NEW YORK (Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services is finding itself in a rare position, winning praise for warning it may downgrade the sovereign debt of 15 European countries.

The move, along with a similar warning by S&P that it could cut the credit rating on the euro zone’s financial bailout fund, served as a call to action on the need to truly tackle the euro zone debt crisis ahead of a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday.

The threat to downgrade ratings on most of the euro zone, including cutting the top-tier ratings of economic powerhouses Germany and France, has put the meeting’s participants on notice.

“This is a call to action.” said Leo Grohowski, who helps manage $170 billion as chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management.

Some investors think European leaders have postponed hard decisions, in part because of the complex interplay between economic and political factors.

“Authorities have been willing to play the ‘kick the can down the road’ game. At some point, the can started kicking back,” said James Chanos, president and founder of the hedge fund Kynikos Associates, who has been a short seller of European bank stocks.

Most hedge fund managers and institutional investors at the Reuters 2012 Investment Outlook Summit in London and New York this week believe that, ultimately, Europe will “muddle through” its debt crisis.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States faces only limited fallout from the euro zone debt crisis and the struggling European economy, a situation that bodes well for U.S. equity markets in 2012, top U.S. money managers said on Monday.

Hedge fund managers and institutional investors at the Reuters 2012 Investment Outlook Summit in New York said the chances for a recession in the world’s largest economy look very low and Europe’s struggles will be no more than a headwind.

“We’ve been able to segregate U.S. economic activity from European economic activity. I don’t know how we’ve done it, but we’ve done it,” said Tom Sowanick, chief investment officer at OmniVest LLC in Princeton, New Jersey.

Signs of recession are proliferating in parts of Europe, where leaders from France and Germany outlined a plan on Monday to impose more budget discipline.

But in the United States, leading indicators are strong and on the rise, said Kenneth Fisher, a billionaire investor and author whose money management firm oversees $40 billion in assets.

“You can’t find a recession recently when the leading economic indicators have been high and rising. And they are now,” said Fisher. “The odds of a recession any time soon, like in 2012, are close to zero.”

The leading economic indicator of the Conference Board, an industry group, rose 0.9 percent in October, extending a 0.1 percent increase in September and a 0.3 percent jump in August. The index is composed of 10 components designed to flag patterns and inflection points in the U.S. economy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Major college football postseason bowls spurned Penn State on Sunday because of the recent sex abuse scandal, and the Nittany Lions instead will play in a far less prominent game than its record suggests.

Jerry Sandusky, 67, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, was charged in November with multiple counts of sexually abusing eight young boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky has denied he abused the boys.

The scandal badly damaged the image of the powerhouse college football program and forced out its legendary head coach Joe Paterno.

Penn State had the fourth best record in the Big 10 conference this season at nine wins and three losses, and would have gone to one of the most prominent bowls in a normal year, college football analysts said.

But the Nittany Lions were not selected until the seventh bowl pick from among Big 10 teams and will play the University of Houston in the lowly TicketCity Bowl in Dallas on Jan 2, the teams announced.

“We feel a little disappointed we got passed up by some teams we beat in the Big Ten,” Drew Astorino, a senior Penn State football player, said on the Big Ten Network after the announcement.

Three teams Penn State beat during the season — Northwestern, Ohio State, and Iowa — were selected higher in the bowl pecking order. While the officials who select teams for bowls are encouraged to follow the form chart, they are not required to do so.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain heads home from the campaign trail to Atlanta on Friday for an unconventional strategy meeting that could decide the fate of his White House bid – with his wife.

The one-time front-runner has been rocked by allegations this week of a long-term extra-marital affair, on top of recent claims of sexual harassment by four women.

The former pizza company executive, 65, will be face to face with his wife, Gloria, for the first time since Ginger White of Atlanta on Monday revealed a 13-year, on-and-off relationship with Cain that started in the mid-1990s.

Cain has said he will “reassess” his candidacy, with a decision likely by Monday of next week, and that he would drop out of the race if his wife asked him to.

“I will put her first. But she is not the type to say ‘You ought to get out,’” he said in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday.

Cain also told the newspaper his wife of 43 years knew nothing about his involvement with, and financial support for, White. He has maintained the pair were just friends.

White, 45, spoke about the relationship on MSNBC on Thursday, saying they did not have a “love affair.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain heads home from the campaign trail to Atlanta on Friday for an unconventional strategy meeting that could decide the fate of his White House bid – with his wife.

The one-time front-runner has been rocked by allegations this week of a long-term extra-marital affair, on top of recent claims of sexual harassment by four women.

The former pizza company executive, 65, will be face to face with his wife, Gloria, for the first time since Ginger White of Atlanta on Monday revealed a 13-year, on-and-off relationship with Cain that started in the mid-1990s.

Cain has said he will “reassess” his candidacy, with a decision likely by Monday of next week, and that he would drop out of the race if his wife asked him to.

“I will put her first. But she is not the type to say ‘You ought to get out,’” he said in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday.

Cain also told the newspaper his wife of 43 years knew nothing about his involvement with, and financial support for, White. He has maintained the pair were just friends.

White, 45, spoke about the relationship on MSNBC on Thursday, saying they did not have a “love affair.”

BOSTON (Reuters) – For many years, Rebeccah Pearson, a retail store manager in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was among the state residents who had to forego medical insurance. “It was pretty much pay rent and eat, or go to the doctor. I chose the rent and food,” she recalls. “I would have to save up for two months before going to the doctor because it was ridiculously expensive.”

When the state enacted comprehensive healthcare reform in 2006, Pearson, then 30, was able to buy into a subsidized Commonwealth Care insurance program. Then she made her first doctor’s visit in several years, complaining of fatigue.

Doctors found “a mass the size of a fist” on Pearson’s fallopian tubes. If surgery had not been performed urgently, the cyst could have ruptured and killed her.

“I am alive today because of Mitt Romney,” she says. “I want to reach out and give him a hug.”

At this juncture in the Republican primary, however, Romney might shrink from the embrace. Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation statewide healthcare program has become an issue in the presidential campaign because one of its chief architects, then-governor Romney, is now trying to distance himself from the program, which is similar to the federal healthcare reforms promoted by President Barack Obama.

The “individual mandate” in both plans, which penalizes any citizen who does not obtain insurance coverage, is considered intrusive and even unconstitutional by Romney’s rivals for the nomination.

In a different political climate, however, Romney could just as easily claim Massachusetts healthcare reform as the signature achievement of his administration. Five years into the program, which launched in June, 2006, there is enough data to evaluate some of the brightest claims and biggest fears about the reforms.

BOSTON (Reuters) – For many years, Rebeccah Pearson, a retail store manager in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was among the state residents who had to forego medical insurance. “It was pretty much pay rent and eat, or go to the doctor. I chose the rent and food,” she recalls. “I would have to save up for two months before going to the doctor because it was ridiculously expensive.”

When the state enacted comprehensive healthcare reform in 2006, Pearson, then 30, was able to buy into a subsidized Commonwealth Care insurance program. Then she made her first doctor’s visit in several years, complaining of fatigue.

Doctors found “a mass the size of a fist” on Pearson’s fallopian tubes. If surgery had not been performed urgently, the cyst could have ruptured and killed her.

“I am alive today because of Mitt Romney,” she says. “I want to reach out and give him a hug.”

At this juncture in the Republican primary, however, Romney might shrink from the embrace. Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation statewide healthcare program has become an issue in the presidential campaign because one of its chief architects, then-governor Romney, is now trying to distance himself from the program, which is similar to the federal healthcare reforms promoted by President Barack Obama.

The “individual mandate” in both plans, which penalizes any citizen who does not obtain insurance coverage, is considered intrusive and even unconstitutional by Romney’s rivals for the nomination.

In a different political climate, however, Romney could just as easily claim Massachusetts healthcare reform as the signature achievement of his administration. Five years into the program, which launched in June, 2006, there is enough data to evaluate some of the brightest claims and biggest fears about the reforms.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New Hampshire’s largest newspaper endorsed Newt Gingrich in the Republican presidential race on Sunday, giving the former House speaker a boost in a state where Mitt Romney has been expected to excel.

The endorsement validates Gingrich’s recent rise as a candidate — months after many political pundits thought his campaign was as good as over following a series of missteps — and is a blow to Romney’s aspirations.

“Newt Gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate,” the New Hampshire Union Leader said in an editorial. “But Republican primary voters too often make the mistake of preferring an unattainable ideal to the best candidate who is actually running.”

The conservative-leaning newspaper, the only state-wide daily, is influential in New Hampshire, where the January 10 Republican primary is seen as crucial for candidates hoping to build campaign momentum.

The newspaper said Gingrich “has the experience, the leadership qualities and the vision to lead this country in these trying times” and praised his “innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership.”

“A lot of candidates say they’re going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again,” it said.

This month Gingrich surged to the front of the national Republican field. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed him with 24 percent support, compared to Romney’s 22 percent.