DIGEST
Darcy Bradbury, assistant treasury secretary for financial markets, will resign early in October to return to the private sector. Bradbury advises Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and other senior officials on federal debt management. She also projects the government's short- and long-term borrowing needs, helps set Treasury auction rules and the types of securities to be sold. A Treasury official said Bradbury, a former investment banker who lives with her husband and two sons in New York, "will pursue opportunities on Wall Street." No replacement has yet been named but Roger Anderson, deputy assistant secretary for federal finance, will assume her duties.</br></br>Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Eaton said he expected the company's next labor contract with the United Auto Workers to have more in common with Ford's UAW pact than with Chrysler's own recent agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union. Its tentative agreement with the CAW limits the automaker's ability to eliminate jobs through shifting work to outside suppliers.</br></br>General Magic, an Internet software producer, said that Marc Porat plans to step down as chief executive, and Robert Kelsch has resigned as president. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said the functions of president, CEO and chairman will be combined into a single position, which will be immediately filled by Steve Markman, who had been executive vice president and general manager of the Novell products group.</br></br>Mortgage rates fell this week. A Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. survey showed the interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 8.14 percent this week from 8.28 percent last week. Rates on 15-year fixed mortgages fell to 7.64 percent from 7.81 percent, and the average initial rate on adjustable-rate loans fell to 5.83 percent from 5.90 percent.</br></br>Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin announced a new task force to guide the government in supporting and regulating the revolution in electronic money: "smart" cards, debit cards, electronic benefits transfer and other services. The panel will include members of Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the FTC. Rubin compared the industry's changes to "when the agricultural age ended and the industrial age began."