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Members Only > AMA Member Challenge Archive
Answers to AMA Member Challenge
April 2008
Fannie Mae, the largest source of home mortgage funding in the U.S., was founded in 1938 as part of FDR’s New Deal. What is Fannie Mae’s formal name?
- Future Home Lien Association
- Federal National Mortgage Association
- Foundation for New Mortgage Acquisition
- Fiscal Neutrality Amortization Group
Correct answer: B Federal National Mortgage Association. Fannie Mae (or FNMA) mainly packages mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.) are in the news because federal regulators have reduced their required cash cushion, freeing up money to buy struggling borrowers’ mortgages.
2. What iconic rock star may long for yesterday—or any day—before a judge ordered him to pay a $48.6 million divorce settlement to his estranged wife Heather Mills?
- Leonard Cohen
- Bono
- Paul McCartney
- Eminem
Correct answer: C. Paul McCartney. McCartney and Mills have reportedly spent $20 million in legal fees since their split in 2006. A British judge awarded Mills $33 million plus $15.6 million in assets she now owns, plus $70,000 a year in child support.
3. At this year’s Macworld Expo, Apple introduced a three-pound, ¾ inch thin laptop that the New York Times called “A razor-thin slice of heaven.” Name this skinny marvel.
- MacBook Air
- MacBook Ultra
- MacBook Prodigy
- MacBook Essence
Correct answer: A. MacBook Air. Priced at $1,800, the MacBook Air comes with an 80GB hard drive and Bluetooth, but no internal CD/DVD drive. The battery is sealed within the unit (like the iPod’s) and can only be replaced by Apple, at a cost of $129.
4. Arena Pharmaceuticals has hefty hopes for its experimental drug lorcaserin, a fenfluramine-type drug used to treat what disorder?
- Obesity
- Depression
- Indigestion
- Dementia
Correct answer: A. Obesity. According to Reuters, lorcaserin is a serotonin activator like fenfluramine, half of the “fen-phen” diet pill that was recalled after being linked to heart valve problems. So far, lorcaserin has not caused the deadly side affect, and an independent safety review board has OK’d further trials.
5. Coming straight at you at your local multiplex: an onslaught of Hollywood films created in an updated, digital version of what faddish 50’s technology?
- Cinemascope
- Infrared
- Smell-a-vision
- 3-D
Correct answer: D. 3-D. Hollywood studios will subsidize the digital conversion of thousands of movie theaters to accommodate the new 3-D technology. Upcoming 3-D films include Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and Fly Me to the Moon, with as many as ten 3-D movies to follow in 2009.
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