Government Bonds

The seemingly endless stacks of filing cabinets inside a West Virginia warehouse could hold the answer to an unsolved mystery: Who owns nearly $17 billion in lost government bonds? The unclaimed treasure represents the amount of U.S. bonds that have matured but not been redeemed. Many of these outstanding bonds date to World War II, but over the years the certificates were forgotten in cellars, lost in fires or tossed out in the trash. Unless they are found, the U.S. government can keep the loans, interest free.

NEW YORK — The investment landscape can be a scary place. This year's stock market surge has stalled and the market is too choppy to provide any sort of reassurance. Savings accounts earn practically nothing. Bonds, a traditional haven, seem like a poor choice because interest rates are likely to go up. The stocks people invest in for safe, steady income, like utilities and health care, aren't as cheap as they used to be. The Associated Press asked five experts where they're putting their...

The European Central Bank moved decisively Thursday in announcing that it would buy the bonds of struggling governments without limit, an initiative that could save the euro zone and blunt one of the main threats menacing the global economy. The unprecedented step, meant to reassure fearful investors that euro-zone governments would not default, sparked a rally on world stock markets. U.S. stock indices posted their largest gains in weeks, with the S&P 500 soaring 2 percent and closing at a...

DID NOT: A top European Central Bank official rejected accusations that the bank has exceeded its powers during the financial crisis, telling Germany's supreme court that its bond-buying program was only a tool to ensure that its monetary policy works. DID TO: The Federal Constitutional Court held a second day of hearings to weigh allegations that the ECB's plan to purchase government bonds amounted to financing for governments, which is illegal. Critics also say it exposes taxpayers to...

The big banks have opted in. Some pension and hedge funds have opted out. Late Thursday in Athens, Greek officials will begin the final tally of a massive debt write-down to see if enough investors have agreed to participate to allow them to declare the program a successful step on the way back to solvency, receive a new round of international loans — and perhaps put the worst of their crisis behind them. It is an epochal moment, the formal end of an era in which the debts of sovereign...

Standard & Poor's announced Friday night that it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time, dealing a symbolic blow to the world's economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system. Lowering the nation's rating to one notch below AAA , the credit rating company said "political brinkmanship" in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government's ability to manage its finances "less stable, less effective and less predictable.

After he switched to the Republican Party in 1962, Ronald Reagan famously quipped: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me. " Now, the Republican Party is doing the same thing to him — and Democrats are happy to take Reagan back. At Tuesday morning's meeting of the House Democrats, caucus chairman John Larson rallied his colleagues for the day's debt-limit debate by playing an audio recording of the 40th president . "Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its...

TOKYO — Until a couple of months ago, Takashi Yamada had one of the most genteel jobs in Japan. Now, his days are so harried he doesn't have time to eat lunch. Yamada, 45, is a government-bond trader at major brokerage Daiwa Securities Co. Shock-and-Awe monetary policies, announced in April, have sent Japanese government bonds, this nation's equivalent of U.S. Treasurys, into a whirl of volatility. "Our job is about interest rates, and that's supposed to be...

KARLSRUHE, Germany — Top European financial officials testified Tuesday for and against a European Central Bank program that has been instrumental in calming the euro debt crisis as it faced a legal challenge in Germany's highest court. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is considering arguments against the ECB's program, which has been credited with easing turmoil in bond markets in the 17-country eurozone but which some say oversteps the ECB's mandate. ...

A new federal rule aimed at limiting risky behavior by banks is prompting protests from local and foreign governments alike, which warn it could make it harder for them to borrow money for public projects and operations. State and local officials say the new regulation, known as the Volcker Rule , could make it more expensive for them to raise money from investors to pay, for instance, for environmental cleanup and housing assistance. In the Washington area, the rule could affect borrowing costs...

THE HEARING: Top European financial officials weighed in both for and against a European Central Bank program that has been instrumental in calming the euro debt crisis as it faced a legal challenge in Germany's highest court. GERMANS ARE SPLIT: The ECB's program has been credited with easing turmoil in bond markets in the 17-country Eurozone, but critics say it oversteps the central bank's mandate and threatens the independence of Germany's monetary policy. THE PROGRAM: The ECB is offering...

KARLSRUHE, Germany — Top European financial officials testified Tuesday for and against a European Central Bank program that has been instrumental in calming the euro debt crisis as it faced a legal challenge in Germany's highest court. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is considering arguments against the ECB's program, which has been credited with easing turmoil in bond markets in the 17-country eurozone but which some say oversteps the ECB's mandate. ...

A WARNING: European Central Bank executive board member Joerg Asmussen says a German court judgment against the bank's program to buy the bonds of troubled economies could reignite concerns over the future of the euro. THE HEARING: Germany's Federal Constitutional Court holds a two-day hearing starting Tuesday on the ECB's offer last September to purchase unlimited amounts of government bonds, a policy widely credited for an easing in Europe's debt crisis. It will...

TOKYO — Until a couple of months ago, Takashi Yamada had one of the most genteel jobs in Japan. Now, his days are so harried he doesn't have time to eat lunch. Yamada, 45, is a government-bond trader at major brokerage Daiwa Securities Co. Shock-and-Awe monetary policies, announced in April, have sent Japanese government bonds, this nation's equivalent of U.S. Treasurys, into a whirl of volatility. "Our job is about interest rates, and that's supposed to...

Redskin leaves Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, a Pro Bowl selection and free agent, agreed to a contract with Arizona. D3 Search for a serial groper The number of stealth attacks in Springfield rose to 22 this week despite an intensive manhunt. B1 Foreign the world The carcasses of nearly 6,000 pigs have surfaced in rivers upstream from Shanghai, causing panic. A7 Xi Jinping, who will take the ceremonial title of president on Thursday, has launched a ­sophisticated public ­relations strategy in his...

Successful bond auctions in Spain and Ireland this week marked a further defusing of the euro zone's financial crisis , with Spanish borrowing rates dipping below 5 percent and Ireland steadily regaining trust among investors. The decline in borrowing costs, even in a nation such as Ireland, which remains under an international bailout program, was cited Thursday by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi as one of a growing set of statistics that indicate a calming of euro-zone tensions.

Spain's economic problems are deepening, pushing the country closer to an international bailout that U.S. and European officials worry could destabilize the global economy. The risk that the euro zone's fourth-largest country may need a massive dose of outside help is forcing the region's leaders to accelerate weighty decisions they had expected to consider over time. These include deciding whether the euro-zone countries should begin issuing bonds that they all jointly back, a step that...

BERLIN — A top European Central Bank official has warned that a German court judgment against the bank's program to buy the bonds of troubled economies could reignite concerns over the future of the euro. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, the country's highest, holds a two-day hearing starting Tuesday centering partly on the ECB's offer last September to purchase unlimited amounts of government bonds, a policy that has been widely credited for an easing in...