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JPMorgan Chase chief executive officer defended the dollar — and the size of his company — at a securities industry conference Tuesday.

"The ultimate strength of the dollar will depend on the strength of the United States," Dimon said.

Dimon discussed the dollar and other key financial topics with PBS host Charlie Rose as part of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) annual meeting held in New York.

He said that the dollar needs two things to remain strong: the economy must grow and, equally as important, the government must demonstrate fiscal responsibility.

The fate of the dollar is not about "the deficit over the next year or two," said Dimon, but about proving that the country’s long-term plan is to rein in spending and reduce the nation’s debt over time.

"We’ll be voting on this," Dimon told the crowd. "It’s not only a matter of what happens at the [Federal Reserve] but about what happens in Congress."

The dollar has spent much of October bouncing around its 14-month low against the euro as investors worried that low U.S. interest rates and months of stimulus injections would spark inflation. Moreover, the market recovery has made stocks more attractive to investors than super safe assets like the dollar.

The dollar got a bit of a lift earlier this month when Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank is poised to raise interest rates if the economic recovery strengthens in order to avoid a surge in inflation. But given that employment remains weak, many analysts and economists believe that the government would rather not boost rates rise anytime soon.

In his wide ranging remarks, Dimon also noted that the economic recovery was not tied to hotly debated issues in Congress such as health care reform and cap and trade energy proposals.

Dimon said that these are long-term issues the administration must tackle, but added that "getting people back to work" is the most important ingredient in a true economic recovery bad credit payday advance. If Congress does pass another stimulus bill, Dimon said he hopes that it will focus on job creation.

Chase isn’t too big to fail

Dimon also defended his company’s role as one of the largest banks in the country, arguing that it had not reached a point that it was "too big to fail." He stressed that the firm’s size was appropriate given the number of its clients and their business needs.

"Large businesses are large for a reason," Dimon said. "You can’t do an $8 billion loan if you are a small bank."

JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) has been one of the nation’s fastest growing banks in recent years. In the wake of last year’s financial chaos, it bought investment bank Bear Stearns and the savings-and-loan giant Washington Mutual.

Both deals were done at what analysts felt were relatively low prices. JPMorgan Chase bought WaMu after it was seized by the FDIC in the nation’s largest bank failure.

But the size of the nation’s largest financial firms has been a key issue among regulators and lawmakers following the near collapses and government bailouts of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500). Congress continues to debate how best to reform the U.S. financial system.

One leading proposal in Washington has been for regulators to create a system that would allow regulators to handle the failure of a large financial institution. Many have argued the absence of such a system exacerbated the problems associated with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers last fall.

Dimon, echoing previous comments, threw his support behind such a system. But he added that there would need to be coordination with international regulators to work effectively.

"We think failure is a good thing," he said. "But you don’t want a failure that destroys America." 

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A key measure of consumer confidence continued to slip in October, with consumers’ gauge of the current economic situation falling to a 26-year low, a research group said Tuesday.

The Conference Board, the New York-based research group said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 in October from an upwardly revised 53.4 in September.

Economists were expecting the index to increase to 53.5, according to a Briefing.com consensus survey. The figure, which is based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households, is closely watched because consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.

The index component that evaluates consumers’ judgment of the present situation dipped to 20.7 in October, the lowest since the 17.5 measured in February 1983. It stood at 23 in September.

"Consumers’ assessment of the present-day conditions has grown less favorable, with labor market conditions playing a major role in this grimmer assessment," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

Employers continued to cut jobs from their payrolls in September, as the unemployment rate rose to 9.8% and hit another 26-year high in September, according to a report from the Labor Department earlier this month.

The percentage of those claiming that jobs are currently hard to get reached new high of 49.6%, while the number of consumers claiming that jobs are "plentiful" hit a new low at 3.4%.

"It is surprising how uniformly weak this report was," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo. "The expectations had gotten ahead of themselves. Everyone thought that economy would follow the rebound in the stock market. But now that the rebound has leveled off, folks doubt whether conditions will get better savings account payday advance."

Recovery isn’t near for consumers. The expectation index, which measures consumers’ outlook over the next few months, declined to 65.7 from 73.7 last month. Similarly, the percentage of those expecting the job market to improve edged lower to 16.3% from 18%.

The number of consumers expecting their incomes to increase also fell to 10.3% from 11.2%, suggesting that shoppers will likely limit their holiday spending, said Franco. The average amount consumers spend on holiday-related shopping will drop by $22.27 to $682.74, said the National Retail Federation in a report last week.

The outlook for business conditions also grew more pessimistic in October, with the percentage of consumers expecting conditions to worsen climbing to 18.3% from 14.6%.

The overall index remains at historically low levels. A reading above 90 indicates the economy is solid, and 100 or above signals strong growth.

Vitner expects the main index to hover around 50 for the next several months.

"We need to see a real improvement in employment conditions. Layoffs need to stop rising and hiring needs to pick up," he said. "The soonest that we think that consumers’ confidence will see a sustained rise would be late spring of next year."

Economists predict GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, rose at an annual rate of 3.2% in the third quarter of this year after a 0.7% drop in the second quarter. The government will release its advance third-quarter GDP report Thursday. 

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Demand for hand sanitizer has gone through the roof since the first cases of swine flu broke out earlier this year, and some makers of the germ-fighting gels are scrambling to keep up.

Market research firm Panjiva recently estimated that 3 million kilograms of hand sanitizer were shipped in the third quarter, compared with 1 million kilograms in the same quarter last year.

Josh Green, chief executive of Panjiva, said concern about the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu, is the "most likely explanation" for the surge in volume.

And demand is only expected to rise given the outlook for an exceptionally bad flu season.

In response, the companies that make and distribute Purell, the most popular name-brand hand sanitizer, are ramping up production and urging customers to not hoard the product.

Heavy demand

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), which makes Purell and distributes it to retailers, does not provide figures on sales or shipments of items such as hand sanitizer. But the company said demand for Purell has been "heavy" since the first cases of swine flu broke.

"Due to the influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak this past spring and resurgence this fall, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. has experienced heavy demand on supplies of Purell," said J&J spokesman Marc Boston in a statement.

The company is working to increase production for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2010, but Boston acknowledged that supplies may be limited in some areas.

"Because of this increase in demand, consumers may currently find limited supplies of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer at certain retailers," he said.

Don’t stockpile

GOJO Industries, the company that invented Purell and distributes it in professional markets, described the increase in demand as "unprecedented."

The Akron, Ohio-based company said it has been running its plants "24/7" and has hired additional workers to help increase output.

"Even with increased manufacturing capacity, there is a limit to how much we can produce in a short period of time," Mark Lerner, GOJO’s chief operating officer, said in a prepared statement.

GOJO said it will provide U.S. distributors with more than their normal supply of Purell, but warned that it may not ship the full quantity ordered.

Lerner said the backlog is temporary and that GOJO expects to increase overall production "significantly" through 2010. "There is absolutely no need to stockpile product," Lerner said. "In fact, stockpiling could cause an actual shortage which, in turn, could threaten public health."

Nearly 400,000 people worldwide have contracted laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu and more than 4,700 people have died from the illness since it was first identified in Mexico and the United States in April, the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier this month.

Many countries have stopped counting individual cases, particularly of milder illness, according to the WHO. That means the total case count could be significantly lower than the number of swine flu cases that have actually occurred. 

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The number of first-time filers for unemployment insurance rose last week, snapping two weeks of significant declines, according to a government report issued Thursday.

There were 531,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Oct. 17, up 11,000 from an upwardly revised 520,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. The week included the Columbus Day holiday.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 515,000 new claims.

"[The initial claims figure] is somewhat surprising," wrote Jim Baird analyst at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, in a research note. "Excess slack in the system and employers’ hesitance to ramp up hiring appear likely to weigh on the labor markets for some time."

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 532,250, down 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 533,000.

New jobless claims had declined for five of the last six weeks, falling sharply in the first two weeks of October. Earlier this month, initial claims fell to their lowest level since January.

Continuing claims: The government said 5,923,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Oct. 10, the most recent data available. That was down 98,000 from the preceding week’s ongoing claims, and would — if not revised — mark the first time since late March that continuing claims were below 6 million.

The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 59,250 to 6,030,750, from the prior week’s revised average of 6,090,000.

But the slide in continuing claims may signal that more filers are falling off those rolls and into extended benefits.

Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks. The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, nor people who have exhausted their benefits.

Unemployment benefits. As more and more unemployed Americans find themselves with expired benefits, Congress is wrestling with legislation that would extend their lifeline. The House has approved a jobless benefits extension, but the Senate has not yet voted on it.

Earlier this month, Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would extend unemployment benefits by up to 14 weeks in every state. Those living in states with unemployment levels greater than 8.5% would receive a further six weeks.

Currently, states with rates above 8% now offer up to 79 weeks of benefits. States with rates between 6% and 8% now offer up to 59 weeks, and all other states currently offer up to 46 weeks.

State-by-state data: Only one state reported a decline in initial claims of more than 1,000 for the week ended Oct. 10, the most recent data available. Claims in California fell by 7,062, which a state-supplied comment attributed to fewer layoffs in the construction, trade, service and manufacturing sectors.

Eighteen states said that claims increased by more than 1,000. Florida reported the most new claims at 9,976; New York’s jumped by 5,411; Wisconsin saw a rise of 4,999; Indiana’s increased by 4,977; and Maryland’s rose by 2,783.

Outlook: Although experts expect the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter, Plante Moran analyst Baird said Thursday’s report leaves him concerned about future jobless figures.

"Despite the relatively steady improvement in weekly claims since April, this also suggests that the employment market remains weak," Baird said.

As "stimulative programs" like Cash for Clunkers and the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit wind down, Baird said, the labor market could face even further pressure in the months ahead.

"We remain cautious about the outlook moving forward when … [these programs] are no longer factors," Baird said. 

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The Obama administration will soon order the nation’s biggest bailed-out companies to drastically cut the pay packages of 175 top executives, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

Kenneth Feinberg, who was named the White House’s pay czar in June, will demand that each of the seven largest bailout recipients lower the total compensation for their top 25 highest paid employees by 50%, on average, the official told CNN.

For the past two months, Feinberg has been reviewing pay plans at Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial in an effort to put these firms in a position to pay back bailout money as soon as possible.

Under the plan, which is expected to be officially released by the Treasury Department next week, annual salaries for executives at those seven firms are expected to fall 90%, on average, the official said.

Another source in the Treasury Department told CNN that Feinberg is "trying to strike the balance" between protecting taxpayers and allowing companies to have the ability to "grow their way out of TARP."

Some compensation experts have worried that the firms that have received the most bailout funds could wind up losing top talent to companies that have already paid back the government and are not subject to Feinberg’s pay restrictions, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

According to other reports, the plan will come down particularly harsh on embattled insurer AIG. Within AIG’s controversial Financial Products division, the unit that led to the company’s near collapse, no employee is expected to receive more than $200,000 in total compensation, several reports indicated.

The Wall Street Journal also reported Feinberg is expected to demand a series of governance changes at the seven firms — including splitting the role of chief executive officer and chairman.

The Treasury Department had no comment. AIG, Bank of America, Chrysler Financial and GM also declined to comment. Chrysler, Citigroup and GMAC were not immediately available for comment.

But the moves by Feinberg should not come as a major surprise. Last week, outgoing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said he would not accept a salary or bonus for 2009, and the bank said the decision came after Feinberg "suggested" it to Lewis.

Lewis’ decision followed an uproar over indications that he is poised to walk away with a minimum of $53 million in pension benefits after he retires.

Lewis’ cash salary has been $1.5 million annually since he took over as CEO in 2001. But he actually made $63 million in pay and perks over the past three years, according to filings — including almost $10 million last year.

Other high-profile CEOs have also taken it upon themselves to act before the government did. Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit, for example, declared earlier this year that he would accept pay of just $1 a year and no bonus until his firm returned to profitability. Just a year ago, Pandit took home $10.8 million in salary, stock and options.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin, Gloria Borger, Miguel Susana, CNNMoney.com’s Jennifer Liberto and Fortune’s Colin Barr contributed to this report.  

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Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kiyohiko Nishimura said financial markets are improving and keeping the central bank’s emergency credit programs in place for too long may cause distortions.

“Excessive concerns are easing considerably and market functions are improving significantly,” Nishimura said at a press conference today in Kobe, western Japan. “Prolonging safety-net measures may cause the problem of moral hazard.”

Earlier in a speech, Nishimura stressed that ending the programs of buying corporate debt from lenders is a separate matter to interest-rate policy. Economists expect the central bank to end the credit steps by the end of the year, while leaving the benchmark rate at 0.1 percent through all of 2010 amid prolonged deflation and tepid economic growth.

“The central bank wants to make it clear that ending some measures doesn’t mean raising rates soon,” said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo. Adachi predicts the corporate asset-purchase programs will expire in December as scheduled and the BOJ will “be one of the last central banks to raise interest rates.”

Nishimura, 56, said policy makers will decide the fate of the credit measures “after determining the extent to which market functions recover and whether excessive concerns among investors will return.” The bank will make an assessment by looking at the financial market “overall,” rather than the market for specific securities.

Easier to Sell

In the speech, he said companies with higher credit ratings are finding it easier to sell bonds and commercial paper payday loans no fax. Since lowering the key interest rate to 0.1 percent in December, the bank has been buying the assets and offering banks unlimited loans backed by collateral to channel funds to companies. The three programs are due to expire on Dec. 31.

Japan’s “road to recovery will be very bumpy,” the deputy governor said at the news briefing, while adding that stimulus from governments and central banks worldwide will ensure it avoids a “double-dip” slump. In the speech he said it will take “a while” before consumer prices stop falling and return to a “desirable” level.

“It’s all too true that deflation is already putting some pressure on Japan’s economy by squeezing corporate profits and wages,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, senior economist at Itochu Corp. in Tokyo. “The Bank of Japan is very far from raising rates.”

Consumer prices excluding fresh food slid a record 2.4 percent in August from a year earlier. The central bank is likely to forecast price declines will extend to 2011 when they release their twice-annual economic outlook on Oct. 30, analysts say.

The central bank will probably hold interest rates near zero at least through the end of 2010, according to 16 of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month.

Nishimura said the policy board will continue to focus on the risks to growth, and uncertainty over the global economic outlook is the biggest concern.

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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono starts a second five-year term today with a mandate to speed growth in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. To do that, he must reconcile national and local policies, analysts say.

“Many targets couldn’t be reached because of bottlenecks,” Yudhoyono said earlier this month. The goal in the second term “is very clear,” he said. “Solve these clogs. That’s why we will reform bureaucracy, rearrange permits, control programs, and prevent incorrect practices.”

Yudhoyono won the July 8 election on pledges to end corruption and rein in terrorism. A July 17 suicide attack on two Jakarta luxury hotels was the country’s first in almost four years, and anti-terror squads killed most-wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammad Top last month. The president still must build roads, power plants and ports vital for growth, said Umar Juoro, of Jakarta-based Center for Information and Development Studies.

“The strength of Yudhoyono’s economic team has been in the macro level,” Juoro, who is also a commissioner at PT Bank Internasional Indonesia Tbk, said in an Oct. 19 phone interview. “When we see the results in the real sector like mining, agriculture and infrastructure, we will find many policies that didn’t run properly.”

While Indonesia made more key changes in easing business regulations than other East Asian and Pacific economies, as the World Bank’s 2010 “Doing Business Report” showed last month, a number of regional laws contradict national policies, creating legal uncertainty for investors, said Chris Kanter, vice president of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Professionals, Politicians

Yudhoyono’s next cabinet will be a combination of professionals and members of the five parties that have joined his Democrat Party in the ruling coalition. The latter group doesn’t represent “something the markets will be cheering over,” said Helmi Arman, an economist at PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk in Jakarta, in an Oct. 19 E-mail.

“Partisan politics apparently still played a significant role in the assignment of other key ministerial posts,” Arman said. The president has “the added burden” of ensuring a consolidated agenda and “making sure that partisan cabinet ministers don’t go their separate ways,” he said.

Yudhoyono has told candidates for his next cabinet, which may be announced tomorrow, they should make Indonesia investment-friendly.

The crux of the interviews is that “we must embark on some acceleration in our economy”, said State Secretary Hatta Rajasa whom analysts and the Indonesian media have said may take the post of coordinating minister for economic affairs.

‘Political Shield’

Rajasa has “limited economic experience but he’s hoped to be able to give political shield for economic ministers under him in the parliament,” Fauzi Ichsan, chief economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Jakarta, said in an Oct. 19 interview.

Before serving as state secretary, Rajasa was Yudhoyono’s transport minister, and ran his successful re-election campaign. Rajasa comes from the National Mandate Party and was the Muslim- based group’s secretary-general from 2000 until 2005.

The former oilman also was his party’s parliamentary leader from 1999 to 2000. National Mandate has been a member of the president’s coalition since 2004.

Yudhoyono’s coalition holds 75 percent of the parliament after Golkar, the second largest party in the house, joined after Aburizal Bakrie, a Yudhoyono ally and a businessman who served in the president’s first-term team as chief social welfare minister, was elected as Golkar chairman Oct. 8.

Almost Tripled

Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party, which held 10 percent of the parliament during his first term, almost tripled its share to 148 seats in April 9 legislative elections, making it the biggest party in the 560-strong body.

The party’s legislative clout means “the political condition should be easier” for Yudhoyono to push his policies forward, said Ichsan.

Yudhoyono’s inauguration will be attended by envoys that include U.S. Ambassador Cameron Hume and heads of governments like Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. About 18,000 policemen and soldiers will guard the ceremony, according to Rohimullah, secretary general of the Indonesian legislature.

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The Goldman Sachs steamroller keeps chugging along.

The big investment bank posted a $3.2 billion quarterly profit Thursday, crushing Wall Street estimates for the third straight quarter.

New York-based Goldman (GS, Fortune 500) made $5.25 a share, up from $1.81 a year ago and well above the $4.24 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were forecasting.

Goldman cited another strong quarter in its trading business, which has rebounded since the last half of 2008, when financial markets crumbled.

Revenue at the fixed income, currency and commodities business soared to $6 billion from $1.6 billion a year ago, while equities trading revenue soared to $1.85 billion from $354 million a year earlier.

"We are seeing improving conditions and evidence of stabilization, even growth, across a number of sectors," said CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, in a statement.

Bonus pool keeps growing: But those profits don’t come without public-relations issues.

The giant quarterly gain allowed Goldman to set aside $5.4 billion for employee compensation — bringing its bonus pool to $16.7 billion through Sept. 30.

To critics, that number cries out for a reassessment of Goldman’s priorities. Some small Goldman shareholders are sponsoring resolutions at next year’s shareholder meeting that would have the board review the firm’s pay practices.

"As prudent investors, we have a responsibility here to act as the conscience of Wall Street, especially when it fails to do so on its own," Laura Berry, executive director of the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility, said in a statement Wednesday. "How is it possible that the year after billions of taxpayer dollars helped companies like Goldman Sachs return to financial health, this company shows absolutely no restraint?"

Blankfein last month said public anger over giant pay packages at money-losing firms is "understandable and appropriate." He stopped short of critiquing the pay practices at Goldman, where his compensation has routinely run to the tens of millions of dollars and the average employee is on track this year for an annual payout in the high six digits.

The money Goldman set aside for compensation through the first nine months of the year works out to an average of $526,814 for each of its 31,700 workers.

If the firm produces the strong fourth quarter Wall Street expects — analysts at Deutsche Bank are forecasting a $3.6 billion profit and $4.4 billion in compensation costs — average compensation could hit $662,000.

That’s in line with the firm’s payout in the record profit year of 2007, which closed before the global recession started in earnest.

David Viniar, Goldman’s chief financial officer, said in response to repeated questions on a conference call with reporters Thursday morning that Goldman wouldn’t make compensation decisions until year-end. He said Goldman would weigh the firm’s performance as well as the economic climate and the market for top Wall Street workers.

"We’re giving it a lot of thought," Viniar said. "We are very focused on what’s going on in the world, but we want to be fair to our people, who have done a remarkably good job throughout the crisis."

Risk reduction: Goldman’s profits came with a reduction in risk, judging by one estimate of the amount the firm could lose in a given trading day. Goldman’s value at risk dropped to $208 million in the third quarter, from $245 million in the second quarter. Value at risk was $181 million in the year-ago third quarter.

The biggest reason for the decline in risk was a drop in the amount Goldman had riding on changes in interest rates. The firm stood to lose as much as $159 million on a given trading day in that area in the third quarter, down from $205 million in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the firm’s exposure to losses on stock trading climbed to $74 million from $60 million in the second quarter.

Thursday’s report comes on the heels of another strong quarter from the banking world’s other standout performer, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500). Its shares rose 3% Wednesday to a 52-week high after the New York-based bank said third-quarter profit rose sixfold.

Goldman shares are up 131% for the year, and are closing in on the $200 level for the first time since May 2008, as investors bet the firm’s rebound from last fall’s near collapse will continue. Shares were down 2% in early trading Thursday.

"The outlook for capital markets activity is mostly favorable for the industry, and even more favorable for Goldman Sachs given their positioning and recent market share gains," analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a note to clients last week. The firm rates Goldman stock a buy and has done underwriting work for the company.

While last fall’s financial meltdown nearly brought down the global financial system, survivors like Goldman and JPMorgan have indeed prospered, thanks to the reduced competition and taxpayer support that followed. In addition to receiving multibillion-dollar Treasury loans that they have since repaid, both firms have benefited from taxpayer-subsidized funding via a federal debt guarantee program.

Goldman has paid back the $10 billion in bailout funds it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). But it was among the biggest recipients of taxpayer funds in last September’s rescue of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500).

Goldman has also, in the aftermath of last year’s implosion of onetime rivals Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, enjoyed the market perception that the government has judged it too big to fail — leaning on what Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff has called "the invisible wallet of the taxpayer." 

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Here’s one reason to move to Lithuania: Eight weeks of time off.

Workers in the Baltic state tied with Brazil for the most days off in the world: a whopping 41 a year, according to a report released Wednesday by global consulting firm Mercer.

"People take a lot of time, especially in the summer, because a lot of them own places outside the cities, in villages and by the sea," said Dina Kopilevic, a Lithuanian citizen working for the consulate in New York. "We take it for granted, probably."

In Lithuania, the minimum annual leave is 28 days plus 13 public holidays. Brazil has a statutory minimum of 30 vacation days plus 11 public holidays.

Ade Umhey is from Belo Horizonte, a city in southeastern Brazil, but is working temporarily in upstate New York. She said that in her country, there’s a real appreciation for time spent outside of work.

"Being with family and friends is important," she explained. "You spend weekends dancing, going to clubs and barbecuing." Workers also take extended vacations at the beach or to other parts of the country, she said.

"It’s a healthier attitude, because even though you don’t work as long, you do work hard and then you get great time off."

Employees in Finland, France and Russia post a close second in time off, thanks to 40 vacation days and holidays.

Meanwhile, U.S. workers receive 25 days total. Although vacation policies vary widely, according to Mercer, many businesses in the U.S. give employees only 15 days, or three weeks of vacation, plus 10 holidays a year.

Employees in Singapore also get 25 days, while Chinese employees get 21 and Canadian employees only get 19. Excluding public holidays, workers in Canada and China each get just 10 days, the lowest allotment of any countries in Mercer’s study.

Anthony Brown, a Canadian citizen who currently works in New York, argued that the lack of time off there is mitigated by other pluses. "The social benefits, including both welfare and unemployment benefits, should be factored in," he said. "Maybe there are fewer days but in reality you get paid a lot more for doing a lot less."

In addition to annual leave and public holidays, employers in some countries are also required by law to give additional leave for special circumstances such as getting married, having a baby or bereavement.

The Mercer report was based on mandatory vacation time for an employee working five days a week after 10 years service. 

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A year after the government applied a tourniquet to the banking industry, the bleeding has slowed — but it hasn’t stopped.

The six biggest U.S. banks will tell investors in coming weeks how they did in the third quarter. Analysts expect four of the six to post profits, and the best-run banks — Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) — are likely to more than double last year’s bottom line.

But Wall Street expects profits at both Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) to fall from a year ago. And the biggest beneficiaries of Washington’s too-big-to-fail mindset, Citi (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), may lose money.

Bank analysts say a severe economic downturn preceded by a long credit boom means stubbornly high losses on home loans, credit cards and commercial properties will be working their way through the system for a while — which translates to uneven profit reports at big banks and, in some cases, failures at smaller ones.

"We’re through the worst of the storm, but we’re not out of the other side of it," said William Schwartz, senior vice president for the U.S. financial institutions group at ratings agency DBRS.

The big banks have been sheltered over the past year by lavish government assistance, ranging from Treasury loans to expanded deposit insurance to federally backed loan guarantees. Some of those props are due to start falling. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s loan guarantee program, for instance, is due to expire Oct. 31.

In the meantime, bank stocks have rallied off their winter lows — driven in large part by gains that were concentrated in nonbanking businesses such as fixed-income trading and investment banking.

The major bank stocks all posted massive gains in the third quarter, led by a 57% jump at Citi, whose shares continue to fetch less than $5 each, and 30%-plus rises at BofA, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

"The big firms have more revenue streams, so they’re probably a little better off right now than the regionals," said Schwartz.

JPMorgan Chase, which has emerged as a rare beneficiary of the financial crisis via its low-cost, government-assisted acquisitions of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, is due to post third-quarter numbers Wednesday morning. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect its earnings to rise to 49 cents a share from 11 cents a year ago, as solid performances in fee-based businesses such as mortgage and investment banking offset rising costs in its big credit card book.

Thursday morning will bring reports from another big winner over the past year, Goldman Sachs, and from Citigroup, which continues to struggle under the weight of big loan losses. Analysts expect Goldman to make $4.24 a share for the third quarter, up from $1.81 a year ago. Citi, meanwhile, is expected to lose 21 cents a share, compared with a 60-cent loss last year.

"Citi’s earnings remain under significant pressure near term along with the industry," analysts at JPMorgan wrote in a note to clients last week.

Closing out the week will be Bank of America, which is due to post third-quarter numbers Friday morning. Analysts expect the bank to lose 6 cents a share for the quarter, reversing the year-ago profit of 15 cents.

The numbers will come less than a month after the bank’s longtime CEO, Ken Lewis, quit under pressure from shareholders, as well as legislators who question his handling of BofA’s takeover of Merrill Lynch.

Two other banks dealing with management changes — the investment firm Morgan Stanley, whose CEO John Mack announced plans last month to retire, and West Coast lender Wells Fargo, whose Chairman Dick Kovacevich will step aside Jan. 1 — are expected to post results next week. Both firms are expected to make less money than they did in last year’s third quarter.  

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