Note 3 - Available-for-sale Investments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Notes to Financial Statements

Investments in Debt and Marketable Equity Securities (and Certain Trading Assets) Disclosure [Text Block]

3.

     Available-for-Sale Investments

At

December

31,

2015,

the Company held

$100

million of short-term investments (U.S. government and agency securities). At

December

31,

2016

and

2015,

the Company held long-term investments of

$29

million and

$33

million in asset-backed securities, respectively. The Company’s investments in available-for-sale securities are held at fair value with amortized cost of

$32

million and

$37

million at

December

31,

2016

and

2015,

respectively.

We have no plans to sell, nor do we believe it is more likely than not that we would be required to sell, the long-term investment asset-backed securities (which are collateralized by mortgages) before recovery of their amortized cost basis. It is possible that a significant degradation in the delinquency or foreclosure rates in the underlying assets could cause further temporary or other-than-temporary impairments in the future.

Proceeds from sales and maturities of short-term investments totaled

$121

million,

$1.6

billion and

$1.2

billion in

2016,

2015

and

2014,

respectively.