Blog Posts by Elizabeth Trotta

Multiple data points over recent months have suggested a housing market that’s recovering. Earnings from government-controlled mortgage heavyweight Fannie Mae on Tuesday offered the latest support for that observation; Fannie turned a profit of $17.2 billion for 2012, vs. a net loss of $16.9 billion for 2011. Its 2012 profit marks its biggest ever gain and the first in six years. Fannie said it was able to pay $11.6 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury Department last year and that it expects to remain profitable "for the foreseeable future."

Historically low mortgage rates have been attracting buyers and, particularly, refinancers in recent years. So far in 2013, the 30-year rate is up 0.23 -- at 3.57% last week, from 3.34% in the first reading of the year. It’s stayed above 3.5% since January. For perspective, even at 3.57% it’s still down from 3.99% a year earlier.

[Click for Mortgage Rates in Your Area]

The Mortgage Bankers Association, which updated its forecast in late

Lover.ly's homepage displayed on the screen of a laptop. (Photos: Siemond Chan)

Lover.ly, a New York City based business started by Kellee Khalil, at first glance looks like a Pinterest for weddings. But on this site, you don’t just discover ideas -- you also find items to buy and people to hire.

Even the simplest weddings are spun out of a massive, often chaotic business. Massive: More than $50 billion is spent on weddings in the U.S. annually, according to The Wedding Report. Chaotic: See New York City sidewalks littered with exhausted brides standing in line ahead of a sample sale, or the classic “Running of the Brides” event at Filene's Basement. Khalil's goal with Lover.ly is to stop the insanity and make wedding planning a prettier business.

The site aims to be “the intersection of inspiration and transaction,” says Khalil, who comes from a family of entrepreneurs. You don’t "pin" or "like" a dress – but you do love it, bundle it, rent it or buy it.

As you do on Pinterest, you search for highly specific combinations, such as “blue lace bridesmaid dress”

It’s almost here. The basketball, the sweat, the tears, the celebrations, the brackets and the highlighters that are March Madness.

Selection Sunday is March 17th, and after that, the NCAA tournament will kick off with the first set of four games on March 19-20 in Dayton, Ohio. That will be the initial stop for basketball fans on a magical road to the Final Four in Atlanta, culminating with the championship game on April 8.

The stops along the way include the second and third rounds, March 21-24, in Auburn Hills, Mich.; Lexington, Ky.; Salt Lake City; San Jose, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Dayton; Kansas City, Mo.; and Philadelphia.

Before closing the 2013 tournament in Atlanta, the four regionals will be held in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Arlington, Texas. Those locations will determine which teams will see their seasons end in Georgia, and most importantly, the one squad that will head home with the banner.

What could be better than seeing it firsthand? We asked online

There’s no love lost between political parties this Valentine's Day as lawmakers edge closer to the automatic cuts in federal spending referred to as sequestration.

Those reductions, an agreed-upon provision formulated during previous debt ceiling negotiations, are set to kick in March 1 if no resolution is reached, and they would carve $85 billion out of the government’s budget in the next seven months. President Obama and Democrats in the Senate are expected to unveil legislation Thursday to avoid sequestration. But the proposal, which reportedly includes items such as a minimum tax rate on those with earnings above $1 million, is not expected to make it through Republicans.

[Read More: Democrats to unveil bill to replace budget cuts]

With every day that passes, the sequester looks more likely, which has led JPMorgan economist Mike Feroli to lower his forecast for the nation's growth in 2013. JPMorgan’s previous outlook had assumed the cuts would be avoided. “That assumption is

Would a rose (or Research in Motion) by any other name smell as sweet -- or better? We will find out as the plans that Research in Motion laid out Wednesday unfold. The company unveiled two new mobile devices and used the occasion to announce that it's changing its name to BlackBerry and its ticker symbol to BBRY.

(Read more: RIM renames itself BlackBerry: Here’s how that name came to be)

Research in Motion, now Blackberry, isn't the first company to change its name. Some have done it outright and others have spun off into a companies with new names. Here are a few we've thought of.

Accenture (ACN) -- formerly Andersen Consulting

Altria (MO) - formerly Phillip Morris

Mondelez International (MDLZ) and Kraft Foods Group (KRFT) -- formerly Kraft Foods

Nintendo (NTDOY) -- formerly Marufuku, Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., and Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd.

Oracle (ORCL) -- formerly Software Development Laboratories

Panasonic (PC) -- formerly Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works

While fund flow numbers have been weak for the mutual fund industry this year, investors have poured money into exchange traded funds (ETFs), and are now positioning optimally for 2013.

According to ETFtrends.com, ETF assets are up 26% or $273 billion so far this year. This easily surpasses the $119 billion total seen in 2011 and is on track match the record set in 2008, according to Morningstar.

Despite more dollars in the space, there was a burst of smaller providers who "realized they can't keep products out there," says Todd Rosenbluth, developer of S&P Capital IQ ETF research and ranking methodology, which ranks 750 ETFs.

While there were 170 new ETFs and ETNs this year, there were 98 that closed as of December. In fact, so many failed that some dubbed it "The Year of the ETF Closure."

"There's been talk about closing ETFs, and that happens because some ideas don't stick," says Tom Lydon editor of ETFtrends.com, in the attached video. "But we continue to see net positive new ETFs in the marketplace."

Flows in 2012 were dominated by taxable bond ETFs, which have attracted a record $48 billion in inflows year-to-date, according to Morningstar. PIMCO Total Return ETF (BOND), the largest actively managed ETF and the most popular newcomer of 2012, has gained 10% since launching in February. With nearly $4 billion in assets already, Lydon predicts BOND will be dubbed "ETF launch of the year."

Heavy inflows to fixed income are likely to be a continuing trend in 2013 as investors hunt for yield with low cost structures, says S&P Capital IQ's Rosenbluth. Which corners do well will ultimately come down to risk tolerance -- whether money continues to flow heavily into high yield, for instance, depends naturally on the state of the economy. Investment grade bond ETFs -- which have a higher yield than Treasuries, but not that much more credit risk -- are likely to gain attention and are positioned to do well, he says.

What else is there to think about in 2013? Here are three more considerations:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ key monthly jobs report was one of the most anticipated economic data releases throughout 2012.  Reaction to the numbers ran the gamut from disappointment and pleasant surprise to pure befuddlement. The data served as an indicator for the economic recovery and helped fire up a contentious debate ahead of the presidential election. So is America getting back to work?

With data on all but the final month of the year out, it's clear the economy is growing, slowly and deliberately -- slowly perhaps being the key word.  One way to look at it: in the first half of the year, the U.S. averaged an addition of 146.6K jobs each month. In the second half (minus December data), it averaged 167.6k new jobs per month. But on a monthly basis, the U.S. started out 2012 on a jobs growth note it was unable to match for the rest of the year, with 275,000 jobs added in January. From there, the numbers went downhill and in April hit a span in which the economy mustered just

A crucial jobs issue hangs on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations: will lawmakers extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans?

Jobless benefits for the roughly 2.1 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months will expire at the end of December. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that an extension of these benefits would cost the government nearly $30 billion.

Lawmakers already cut back federal jobless benefits to a maximum of 73 weeks, from 99 (although some states, such as New York, ultimately still offered a combination of benefits totaling 99 weeks for those who exhausted all available emergency unemployment compensation). In general, states provide 20 to 26 weeks of benefits for eligible workers and then federal benefits cover up to 47 more weeks. The extent of federal benefits varies based on each state's unemployment rate. The higher the rate, the greater the number of weeks.

The CBO estimates that unemployment insurance benefits