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Federal Reserve policy makers may find another round of Operation Twist is preferable to an outright asset-purchase program if the economy shows further signs of weakness or risks increase.

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on April 25 said he was prepared to take further action to aid the economy if necessary, even as he signaled that he didn

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The $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan (JPM) Chase & Co. has revived concern that its regulator, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is too cozy with Wall Street.

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, which disclosed a $2 billion loss last week, said he was “dead wrong” when he dismissed concerns about the bank’s trading last month.

CEO Jamie Dimon said he did not know the extent of the problem when he said in April that the concerns were a “tempest in a teapot.” After the bank reported the trading loss, investors shaved almost 10 percent off the bank’s stock price.

“We made a terrible, egregious mistake,” Dimon said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “There’s almost no excuse for it.”

The $2 billion loss came in the past six weeks. Dimon has said it came from trading in so-called credit derivatives and was designed to hedge against financial risk, not to make a profit for the bank.

Dimon said the bank is open to inquiries from regulators. He has also promised, in an email to the bank’s employees and in a conference call with stock analysts, to get to the bottom of what happened and learn from the mistake.

Dimon told NBC that he supported giving the government the authority to dismantle a failing big bank and wipe out shareholder equity. But he stressed that JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States, is “very strong.”

Lawmakers and critics of the banking industry have seized on the $2 billion loss to say that banks still take too much risk more than three years after the financial crisis.

A piece of the financial regulation known as the Volcker rule would prevent banks from certain kinds of trading for their own profit. Dimon has said the trading involved in the $2 billion loss would not have fallen under the rule.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., told ABC’s “This Week” that he hopes the final version of the Volcker rule will prevent the type of trading that led to the massive loss at JPMorgan.

Addressing public anger toward Wall Street, Dimon said he wants a more equitable society and does not mind paying higher taxes. But he said attacking all of business is “very counterproductive.”

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HumanKind Water, a bottled water company that touts its social conscience, won the most votes — and the top prize — in Wal-Mart’s "American Idol"-like contest.

As grand prize winner, the Philadelphia-based company will soon have its bottled water sold at up to 3,800 Wal-Mart stores nationwide and on Walmart.com.

"I am thrilled," said T.J. Foltz, president of HumanKind Water, which sources its product from the Poconos Mountains. "We knew people were voting for us like crazy. But we had no idea we’d win."

Scoring a deal with the world’s largest retailer is like hitting the jackpot for a small business vendor. For Foltz, it’s especially significant since his product just launched last October.

Wal-Mart challenge draws wacky products

More important to him, though, is the exposure he hopes this win will bring to the cause behind HumanKind Water.

Foltz said 100% of net profits from its sales will go toward developing clean water wells, water filtration systems and rain catchment systems in underdeveloped communities in Haiti, Africa and Asia.

"Ten thousand kids die every day because of lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation from contaminated water," he said. "Every one of these deaths can be prevented."

Foltz is a Christian minister who witnessed the need for clean water firsthand during trips overseas. That experience inspired him to develop HumanKind Water and devote himself fully to his company.

"Children dying is everyone’s business," said Foltz, adding that there is nothing religious about HumanKind Water. "In our mission to end this, we’re not reaching out to one faith or another."

Wal-Mart (, Fortune 500), the world’s largest retailer, is announcing the winner at a time when it’s also trying to manage the fallout from allegations that it bribed its way to dominance of Mexico’s retail industry.

Wal-Mart tries to recover from Mexico allegations

The retailer launched its "Get on the Shelf" competition January 18, giving three small businesses, entrepreneurs or inventors a first-ever chance at winning virtual shelf space through Walmart payday loans online.com. The grand prize winner also gets a spot on Wal-Mart store shelves nationwide.

More than 4,000 contestants submitted video entries of their product; the retailer let the public vote on their favorites.

The contest drew more than 1 million votes in total, said Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala. HumanKind Water captured the highest number of votes, followed by PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit.

PlateTopper is a 100% BPA-free plastic cover that transforms plates into airtight food storage containers. SnapIt is a patented screw kit designed to fix sunglasses and eyeglasses in 30 seconds. These two products will sell on Walmart.com, but not in stores.

All three winning products will have an online banner touting them as the contest winners, said Jariwala. HumanKind will also get a special display in Wal-Mart stores.

Wal-Mart is assessing the three winners’ marketing and production capabilities, he added, and will give the three winners help ramping up if they need it.

Holding a public contest to find a vendor is an unusual departure for Wal-Mart.

The discounter is notoriously strict in selecting products. Prospective suppliers meet with Wal-Mart’s in-house buyers at the Bentonville, Ark., headquarters in small rooms lining a bluish-gray corridor unofficially referred to as "vendor row."

There, they get an hour tops to pitch their products and convince Wal-Mart buyers why they should stock them.

But for vendors of HumanKind Water, PlateTopper and the SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit, all this is unnecessary.

PlateTopper will begin selling on Walmart.com on May 3, while SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit will start selling online in the near future. HumanKind Water will launch on Walmart.com and in its stores nationwide soon after, the store said.

Wal-Mart hasn’t made any decisions yet whether to repeat the contest in the future, Jariwala said.

"Our focus at this point is on evaluating the success of this contest," he said. 

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People have been hyping the death of the mall for the last two decades, but it’s not happening anytime soon, said Simon Property Group CEO David Simon.

"Time Magazine 20 years ago had that exact headline," Simon, who has been at the helm of the world’s largest mall operator since 1995, told CNNMoney at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. "If you look at our business and our profitability, it’s never been better."

Investors appear to agree. Simon Property Group’s () shares are up 22% in 2012, compared to an 11.7% increase in the S&P 500 ().

Simon admits growth in the United States is limited, even going so far as to say some lower-end malls around the U.S. could close. Most of Simon Property Group’s malls serve higher-end consumers.

He thinks most of Simon Property Group’s growth will come from driving sales into its existing malls by refurbishing them and adding new stores.

Simon points to Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island in New York as one example. After years of battling local community boards for approval, Simon Property Group recently landed luxury retailer Neiman Marcus as a tenant. Simon hopes such retailers will draw more high-spending customers into his malls.

For much of Simon’s tenure, buying up competing real estate investment trusts, or REITs, has driven growth. He’s spent roughly $27 billion in 17 years buying competitors, most recently paying $2 billion for a 29% stake in Europe’s largest retailer Klepierre.

Simon says to expect fewer big acquisitions going forward, yet there is one new area where he’d consider buying: technology. Simon wants to make his mall more more technologically sophisticated, and he said that buying up a technology startup could help Simon Property compete more effectively with e-commerce sites

"Ideally what I’d love to do is know when our best customers are in the mall. If you show up I want to deliver a free latte to you [and] I know exactly what kind of latte you want," said Simon.

Chanos: Beware of China’s ‘epic’ property bubble

While aggressively courting new and existing consumers, Simon doesn’t expect to fight battles with shareholders. Last year, Simon’s board awarded him roughly $120 million after he agreed to stay at the company for the next eight years. That makes him one of the most highly paid CEOs in the United States.

Simon said he deserves it. "Nobody has had better performance over 10 years, and I expect that to continue," said Simon. "Our board took a serious look at what I contributed and the prospects for what it means to be part of the company for another eight years."

The REIT’s returns have been exceptional. Since Simon joined as CEO in 1995, Simon Property has generated annual returns of 11.2% compared to roughly 6.7% for the S&P 500.  

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Record Chinese oil imports are emptying the Atlantic Ocean of very large crude carriers and their 2 million-barrel cargoes, driving a rebound in rates for the smaller vessels left to supply the U.S. from West Africa.

Suezmaxes, each holding 1 million barrels, will earn an average of $18,750 a day this quarter, 45 percent more than now, according to the median of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That

Swiss food and drinks giant Nestle SA forecast Friday that 2012 will be a challenging year but reported that first-quarter sales rose a healthy 5.6 percent from a year earlier, fueled by strong growth in emerging markets and higher retail prices.

The maker of Purina One, Nescafe and Haagen Dazs and  said sales amounted to 21.39 billion Swiss francs ($23.34 billion), though demand in developed markets was subdued amid global financial uncertainty in the United States — its biggest market — and Europe.

Sales in developed countries grew 3.1 percent, compared with a 13 percent rise in emerging markets.

“As anticipated, 2012 is already confirming itself to be a challenging year,” CEO Paul Bulcke said in a sales update statement.

“In many developed markets where consumer confidence is low, the trading environment is subdued whilst in most emerging markets, conditions remain dynamic and rich in growth opportunities,” he said. “Our past and present investments, and continuing innovation, have enabled us to deliver good growth in the first quarter.”

The results of the Vevey, Switzerland-based company generally met or exceeded analysts’ forecasts. No profit figures were disclosed.

Europe’s food makers have been hurt by the continent’s sovereign debt crisis, which has forced governments to cut spending, seen a spike in unemployment and made consumers wary of spending. Meanwhile, higher commodity prices have made retail food prices more expensive.

Nestle results showed it managed the tricky market situation relatively well.

Andrew Wood of the Sanford C. Bernstein research firm said he had anticipated that Nestle would have a “fairly strong top-line start to the year low interest rate personal loans.” However, he does not believe it would be enough to get its stock “moving again, particularly given current lofty valuations.”

Nestle shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 56.90 francs ($62.10).

Bulcke said a combination of retail price hikes and a predicted drop in the cost of raw materials in the second half of the year has enabled the company to confirm the full-year outlook “of delivering 5 to 6 percent organic growth” and higher earnings for shareholders.

On Thursday, Nestle held its annual general meeting in Lausanne where shareholders approved a dividend of 1.95 francs ($2.13) per share.

Like many Swiss companies, Nestle has had to cope with the strength of the Swiss franc against other currencies, but since last summer Switzerland’s central bank has moved aggressively to weaken the franc and improve the outlook for Swiss exports.

The world’s biggest food and beverage maker said its organic sales growth was a robust 7.2 percent, while real internal growth was 2.8 percent.

Nestle said organic growth was 6.2 percent in the Americas, 2.3 percent in Europe and 11.4 percent in Asia, Oceania and Africa.

The company had posted sales of 22.34 billion francs ($24.38 billion) in the first quarter of 2010.

Nestle did not comment on its bid to buy Pfizer Inc.’s infant-nutrition business for a reported $9 billion, a deal that would help the Swiss-based company to boost growth in China and maintain its position as one of the world’s largest sellers of infant formula.

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U.S. government programs designed to stem the financial crisis starting in 2008 will probably break even in the long term, Treasury Department officials said.

So-called financial stability programs include excess earnings from the Federal Reserve and don

The price of oil slipped to near $103 per barrel following weak economic reports out of China and Europe.

Oil, a globally traded commodity, typically swings with investor expectations for economic growth, world oil supply and demand. On Friday, traders saw signs of trouble from two continents.

China, the second-largest oil consumer after the U.S., said its economy grew by just 8.1 percent from January to March. While that would be strong growth for most countries. it was the weakest in three years for China. A slowdown in China could have major implications for oil prices, since its burgeoning cities and factories have been among the primary drivers of world oil demand.

In Europe massive national debts continued to worry investors. Yields rose on government bonds issued by Italy and Spain, meaning those countries will have to pay more to borrow money from investors personal loans for bad credit.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell by 61 cents to $103.03 per barrel on Friday in New York. Brent crude lost 55 cents to $120.97 per barrel in London.

Retail U.S. gasoline prices fell for the seventh day in a row, to a national average of $3.90 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular has dropped by about 3.5 cents in the past week.

In other energy trading, natural gas stayed near 10-year lows, unchanged at $1.981 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil was up less than a cent at $3.1682 per gallon and gasoline futures lost a penny to $3.3418 per gallon.

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