Questions
Between March 2000 and July 2002 the stock market lost almost 3.5 trillion of vaule and...

Between March 2000 and July 2002 the stock market lost almost 3.5 trillion of vaule and yet consumers spending was still high. Why was there no negative wealth effect?

In: Economics

QUESTION 3 (20) Illustrate the concept of Corporate Governance and critically examine the role of the...

QUESTION 3 (20) Illustrate the concept of Corporate Governance and critically examine the role of the Board of Directors and Risk Management in line with the King II report on Corporate Governance (2002)

In: Operations Management

Do you think that Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been a success...

Do you think that Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been a success or do you think that the requirements are not worth the cost? Pease explain in detail

In: Accounting

Discuss the major components of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Corporate Governance? Please answer in...

Discuss the major components of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Corporate Governance?

Please answer in the form of paragraph, no bullet points or numerical and I will rate. Thank you in advance!

In: Operations Management

You have just been hired as the new treasurer of an Australian firm called Sun Solar...

You have just been hired as the new treasurer of an Australian firm called Sun Solar Panels (SSP). SSP produces commercial solar panels. It is a well established brand in both the UK and
New Zealand. In fact, it distributes (sells) its entire output to UK and New Zealand retailers. These sales are made through SSP’s UK and New Zealand subsidiaries which act as distributors of the product. Each wholesale transaction in the UK is settled in GBP and each wholesale transaction in New Zealand is settled in NZD. SSP's board is made up of seven directors. Four of these directors are family members who founded the business. Three are from outside the family but also from solar panels’ sales backgrounds. None have any finance or accounting education or experience. The raw materials used to make the solar panels are sourced from Indonesia. The solar panels are manufactured in Australia.
About 30% of manufacturing costs can be attributed to labour, 50% to raw material costs and 20% to other expenses (factory space, electricity etc.). Based on current exchange rates and
cost structures, the average wholesale price of a commercial solar panel is AUD$10 000 and the cost to manufacture such a panel is AUD$5,000. SSP strives to maintain this margin.
Average order size is 20 solar panels. The manufacture and sales processes work as follows:
Step 1: a UK or New Zealand retailer enters into a sales contract with SSP's local subsidiary (ie.
SSP's New Zealand or UK subsidiary). The sales contract stipulates that delivery will occur in
three months. The price in local currency (ie. GBP or NZD) is also stipulated in the contract.
Step 2: After the sales contract is executed, SSP immediately orders raw materials from
Indonesia. This order stipulates a six week delivery of raw materials and the price of the raw
materials which is denominated in IDR.
Step 3: After receiving the raw materials and settling the account with the Indonesian supplier
in IDR, the company manufactures the product as per the sales contract and ships the product
off to the UK or New Zealand.
Step 4: After receiving the finished product, the UK or New Zealand customer pays for the
goods. SSP is about to engage in a new investment project which it will fund through a debt
facility of AUD$100 million and wants protection against increases in interest rates over the next
five years. SSP also has purchased 10 fixed income securities using retained earnings each with
a face value of AUD$1 million with five years to maturity and a coupon rate of 10% paid once
per annum. The issuer has a call provision which enables them to prepay the debt at any time.
Currently the Company has no definitive strategies on managing financial risk.
Your task (Report Part I):
Your mandate (task for this assessment item) is to prepare a ‘Business Case’ with recommendations for your board that pitches the need for a systematic financial risk management strategy and the financial derivatives and tools that could be used as part of this strategy. The business case should focus on the next 12 month period. This business case should be
prepared as a report. The structure of the report should be appropriate to your audience, include an executive summary and address each of the following questions.

Question 1
Clearly outline the reasons why SSP’s board should have a financial risk management strategy in place.

Question 2
For risks associated with the ordering and sales process described above:
1. Identify and explain the financial risk that SSP is potentially exposed to. Use examples of possible scenarios that may occur for SSP to illustrate the nature of these risks.
2. Using examples, explain how the risk can be managed using futures.
3. Aside from a futures based risk management strategy, you should identify and explain three additional risk management strategies using three alternative Over-The-Counter
(OTC) derivatives.

In: Finance

Year   Commodities%   Services% 1960 0.9 3.4 1961   0.6 1.7 1962 0.9    2.0 1963 0.9 2.0...

Year   Commodities%   Services%
1960 0.9 3.4
1961   0.6 1.7
1962 0.9    2.0
1963 0.9 2.0
1964 1.2 2.0
1965 1.1 2.3
1966 2.6 3.8
1967 1.9 4.3
1968 3.5 5.2
1969 4.7 6.9
1970 4.5 8.0
1971 3.6 5.7
1972 3.0 3.8
1973 7.4 4.4
1974 11.9 9.2
1975 8.8 9.6
1976 4.3 8.3
1977 5.8 7.7
1978 7.2 8.6
1979 11.3 11.0
1980 12.3 15.4
1981 8.4 13.1
1982 4.1 9.0
1983 2.9 3.5
1984 3.4 5.2
1985   2.1 5.1
1986   -0.9 5.0
1987 3.2 4.2
1988 3.5 4.6
1989 4.7 4.9
1990 5.2 5.5
1991 3.1 5.1
1992 2.0 3.9
1993 1.9 3.9
1994 1.7 3.3
1995 1.9 3.4
1996 2.6 3.2
1997 1.4 3.0
1998 0.1 2.7
1999 1.8 2.5
2000 3.3 3.4
2001 1.0 4.1
2002 -0.7 3.1
2003 1.0 3.2
2004 2.3 2.9
2005 3.6 3.3
2006 2.4 3.8

Use Data Set J, U.S. annual Percent Inflation in Prices of Commodities and Services (n=47), on page 536 of your textbook to answer the following questions. Commodities percentage (Commodities %) is the independent, variable and Services percentage (Services%) is the dependent variable. Data are year-to-year percent changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in these two categories. The data file, Inflation, may be found on Canvas under Modules under Chapter 12 Textbook Data Files. Use MINITAB to obtain the simple regression equation, confidence interval, prediction interval, and required graphs. Insert tables and graphs in your report as appropriate. All interpretations should be in terms of the problem (data).

Use Minitab and produce the appropriate output to answer the following questions. Attach the output. Construct a scatter plot. Recalling what scatter plots are used for, write a couple of sentences addressing what you observed from the plot. Be sure to relate your observations to the purpose of using scatter plots in regression. (4 points)

Can we conclude that year-to-year changes in Commodities percentage (Commodities%) helps in predicting year-to year changes in Services percentage (Services%)? Follow and show the 7 steps for hypothesis testing. (12 points)

Find the sample regression equation and interpret the coefficients. Remember your interpretations should be in terms of the problem. (4 points)

Find the coefficient of determination, and interpret its value. (3 points)

Use residual analysis to check the validity of the model and fully explain your findings and conclusions. (6 points)

Estimate with 95% confidence the average year-to-year Services percentage for when all year-to-year Commodities change is 3.0%. Predict with 95% confidence the estimated Services percentage when an individual year’s Commodities change is 3.0%. Write at least one sentence using your confidence interval and at least one sentence using your prediction interval. (8 points)

Verify that the p-value for the F is the same as the slope’s t statistic’s p-value, and show that t2 = F. (3 points)

Attach or include relevant Minitab output to support your results in parts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). (4 points)

In: Statistics and Probability

What is the difference between a debt/income ratio and a debt serving ratio? What impact on...

What is the difference between a debt/income ratio and a debt serving ratio? What impact on both measures did the monetary policy from the late 1990s to 2004 have?

In: Economics

The population data for a certain country are as follows:

The population data for a certain country are as follows:

Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Population (millions) 10 10.9 11.7 12.6 13.8 14.9

 

Obtain a function that describes these data. Plot the function and the data on the same plot. Estimate when the population will be double its 2004 size.

In: Mechanical Engineering

Here is another article for you to discuss. It's a little challenging, so you'll need to...

Here is another article for you to discuss. It's a little challenging, so you'll need to read it carefully. Post your reactions to this thread. What do you think the author is arguing here? Does he make good arguments? Why or why not? And do you agree with him?

New York Times
July 23, 2006
Conspiracy Theories 101
By STANLEY FISH
Kevin Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has now taken his place alongside Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado as a college teacher whose views on 9/11 have led politicians and ordinary citizens to demand that he be fired.
Mr. Barrett, who has a one-semester contract to teach a course titled “Islam: Religion and Culture,” acknowledged on a radio talk show that he has shared with students his strong conviction that the destruction of the World Trade Center was an inside job perpetrated by the American government. The predictable uproar ensued, and the equally predictable battle lines were drawn between those who disagree about what the doctrine of academic freedom does and does not allow.
Mr. Barrett’s critics argue that academic freedom has limits and should not be invoked to justify the dissemination of lies and fantasies. Mr. Barrett’s supporters (most of whom are not partisans of his conspiracy theory) insist that it is the very point of an academic institution to entertain all points of view, however unpopular. (This was the position taken by the university’s provost, Patrick Farrell, when he ruled on July 10 that Mr. Barrett would be retained: “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas.”)
Both sides get it wrong. The problem is that each assumes that academic freedom is about protecting the content of a professor’s speech; one side thinks that no content should be ruled out in advance; while the other would draw the line at propositions (like the denial of the Holocaust or the flatness of the world) considered by almost everyone to be crazy or dangerous.
But in fact, academic freedom has nothing to do with content. It is not a subset of the general freedom of Americans to say anything they like (so long as it is not an incitement to violence or is treasonous or libelous). Rather, academic freedom is the freedom of academics to study anything they like; the freedom, that is, to subject any body of material, however unpromising it might seem, to academic interrogation and analysis.
Academic freedom means that if I think that there may be an intellectual payoff to be had by turning an academic lens on material others consider trivial — golf tees, gourmet coffee, lingerie ads, convenience stores, street names, whatever — I should get a chance to try. If I manage to demonstrate to my peers and students that studying this material yields insights into matters of general intellectual interest, there is a new topic under the academic sun and a new subject for classroom discussion.
In short, whether something is an appropriate object of academic study is a matter not of its content — a crackpot theory may have had a history of influence that well rewards scholarly scrutiny — but of its availability to serious analysis. This point was missed by the author of a comment posted to the blog of a University of Wisconsin law professor, Ann Althouse: “When is the University of Wisconsin hiring a professor of astrology?” The question is obviously sarcastic; its intention is to equate the 9/11-inside-job theory with believing in the predictive power of astrology, and to imply that since the university wouldn’t think of hiring someone to teach the one, it should have known better than to hire someone to teach the other.
But the truth is that it would not be at all outlandish for a university to hire someone to teach astrology — not to profess astrology and recommend it as the basis of decision-making (shades of Nancy Reagan), but to teach the history of its very long career. There is, after all, a good argument for saying that Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dante, among others, cannot be fully understood unless one understands astrology.
The distinction I am making — between studying astrology and proselytizing for it — is crucial and can be generalized; it shows us where the line between the responsible and irresponsible practice of academic freedom should always be drawn. Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply.
And this is where we come back to Mr. Barrett, who, in addition to being a college lecturer, is a member of a group calling itself Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization with the decidedly political agenda of persuading Americans that the Bush administration “not only permitted 9/11 to happen but may even have orchestrated these events.”
Is the fact of this group’s growing presence on the Internet a reason for studying it in a course on 9/11? Sure. Is the instructor who discusses the group’s arguments thereby endorsing them? Not at all. It is perfectly possible to teach a viewpoint without embracing it and urging it. But the moment a professor does embrace and urge it, academic study has ceased and been replaced by partisan advocacy. And that is a moment no college administration should allow to occur.
Provost Farrell doesn’t quite see it that way, because he is too hung up on questions of content and balance. He thinks that the important thing is to assure a diversity of views in the classroom, and so he is reassured when Mr. Barrett promises to surround his “unconventional” ideas and “personal opinions” with readings “representing a variety of viewpoints.”
But the number of viewpoints Mr. Barrett presents to his students is not the measure of his responsibility. There is, in fact, no academic requirement to include more than one view of an academic issue, although it is usually pedagogically useful to do so. The true requirement is that no matter how many (or few) views are presented to the students, they should be offered as objects of analysis rather than as candidates for allegiance.
There is a world of difference, for example, between surveying the pro and con arguments about the Iraq war, a perfectly appropriate academic assignment, and pressing students to come down on your side. Of course the instructor who presides over such a survey is likely to be a partisan of one position or the other — after all, who doesn’t have an opinion on the Iraq war? — but it is part of a teacher’s job to set personal conviction aside for the hour or two when a class is in session and allow the techniques and protocols of academic research full sway.
This restraint should not be too difficult to exercise. After all, we require and expect it of judges, referees and reporters. And while its exercise may not always be total, it is both important and possible to make the effort.
Thus the question Provost Farrell should put to Mr. Barrett is not “Do you hold these views?” (he can hold any views he likes) or “Do you proclaim them in public?” (he has that right no less that the rest of us) or even “Do you surround them with the views of others?”
Rather, the question should be: “Do you separate yourself from your partisan identity when you are in the employ of the citizens of Wisconsin and teach subject matter — whatever it is — rather than urge political action?” If the answer is yes, allowing Mr. Barrett to remain in the classroom is warranted. If the answer is no, (or if a yes answer is followed by classroom behavior that contradicts it) he should be shown the door. Not because he would be teaching the “wrong” things, but because he would have abandoned teaching for indoctrination.
The advantage of this way of thinking about the issue is that it outflanks the sloganeering and posturing both sides indulge in: on the one hand, faculty members who shout “academic freedom” and mean by it an instructor’s right to say or advocate anything at all with impunity; on the other hand, state legislators who shout “not on our dime” and mean by it that they can tell academics what ideas they can and cannot bring into the classroom.
All you have to do is remember that academic freedom is just that: the freedom to do an academic job without external interference. It is not the freedom to do other jobs, jobs you are neither trained for nor paid to perform. While there should be no restrictions on what can be taught — no list of interdicted ideas or topics — there should be an absolute restriction on appropriating the scene of teaching for partisan political ideals. Teachers who use the classroom to indoctrinate make the enterprise of higher education vulnerable to its critics and shortchange students in the guise of showing them the true way.
Stanley Fish is a law professor at Florida International University.

In: Economics

1.As a resident of the United States, if your nominal salary does not increase for three...

1.As a resident of the United States, if your nominal salary does not increase for three years, your real salary is likely to have declined. T or F.

2. The basket used to calculate the Consumer Price Index in the United States contains one unit of every good that is regularly purchased by the average urban consumer. T or F

3. The consumer price index has a value of 125 in the year 2002 and a value of 150 in the year 2010.

In this case, $500 in the year 2002 has the same purchasing power as how many dollars in the year 2010?

Round to the nearest whole number.

4. The price of gas in 1992 was $1.09 per gallon and in 2013 it was $3.51.

The price index in 1992 was 140 and in 2013 it was 233.

Based on this information:

The percentage change in the nominal price of gas was --- %. Enter a number rounded to two decimal places.

In real terms, the price of gas was cheaper in which year? --- Enter 1992 or 2013.

5. If the average wage paid to the worker was $20 in 2002 and $30 in 2012, then the average worker in the year 2012 must have been better off in terms of being able to purchase more goods and services. T or F

In: Economics