BUSINESS BRIEFS
Profit plunges for largest insurer
Associated Press
NEW YORK — American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, said yesterday its third-quarter profit dropped 27 percent, hurt by tight credit and the ailing U.S. housing market.
Shares dropped 3.3 percent, or $1.90, to $56 in after-hours trading, when the report was released.
PRODUCTIVITY UP, WAGE PRESSURE OFF
WASHINGTON — Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased.
The Labor Department reported that productivity — the amount of output per hour of work — jumped at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the July-September quarter.
At the same time, wage pressures eased. Unit labor costs dropped at an annual rate of 0.2 percent, the best showing in more than a year.
LENDER APPRAISAL DATA SUBPOENAED
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's subpoenas to government-sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sent another shock into the home mortgage industry.
The subpoenas seek to find out how the government-sponsored companies handle appraisals to see if lower-income home buyers were stuck with loans based on inflated appraised values.
The Democrat has accused a major appraiser of colluding with lenders to inflate home values and indebtedness for home buyers.
