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Letter to the editor

Consumers back in borrowing mood

By Times Wires
Published January 9, 2008

WASHINGTON

Consumer borrowing rebounded in November as credit card debt shot up by the largest amount in six months. The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that consumer borrowing rose at an annual rate of 7.4 percent in November, far higher than the 1 percent rise in October. The category that includes credit card debt surged at an annual rate of 11.3 percent, a six-month high, reflecting the fact that shoppers are continuing to rely heavily on their credit cards to finance purchases since home equity lines of credit have become harder to get.

Report says IRS security is poor

Internal Revenue Service records, including taxpayer information, are vulnerable to tampering or disclosure because the tax agency has not yet fixed dozens of information security weaknesses, says a government report issued Tuesday. Existing problems, the congressional Government Accountability Office said, include giving too many people access to sensitive data, failure to encrypt sensitive data and weak physical security controls. The GAO said a reason is that the IRS has not yet fully implemented an agencywide information security program. "Until these weaknesses are corrected, the agency remains particularly vulnerable to insider threats," including unauthorized access to taxpayer information; disclosure, modification or destruction of that information; and disruption of operations and services, the report said.

NEW YORK

AT&T shares drop after CEO's speech

AT&T Inc.'s shares tumbled Tuesday after chairman and chief executive Randall Stephenson said the telecom carrier is experiencing some slowdown in its consumer business segments. Speaking at Citi's Entertainment, Media and Telecom Conference, Stephenson said the bulk of the weakness is coming from service disconnections because of non-payment of its access lines and home broadband services. But he added that so far, the slowing U.S. economy has not hurt the company's wireless or enterprise businesses. AT&T's shares fell $1.87, or 4.6 percent, to $39.16 Tuesday.

MIAMI

Progress signs with repair agency

Homeserve said Monday that it had signed a three-year marketing agreement with Progress Energy. The company, which is headquartered in London and has a U.S. base in Miami, can now market policies for water heater repair and replacement to the company's 2.6-million customers. North Carolina-based Progress Energy is the parent company of St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy Florida, which has more than 1.7-million customers. Homeserve offers policies that cover around-the-clock fixes for water heaters.

Times staff and wires

[Last modified January 8, 2008, 23:57:01]