Government Debt

PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy threw himself Wednesday into what may be the toughest fight of his political career: Unpopular for years and running a feeble economy, the divisive French president announced he's running for a second term. The man who improved French relations with the United States, rallied European leaders to ward off financial meltdown, and initiated international air strikes in Libya is widely disliked at home. Polls suggest his Socialist challenger will be the one attending world summits come May. But Sarkozy is not one to give up easily.

NEW YORK - The wait for an expected deal between Greece and its creditors rattled financial markets around the world Monday. Yields for ultra-safe U.S. government debt hit their lowest this year, the euro dropped against the dollar, and European stocks took a fall. But U.S. stocks dropped only slightly. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.74 points to close at 12,653.72, for a drop of 0.05 percent. The Dow lost as much as 131 points in morning trading, then slowly recovered in the afternoon.

NEW YORK - A day of broad swings in the stock market ended with modest gains Tuesday as investors balanced strong U.S. retail sales with Europe's lingering debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 17 points. The Dow ping-ponged between gains and losses for much of the day. It had been down as many as 78 points at noon and up as much as 86 during a late-afternoon rally that fizzled just before the market closed. Technology stocks had the biggest gains. Hewlett-Packard rose 3.4 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow. Intel Corp.

NEW YORK - Fear has taken over on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points, the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt. It was the sixth-worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday. But the S&P downgrade wasn't the only catalyst Monday. Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

Shocking and unprecedented though it may be, the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's creditworthiness is not likely to have a huge short-term effect on the economy or the finances of typical residents. That is the view of prominent economists and investment advisers in the Philadelphia region, who said financial markets had been anticipating the S&P action for weeks. The downward pressure on Treasury yields tended to support that view, they said. Investors have been eager to snap up U.S. government debt despite ongoing differences between Republicans and Democrats in Washington over how to balance the budget and the anticipated action of S&P. "What matters most is the opinion of investors, not of a rating agency, and the collective wisdom of the market is that the U.S. Treasury bond is still the safest asset on the planet," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics Inc., of West Chester.

Shocking and unprecedented though it may be, the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's credit worthiness is not likely to have huge short-term impact on the economy or the finances of average citizens. That is the view of prominent economists and investment advisers in the Philadelphia region who said Saturday that financial markets had been anticipating the S&P action for weeks. The downward pressure on Treasury yields tended to support that view, they said.

NEW YORK - A warning from Standard & Poor's that the agency might lower its rating on U.S. government debt sent stocks on their steepest slide in a month Monday. S&P said there is a 33 percent chance it would lower the country's credit rating from "AAA," its highest rating, in the next two years if Washington fails to pare the country's debts. The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 index, and the Nasdaq composite all had their sharpest falls since March 16. The Dow fell 140.24 points, or 1.14 percent, to close at 12,201.59.

President Bush yesterday signaled his determination to overhaul Social Security, even if it means piling up huge new government debt to pay for the transition to a partially privatized system. Underscoring his commitment to the issue, Bush invited 16 top congressional leaders - including eight Democrats - to the White House to promote his plan to let workers invest part of their Social Security taxes in the stock market and other investment vehicles. The President did not provide details of his proposal, but White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was willing to add to government debt to cover transition costs, which are estimated at $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years.

In 1981, the average price of a new home was $68,900, the government debt was under $1 trillion and the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. Today, the average new home sells for $117,000, the government debt is approaching $3 trillion and the minimum wage is still $3.35 an hour. Now that, too, may change. A bipartisan agreement reached yesterday makes it likely that the House will vote this week to raise the minimum wage to $4.55 an hour by autumn 1991. And the prospect that some type of increase will become law is better than at any time in the last eight years.