Business week in review

Updated: September 15, 2007 - 4:33 PM

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MONDAY

Bottoming out? Twin Cities builders see signs that a dropoff in residential building permits may have hit bottom.

New figures show permits in August down 31 percent from a year ago but off only slightly from July.

Nevertheless, permits are down 34 percent for the first eight months of the year, compared with the comparable period in 2006.

TUESDAY

Healthy growth: Employee-sponsored health insurance premiums grew 6.1 percent in 2007, according to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.

The figure represents the slowest rise in several years, but Twin Cities companies and workers reported straining to pay the cost of health care, climbing at a pace far faster than wages.

WEDNESDAY

Card switch: After years of giving credit to many of its shoppers, Target has done an about-face and is pondering exiting its $7 billion charge-card business.

If Target sells the business, analysts estimate it could fetch $2 billion. Some analysts believe the discounter may be late to that move, now that credit concerns are depressing the prices of many leveraged assets.

The discounter could use the cash to open new stores or buy back outstanding stock.

THURSDAY

ATM boost: The era of the $3 charge for automatic teller machines may be near.

U.S. Bancorp is testing the charge on 300 machines in California, even as Bank of America bumps up the ATM fee on its machines nationwide.

The fees apply only to ATM users who don't have accounts with the bank.

An analyst said higher ATM fees are inevitable, as banks look to plump their bottom lines.

FRIDAY:

Anarchy in the UK? The mortgage mess surfaced in England, where financial authorities reported that they had provided liquidity to Northern Rock, one of that country's leading lenders.

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