guaranteed portion of those cuts to come from military spending, an idea Republicans do not like.

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Dismal U.S. unemployment figures on Friday complicated an effort to avert a looming default as Washington’s top Republican said negotiators were not close to a deal that would ensure continued borrowing.

Tamping down expectations Democrats and Republicans could reach agreement over the weekend, House Speaker John Boehner said the two sides still must overcome serious disagreements on taxes and spending cuts.

“It’s not like there’s some imminent deal about to happen,” Boehner told a news conference. “This is a Rubik’s Cube that we haven’t quite worked out yet.”

Partisan finger-pointing erupted anew after a government report showed the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June, dousing hopes that the economy is picking up steam. Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and President Barack Obama, a Democrat seeking re-election in 2012, are trying to craft a sweeping budget deal that would ensure the national debt remains at a sustainable level by cutting $4 trillion from budget deficits over 10 years.

That would give lawmakers political cover to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling before Aug. 2, when the country is due to run out of borrowing capacity. Failure to act soon, some warn, could push the country back into recession and send shock waves through the global economy.

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June’s miserable jobs report has put the fear of a double dip recession back into the markets.

The U.S. economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent as laid off government workers continued to join the ranks of the unemployed. There were also 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported for April and May.

“Even the hours worked slipped. It’s just a horrific report. Unemployment going up is not good,” said Marc Chandler, Brown Brothers Harriman chief currency strategist.

Stocks were battered, and bond yields slumped as investors rushed to the security of bonds. Investors also sold oil futures, which were rising before the report, and drove up the price of precious metals.

The dollar was higher but off its highs against the euro, as the single currency reacted to assurances from Italy’s central bank governor Mario Draghi that Italian banks have enough capital and will pass the stress test.

“In addition to the shock value…we need to seriously question whether a double dip is there. I would say it’s back on the table,” said David Ader, chief Treasury strategist at CRT Capital.

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Pfizer plans to explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, of its multibillion dollar animal health and nutrition businesses, the world’s largest drugmaker said Thursday.

Options for the businesses also include a full or partial separation through a spin-off, or another transaction, the company said.

Pfizer [ PFE 20.26  +0.03 (+0.15%) ], which faces the U.S. patent expiration of its top-selling Lipitor cholesterol drug in November, has previously said it was reviewing its various businesses to determine whether they should be divested.

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JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $228 million to resolve allegations that some of its employees engaged in anticompetitive activity in the municipal bond investment market, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

JPMorgan Chase [ JPM 40.63  -0.69 (-1.67%) ] admitted in a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government that some of its former employees engaged in illegal activity to manipulate the bidding process and rig bids on municipal investment and related contracts, the Justice Department said.

The OCC said the enforcement action is part of a global resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve Board, and about 25 state attorneys general.

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In recent days there has been a pronounced increase in offers of Facebook shares, according to the participants in the burgeoning world of private sale shares.

With its price having moved up to the $33-$34 range on the low-volume secondary exchanges such as Second Market, big holders of Facebook shares who have been holding out for a price in that range, have had firms such as Wedbush Securities and BTIG in the market offering their stock at those prices.

So far no big trades have taken place. But plenty of calls are being made to try and place this stock.

At present there is a five-million-share block being shopped at $35, while I’m told another four million shares have been for sale at $33.50. The sellers here are typically former insiders and consultants, although I’m also told one institution that bought into Facebook sometime back is now looking to get out.

Another reason for the increased activity may be due to the window for such sales getting closer to closing as Facebook itself moves closer to an initial public offering that would bring a lock up of shares. Facebook has to sign off on any new owners, but so far this year has approved all such changes.

At a price of $34, based on Facebook’s 2.5 billion outstanding shares, the implied value of the company would be $84 billion.

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The fast-growing microblogging site Twitter has fallen behind some other Internet services in introducing tools to help secure the accounts of users, security experts say.

Weaknesses in Twitter’s security became apparent on the U.S. July 4 Independence holiday as an unknown hacker took control of a Fox News Twitter account and sent out messages falsely claiming that U.S. President Barack Obama was dead.

While the hijacking of Twitter accounts is not new, the false Tweets about Obama generated headlines around the world.

The Secret Service is investigating the matter. Fox News has said it is unsure how the attacker gained control of its account, but complained that it took Twitter more than five hours to return control of the account to Fox.

“What Twitter needs to do now is to commit to a thorough review of their security practices,” said Daniel Diermeier, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “For Twitter this is a very serious problem.”

Security experts said the attack might have been prevented if Twitter had offered two-factor authentication technology to secure its accounts.

In two-factor authentication systems, a user must enter a second code in addition to a fixed password to access its account. The code changes every minute or so and is sent to a cell phone or other electronic device.

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There is a 70-plus mile stretch of Florida beach that is affectionately called the “Space Coast”.

The fear in the area surrounding Kennedy Space Center is that when the Shuttle program ends this month, it will become the “Ghost Coast”.

“People are afraid that it’s going to be a ghost town,” said Paul Kandravi, who owns a local diner in nearby Titusville, a popular city for viewing Shuttle launches. Kandravi expects business to drop about 25-percent.

“I’ve had a few customers that have been laid off, and they’ve gone up north or out west for jobs,” he said.

Unemployment in the area is slightly below 11 percent, and in July, another 2,000 NASA-related jobs will be lost. It is generally thought that for every job in the space program, at least two more are created in the private sector.

For a town like Titusville, Florida—which has a large residential community that works at Kennedy—it’s a looming problem.

“Our unemployment rate will be higher than the rest of Florida for the next couple of years—there’s no doubt about that,” said Mayor James Tully, who is trying to view it as an opportunity. He thinks that affordable housing, beautiful beaches and Florida weather will help diversify the local economy. “In terms of doom and gloom, and folks running around saying the sky is falling, that’s just not the case.”

Others disagree.

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Warren Buffett has made his scheduled annual donation of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

After six years, Buffett has donated a total of 132.4 million Berkshire Class B shares, worth $10.3 billion at today’s closing price of $77.77 .. or $9.5 billion if you use the stock price on the date of each donation.

The Foundation reports it still holds just under 101 million shares, now worth more than $7.8 billion.

This year’s installment is just over 19 million shares of Baby Berkshires. worth $1,504,423,593 at the close.

That’s 6.3 percent less than the value of last year’s gift on the day it was made.  Each year, Buffett donates fewer shares, and the the stock is down 1.3 percent over the past 12 months.

In a 2006 letter to Microsoft’s Chairman and his wife, Buffett outlined a long-term schedule that has him donating five percent fewer shares each July, when compared to the previous year.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

Class B: [ BRK.B 76.65  -1.12 (-1.44%) ]

Class A: [ BRK.A 114992.00  -1648.00 (-1.41%) ]

For more Buffett Watch updates follow alexcrippen on Twitter.

Email comments to buffettwatch@cnbc.com

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The Federal Reserve’s $600 billion Treasury buying spree is over and the bond market is growing nervous now that its biggest bidder has stepped aside.

Barring possible hiccups in August as Congress wrestles with the task of raising the legal borrowing limit, the U.S. government will go on issuing around $166 billion in Treasury bonds and notes a month, and primary dealers aren’t quite sure where demand will come from, and at what price.

One possibility lies in investors such as foreign central banks, insurance companies and fund managers, but pulling them in may be tricky; some Treasury yields are near all-time lows. And for the first time since 2005, JPMorgan is reporting there are no long positions in Treasuries.

Where Europe’s sovereign debt troubles once pumped up demand for safe-haven U.S. debt, news that Portugal’s debt had been downgraded to junk barely stirred the market this week. Brighter economic data, most recently the ADP National Employment Report, which showed a surprising jump in private-sector employment in June, has further dulled Treasuries’ shine at such low yields. Treasuries sold off on Thursday following the ADP number and strong June retail sales.

And Congress is still struggling to raise the debt ceiling, with the latest talks leaving a wide gulf in place between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers, as the Treasury’s Aug 2 deadline for a potential default draws near.

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Mary Kay Coyne has just filed what she says is her 1,862nd job application since being thrown out of work three years ago.

She is one of millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired — after 99 weeks in many states — as the United States suffers its highest level of long-term unemployment since 1948.

Coyne had to move in with a friend after benefit payments ran out last year. Now she gets by on Medicaid — U.S. health insurance for the poor — and food stamps, contributing what little she can to her friend’s household costs.

“You’re 56-years old and you feel like you are sitting on a big pile of nothing,” said Coyne, who spends about four hours a day sending out resumes.

“For the better part of a year, I have something sitting on my chest. It’s not a medical condition. It is that pressure of ‘Is this going to end, when is this going to end?”‘

Unlike in much of Europe, the safety net of the U.S. welfare system times out for the long-term unemployed. The federal government and many states have provided extra help for those caught up in the worst labor market in decades but the U.S. debt crisis rules out further extension of the programs.

Coyne is typical of many middle-class Americans now struggling to get by.

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