Fannie Earns $17.2B in 2012, Biggest Annual Gain
WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae earned $17.2 billion last year, the biggest annual profit in the U.S. mortgage giant’s history, helped by a record fourth quarter. The 2012 gain was driven by the housing recovery, which has reduced delinquencies and lifted home prices six years after the bubble burst. The government-controlled company also said Tuesday that it paid dividends of $11.6 billion to the U.S. Treasury in 2012. Fannie says it expects to remain profitable “for the foreseeable future.” The company did not seek any federal assistance in 2012. That followed a year in which the company reported a net loss of $16.9 billion and requested $25.9 billion in federal assistance. (MORE: Savings Booster: Making It Simpler to Repay Your 401(k) Loan) Taxpayers spent $188 billion to rescue Fannie and smaller sibling Freddie Mac from their exposure to risky loans that trigged the 2008 financial crisis. Fannie received $116 billion and has paid back $35.6 billion. Freddie received $72 billion and ...
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Lessons from Facebook’s Instagram Photo Flap
If you don’t follow tech news, you may have missed a bit of a kerfuffle this week involving Instagram, the popular photo service purchased by Facebook for $1 billion in April. Earlier in the week, Instagram announced plans to share your photos with advertisers, in some cases without notice or compensation. Instagram’s goal was clear: the service has tens of millions of users, but like its parent company Facebook (which has 1 billion users), Instagram is looking for ways to make money off of its users’ content, in this case photos. Keep in mind that at the time Facebook bought Instagram, it was generating zero revenue. Here’s the language in Instragram’s proposed policy that set off alarm bells: To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, ...
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