G7 to Meet Over U.S. Downgrade

In a sign of how concerned world leaders are about the weak global markets, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations would meet "in the coming days" over the United States' credit-rating downgrade. The G7 will also hold an emergency phone meeting Saturday or Sunday. The U.S. lost its top-tier AAA S&P credit rating Friday when the agency downgraded the country's long-term debt to AA+. The move was the first such U.S. downgrade in 70 years. Ministers are trying to come up with a plan of action after a week of drastic slides in the global markets, fueled by concerns that the euro-zone debt crisis was spreading and the U.S. was slipping into a double-dip recession.