Obama eyes "dominant role" for private mortgages (Reuters)

Reuters - The Obama administration on Friday said it wants to gradually reduce the government's support for the U.S. housing market so that the private sector can play "the dominant role."

Obama aims for sharp drop in gov't-backed mortgages (Reuters)

Reuters - The Obama administration has plans to reduce the role of government backed mortgages, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to less than 50 percent of the market from a dominant role today, CNBC reported on Friday.

BofA's Moynihan ends tough year, more work ahead (AP)

AP - It should come as no surprise that Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America Corp., wants to put 2010 behind him.

6 Music closure threat sparks 8,000 complaints second only to Sachsgate and Jerry Springer: The Opera

The proposed closure of BBC 6 Music has prompted one of the biggest complaints campaigns ever directed at the BBC, figures showed today. Corporation bosses have now received nearly 8,000 complaints in a week and a half, as people object to the axing of the digital service. It has made the closure one of the hottest topics in terms of complaints with which the BBC has had to deal. Levels rarely reach beyond three figures. Only the Sachsgate scandal and the BBC's decision to broadcast Jerry Springer: The Opera have drawn more complaints directly to the BBC. In both those cases upset was directed against specific broadcasts, rather than being sparked by an entire service. Yesterday the station celebrated its eighth birthday, prompting artists Damien Hirst and Gary Hume to design and send birthday cards to the threatened radio station to register their protests. They joined the growing opposition to the axing of the digital service - eight years old today - which was outlined last week in the BBC's strategic review. The station is earmarked for closure, with another digital service, Asian Network, under proposals published by BBC director general Mark Thompson. The Asian Network has drawn 624 complaints about closure. When the BBC was planning to axe long-running music series Top Of The Pops, the BBC received only 143 complaints which shows the current level of feeling. Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's prank calls to Andrew Sachs in 2008 prompted more than 42,000 complaints, while the Springer broadcast led to a total of 63,000, although only 8,000 of these were after the broadcast. The flames were fanned for both of these by vociferous lobbies with religious groups involved in one and newspaper campaigns in the other. The corporation is directing those who are unhappy at the 6 Music proposals to register their views with the BBC Trust which is conducting a public consultation. The BBC said today: "It is absolutely right that licence fee-payers have an opportunity to have their say on big decisions like service closures before final conclusions are reached and that is why the BBC Trust is running a public consultation in which we hope as many people as possible will participate." A number of high profile names have voiced their concerns about the closure including Radiohead and David Bowie, as well as Jarvis Cocker who has a show on the station. Former culture secretary James Purnell has also expressed his concerns for the station. A Save 6 Music page on social networking site Facebook, where more than 157,000 people have signed up to the campaign. Opponents to the plan are being asked to register their views by contacting the BBC Trust. The Trust said it has had a "high level" of contact from the public over the 6 Music proposals although it was not able to give figures until the end of the consultation. It will also consider the level of feelings shown via petitions and online activities. The BBC says the closure of 6 Music - which has an audience of 695,000 - will lead to annual savings of £9 million which will be directed to other digital radio programming.