September 25, 2002

Nassau County Legislature adopts plege of good sportsmanship law; debates over its merit have circulated on county's practive fields and in school parking lots, with parents and teenagers swapping horror stories about aggressive spectators and unruly players, and some in each group remaining skeptical about enforcement; teams and leagues will be responsible for enforcing law; photo (M)

Tyco International claimed profit on investment even as company lost money then used that profit as excuse to pay almost $24 million in bonuses to top managers with most of money going to former chief executive L Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark H Swartz; details of transaction, which occurred 15 months ago, have emerged in recent days and are raising questions about accuracy of company's profit reports; transaction appears to have provided clear economic loss for Tyco, which was forced to pay above-market price of 11 percent stake in Flag Telecom that has since gone bankrupt; Tyco's purchase of stake in Flag Telecom from Verizon Communications, which closed June 22, 2001, detailed; chart; photo (Market Place column) (M)

World Business Briefing: Britain: I

Federal Reserve leaves official interest rates unchanged, with two of 12 members of Open Market Committee taking rare step of opposing decision to back immediate rate cut; split does little to calm Wall Street, where Dow Jones industrial ends September 24 at 7,683.13, its lowest level in four years; marks first time since 1998 that two committee members simultaneously broke ranks with Chmn Alan Greenspan; highlights unease in Washington and markets about whether economy is at risk of stalling again; leaves investors and analysts uncertain about Fed's next step; comes as Democrats step up efforts to turn attention from possibility of war with Iraq to economy's problems and alleged failure of domestic leadership on part of Pres Bush and Republican Party; comments by Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and House minority leader Richard Gephardt noted; Pres Bush voices optimism; says productivity of American people, plus low interest rates and low inflation, are ingredients for growth; photo; graph (M)

Several hundred more investment bankers and traders are likely to lose their jobs before end of year as firms, including Goldman Sachs Group, try to reduce costs as market slump drags on; some firms like Lehman Brothers Holdings say they will try to avoid broad layoffs and will resort instead to paying smaller bonuses to many employees; Goldman Sachs reports 11 percent increase in third-quarter profit ended Aug 30; company earned $522 million, up from $468 million year earlier; overall revenue was flat at $3.65 billion; revenue from investment banking fell 40 percent, to $652 million; Lehman Brothers reports 37 percent decline in earnings; revenue from trading stocks and bonds dropped 63 percent, to $234 million, pulling down net revenue 17 percent, to $1.35 billion; net income dropped to $194 million, down from profit of $309 million last year; Goldman's chief financial officer David Viniar comments; graphs (M)