TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Bank of Japan on Wednesday cut its inflation forecasts for the three years through March 2021, putting its elusive target of 2 percent price gains farther from reach.

As widely expected, the central bank's Policy Board also decided after a two-day meeting to keep interest rates at their current ultralow levels as risks including trade friction between the United States and China cast a pall over growth in the global economy.

Inflation during fiscal 2018 ending March is expected to be 0.8 percent, down from 0.9 percent predicted in October amid a decline in global oil prices, the board said in its quarterly economic outlook report.

Prices are expected to rise 0.9 percent in fiscal 2019, a significant downgrade from the earlier forecast of 1.4 percent. In fiscal 2020, prices will rise 1.4 percent, down from 1.5 percent, it said.

Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a post-meeting press conference that despite the dip in inflation, momentum toward the 2 percent target remains intact.

"It's true that we believe it will take some time to achieve 2 percent. The BOJ will persistently continue its current accommodative policy," he said.

The delay in reaching the target, which the central bank has been pursuing since 2013, puts the BOJ in an exceedingly difficult position.

It could put pressure on its policymakers to roll out additional easing measures, even as the protraction of current stimulus draws criticism for side effects such as hurting the profits of commercial banks.

Kuroda said he is closely watching this year's labor negotiations expected to start next month for signs that wages will begin rising in line with a tightening job market, an outcome that would give businesses the confidence to hike product prices.

"Wage gains are still somewhat tepid compared to the improvement in the real economy, corporate profits and the labor market. We'll see how that changes."

The central bank also lowered its forecast for Japan's economic growth in fiscal 2018 to 0.9 percent from 1.4 percent. For the following two years, it slightly lifted its forecasts to 0.9 percent and 1.0 percent growth, respectively.

The board's first meeting of the year came days after the International Monetary Fund downgraded its forecast for global economic growth this year.

Kuroda acknowledged that the world economy is facing increased downside risks including the U.S.-China tariff war and Britain's troubled attempt to exit from the European Union.

"If the trade tensions continue, there will be severe consequences," he said.

The board voted 7-2 to continue applying a short-term policy rate of minus 0.1 percent and to keep long-term yields near zero percent, with board members Goshi Kataoka and Yutaka Harada dissenting.

It also retained a pledge to keep rates low "for an extended period of time" ahead of a hike in the consumption tax in October, which it is feared will trigger a fall in domestic demand, and made no changes to its purchases of risky assets such as exchange-traded funds.

Source: Mainichi.jp

(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

1. Australia’s short-term policy rate is called the cash rate. The cash rate has been held at 1.5% since 2016. Explain briefly the main mechanism used by the Reserve Bank of Australia to stabilise the cash rate. .
2. The Bank of Japan has used large scale quantitative easing in recent years. What does quantitative easing involve? How does the use of quantitative easing change the way a central bank controls its short-term policy rate? .
3. The article tells us that the Bank of Japan is continuing to apply a short term policy rate of minus 0.1%. How has it been possible for the Bank of Japan to reduce its policy interest rate below zero? What does a negative policy rate imply for private banks with reserve balances held at the Bank of Japan. .
4. What does the Japanese experience demonstrate about the impact on the rate of inflation of large scale quantitative easing? Identify two factors, mentioned in the article, which suggest inflation will remain below target during 2019. .
5. The Bank of Japan has chosen to hold the rate of interest (or yield) on long term (10-year) Japanese Government bonds close to 0%. How has the Bank of Japan been able to control the rate of interest on these bonds? What has the Bank done to hold the rate of interest on these bonds at zero? .

Question: Please Identify relevant ethical issues presented by consulting AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. In your memo response, please site specific sections from the Code of Conduct that you used to resolve the dilemma,and please show me how a professional memo of this nature, should be written.

Case Study 4: How much to disclose to the finance director

Outline of the case

You are a qualified accountant in practice, and you lead a team providing management consultancy services. In recent years your practice has undertaken several assignments on manufacturing efficiency improvements for a medium-sized, quoted group of companies. It operates through a number of divisions, but line responsibility appears complicated, and so significant control rests with four semi-autonomous regional directors. The authority of these directors ts enhanced by their seats on the group's main board.

You have cultivated a good working relationship with the regional director with whom you are in contact most frequently. Three weeks ago that regional director asked you to investigate, as a matter of urgency, a particular project, Project A. He had been Irritated to be told, informally, of the likefy deferral of the agreed delivery date for the components on this sophisticated design-and-build contract. Project A comes within the regional director's responsibility primarily because of the location of the factory that makes the key components.

Once on site, your team had discovered a range of difficulties with the project, starting with fundamental design faults and extending deep into the manufacturing processes. It is clear that various contracts will be breached, and litigation is likely to follow. Your team has produced a prioritised list of actions and begun working to establish a revised schedule to take the project to completion.

At a recent meeting, you gave the regional director and the factory manager your estimate that the delay to Project A will be a minimum of three months. You indicated that extra direct costs are likely to be17 million to PO million. This is before any potential claims for compensation.

On the instructions of the regional director, your team has been working on a formal report specifying detailed recommendations. While still incomplete, the report appears certain to support your previous estimates.

You are aware, from the financial press, that the group is rumoured to have difficulties with its bankers. You assume that the situation with Project A is likely to be seriously detrimental to the group's financial position.

One week before the final version of the report is due, you receive a surprise telephone call from the group's finance director. He explains that he is about to enter a main board meeting, but needs to know a date for delivery of the report on Project A. Late the previous evening, the regional director had informed the finance director that your firm had been asked to provide the report. He says:

"l appreciate that you have only just started, so there are no reliable estimates yet. But the regional director mentioned that Project A could incur around$4 million to#5 million In extra costs, with income delayed by perhaps six to eight weeks. The regional director has sent his apologies to the board meeting, as he has to attend a family funeral."

He adds:

"Hopefully, the regional director is being cautious, but if something does tum out to be as wrong with Project A as those numbers suggest, the extra costs and deferred income have serious implications for the group's cash flow. The full board will need to start planning remediat action now. When will your report be ready?"

Key fundamental principles

Integrity: How do you maintain your professional integrity: by responding only to the question asked or by immediately alerting the finance director and the main board to the seriousness of the situation?

Objectivity: Does loyalty to the regional director, from whom your firm usually takes instructions, outweigh your responsibility to the main board? If not, can you resist any feeling of intimidation from the regional director that you may be experiencing?

Confidentiality: Confidentiality is fundamental to the assignment as a whole. But to whom Is the duty of confidentiality owed?

Professional behaviour: The information you have could assist the main board significantly with the discharge of its duties. Whether you disclose the information now or restrict the information you provide pending a discussion with the regional director, how can you protect your reputation and that ofyour firm?

Question: Please Identify relevant ethical issues presented by consulting AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. In your memo response, please site specific sections from the Code of Conduct that you used to resolve the dilemma.

The PATCO Syndrome: Coming at the beginning of the Reagan‐era conservative ascendancy, the 1981 PATCO strike is often cited as the defining labor struggle of our time. The air traffic controllers’ strike and its brutal aftermath foreshadowed an era of union‐busting and decline that continues to this day. From 23 percent of U.S. workers in unions before the strike, the share of the organized workforce declined to just 12 percent today. Though other factors were at work— globalization, automation, outsourcing—the reinvigorated anti‐union stance of employers after the PATCO strike was crucial to labor’s decline. Yet 30 years later, many details about the union and its strike have been forgotten. PATCO was a fairly young union. In the wake of President Kennedy’s 1962 executive order authorizing federal employees to unionize, the air traffic controllers joined other federal workers in a wave of organizing. Controllers were dissatisfied with inadequate wages and equipment, excessive overtime, and stress. They were frustrated with the workplace culture of the military‐influenced Federal Aviation Administration. But this work environment also forged intense solidarity among the workers, who developed tremendous pride in their training and skills in a crucial job. They organized several associations and unions, finally founding the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in 1968. Unionization came with significant restrictions, however, including no right to strike or bargain over wages or benefits. On‐the‐Job Actions In the ensuing years, PATCO staged a series of successful work‐to‐rule slow‐downs and sick‐outs, winning contract improvements and creatively gaining pay increases despite the ban on wage negotiations. It’s fascinating to see the membership develop confidence and militancy through grassroots, rank‐and‐file organizing across a far‐flung network of airport job sites. By 1976, the union had attained an impressive 85 percent membership among the 16,000 controllers, the highest union density in the federal workforce. When the 1981 negotiations began, PATCO was largely controlled by its militant wing, known within the union as the “choirboys.” The union demanded significant wage increases and threatened to strike. Once the illegal strike began, Reagan declared a 48 hour return‐to‐work ultimatum. PATCO was initially unfazed, as leaders and members expected the chaos in the flight control system to force a more favorable settlement. But the controllers had grossly miscalculated the ability of the FAA to keep the system running without them, by relying on scabs, supervisors, and borrowed military controllers. Air traffic, while initially crippled, was gradually restored over time. Reagan ultimately fired more than 11,000 strikers. Some will consider the PATCO strike an example of union courage and militancy; others will see arrogance and overreach.

Where Was the AFL‐CIO? Where was the rest of the labor movement? The AFL‐CIO offered rhetorical support but no substantive solidarity. The Machinists and Pilots unions, whose workers were closest on the job to the controllers, offered no support either.   The pilots’ position is most troubling, because they could have refused to fly in a less safe air traffic control system. Such a move undoubtedly would have helped PATCO win, but the pilots viewed the strike as a threat to their jobs and declined to help. The isolation of PATCO was complete. Banned from the industry, strikers were forced to search for other work. PATCO lost its certification for violating the no‐strike rule. The struggle turned toward getting the strikers’ jobs back, but Reagan was intransigent and refused.   The number of large‐scale strikes dropped dramatically in PATCO’s wake, as the severe recession of the early 1980s set in and declining union militancy and increasing concessions became the norm. Though employers had long taken anti‐union stands, the 1980s and 1990s saw a resurgence of union‐ busting, with crushed strikes at Phelps‐Dodge, Greyhound, Hormel, International Paper, the Decatur battles, and the Detroit News/Free Press. Does the labor movement still suffer from “PATCO syndrome”? The air traffic controllers were a gutsy group, and PATCO’s early years show what’s possible when a strong union acts boldly. Yet their disastrous strike has left a lasting negative impact.  

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS;

1. The PATCO Strike had significant impact on labor relations and the status of unions. What is your opinion, belief, and perspective of former air traffic controllers who were terminated from employment with the FAA for participating in the PATCO strike and of the decision to term them?

2. What impact do you believe this had on unions as a whole?

Cities, States, and Businesses Lead the Way to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

Although the United States signed the original Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. Congress never ratified the agreement so the protocol has never been legally binding on the United States. The administration of President George W. Bush argued that there was no scientific consensus on global warming and that the costs of reducing greenhouse gases were simply too high. However, many state and local governments felt they had waited long enough for change at the federal level. In 2005, mayors from 141 cities and both major political parties gathered in San Francisco to organize their own efforts to reduce the causes and consequences of global warming. Their goal was to reduce greenhouse emissions in their own cities by the same 7 percent that the United States had agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol.

As of 2014, a total of 1,060 out of 1,139 mayors of U.S. cities had signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Among the reasons the mayors cited for supporting this agreement were concerns in their communities over increasing droughts, reduced supplies of fresh water due to melting glaciers, and rising sea levels in coastal cities. “The United States inevitably will have to join this effort,” Seattle mayor Greg Nickels said. “Ultimately we will make it impossible for the federal government to say no. They will see that it can be done without huge economic disruption and that there’s support throughout the country to do this.”

Similar actions are being taken at the state level. In 2005, then-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger stated at a press conference, “The debate is over . . . and we know the time for action is now.” In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act. The goal of the act was to bring California into compliance with the Kyoto Protocol by 2020, an effort that would require a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases for a state that, if a country, would be the tenth largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. At the signing ceremony, the governor stated, “I say unquestionably it is good for businesses.” Indeed, a cost analysis by the California Air Resources Board in 2008 indicated that the law would add $27 billion to the economy of the state and add 100,000 jobs.

The California effort is gaining popularity around the country. In the northeastern United States, for example, nine states have joined together collectively to form the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to control regional production of greenhouse gases. A similar group emerged in western North America when seven western states and four Canadian provinces joined together in 2007 to form the Western Climate Initiative. For both groups, the goal was to to regulate greenhouse emissions. By 2014, northeastern group continued to work together while the western group had a reduced membership that included only California and the four Canadian provinces.

A number of large businesses are also joining in efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. General Electric, for example, announced in 2014 that it had reduced its greenhouse emissions by 34 percent since 2004. In addition, the company has invested $12 billion for research and development of technologies that can reduce greenhouse gases and is planning to invest a total of $25 billion by 2020. In 2011, General Electric announced that its technology generated more than $100 billion in revenues, which confirmed that creating technology that would reduce greenhouse emissions was a profitable thing to do.

In 2013, the New York Times reported that a growing number of companies including Microsoft, ExxonMobil, and Google have developed long-term financial plans that include the cost of producing greenhouse gases. These companies recognize that the scientific evidence of human-caused global climate change continues to grow and that they will increasingly need to factor the costs of emissions into their budgets. Those companies that include plans to accommodate and reduce these costs are likely to profit from such planning.

From these stories, it is clear that progress on reducing greenhouse gases that cause global warming does not have to wait for national and international agreements to take effect. The public overwhelmingly understands that Earth is warming, states and cities are pushing forward with solutions that save money, and large corporations understand that reducing emissions can reduce costs and improve profits over the long term. In short, curbing greenhouse gases and global warming is not only good for humans and the environment, it can be good for business as well.

Critical Thinking Questions

1.What data might city mayors use to support their assertion that humans are causing global warming?

2.Why is it more effective for states and provinces to create regional partnerships to combat global warming rather than doing so alone?

Assume today is March 16, 2016. Natasha Kingery is 30 years old and has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. She is currently employed as a Tier 2 field service representative for a telephony corporation located in Seattle, Washington, and earns $38,000 a year that she anticipates will grow at 3% per year. Natasha hopes to retire at age 65 and has just begun to think about the future.

Natasha has $75,000 that she recently inherited from her aunt. She invested this money in 30-year Treasury Bonds. She is considering whether she should further her education and would use her inheritance to pay for it.*

She has investigated a couple of options and is asking for your help as a financial planning intern to determine the financial consequences associated with each option. Natasha has already been accepted to both of these programs, and could start either one soon.

One alternative that Natasha is considering is attaining a certification in network design. This certification would automatically promote her to a Tier 3 field service representative in her company. The base salary for a Tier 3 representative is $10,000 more than what she currently earns and she anticipates that this salary differential will grow at a rate of 3% a year as long as she keeps working. The certification program requires the completion of 20 Web-based courses and a score of 80% or better on an exam at the end of the course work. She has learned that the average amount of time necessary to finish the program is one year. The total cost of the program is $5000, due when she enrolls in the program. Because she will do all the work for the certification on her own time, Natasha does not expect to lose any income during the certification.

Another option is going back to school for an MBA degree. With an MBA degree, Natasha expects to be promoted to a managerial position in her current firm. The managerial position pays $20,000 a year more than her current position. She expects that this salary differential will also grow at a rate of 3% per year for as long as she keeps working. The evening program, which will take three years to complete, costs $25,000 per year, due at the beginning of each of her three years in school. Because she will attend classes in the evening, Natasha doesn’t expect to lose any income while she is earning her MBA if she chooses to undertake the MBA.

1. Determine the interest rate she is currently earning on her inheritance by going to the U.S. Treasury Department Web site (treasury.gov) and selecting “Data” on the main menu. Then select “Daily Treasury Yiled Curve Rates” under the Interest Rate heading and enter the appropriate year, 2016, and then search down the list for March 16 to obtain the closing yield or interest rate that she is earning. Use this interest rate as the discount rate for the remainder of this problem. --> the identified rate for March 16th on a 30 year bond is 2.73
2. Create a timeline in Excel for her current situation, as well as the certification program and MBA degree options, using the following assumptions:
   • Salaries for the year are paid only once, at the end of the year.
   • The salary increase becomes effective immediately upon graduating from the MBA program or being certified. That is, because the increases become effective immediately but salaries are paid at the end of the year, the first salary increase will be paid exactly one year after graduation or certification.
3. Calculate the present value of the salary differential for completing the certification program. Subtract the cost of the program to get the NPV of undertaking the certification program.
4. Calculate the present value of the salary differential for completing the MBA degree. Calculate the present value of the cost of the MBA program. Based on your calculations, determine the NPV of undertaking the MBA.
5. Based on your answers to Questions 3 and 4, what advice would you give to Natasha? What if the two programs are mutually exclusive? That is, if Natasha undertakes one of the programs there is no further benefit to undertaking the other program. Would your advice be different?

* If Natasha lacked the cash to pay for her tuition upfront, she could borrow the money. More intriguingly, she could sell a fraction of her future earnings, an idea that has received attention from researchers and entrepreneurs; see M. Palacios, Investing in Human Capital: A Capital Markets Approach to Student Funding, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Write a C program called cards.c that simulates some card game logic by comparing the cards from 4 people and determining which person has the best card. The program MUST work as follows:

1. Eachcardmustberepresentedbyexactlytwocharsrepresenting a rank and a suit. The possible rank options are: '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'T', 'J', 'Q', 'K', 'A'. The possiblesuit options are: 'H', 'D', 'S', 'C'. So 6H represents the “6 of hearts”, JC represents the “Jack of Clubs” etc...

2. YouMUSTwriteafunctioncalledisValidRank(charc)which determines if the given character is one of the ranks mentioned above. It should return a char with a value of 1 if the character is a valid rank and 0 otherwise. Lowercase letters are not valid.

3. YouMUSTwriteafunctioncalledisValidSuit(charc)whichdeterminesifthegivencharacter is one of the suits mentioned above. It should return a char with a value of 1 if the character is a valid suit and 0 otherwise. Lowercase letters are not valid.

4. You MUST have a function called getTrump() that returns a char. It should prompt the user for a trump suit, which must be 'H', 'D', 'S' or 'C'. It should be robust, in that any invalid input is not accepted. It should only return from the function when a valid suit has been entered, and it must make use of the isValidRank() function. For any invalid entry, an appropriate error message should be given. Blank entries are invalid and so are lowercase letters.

5. The main function should first get the trump suit, by calling the above function. It should then enter an infinite loop to do the following: (1) ask for 4 cards from the user, (2) display the 4 cards entered, (3) determine and display which player wins the round (i.e., which one has the “best” card). These steps will be explained below.

6. Whenenteringthecards...yourcode should be robust and handle any input, just like you did in thegetTrump() function. For each of the 4 cards entered, your code should allow the user to enter two characters and then press enter. If the first character (i.e., the rank) is invalid (use the function you wrote earlier), then an appropriate error message should be displayed and the second character (i.e., the suit) should not be prompted for. If it was valid, then the suit character should be prompted for.

Player 1: Enter card rank andRC
Invalid card, please re-enter Player 1: Enter card rank and4F

Invalid card, please re-enter Player 1: Enter card rank and6
Invalid card, please re-enter Player 1: Enter card rank andH

Invalid card, please re-enter Player 1: Enter card rank andJC
Player 2: Enter card rank and6S

Player 3: Enter card rank and

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD) suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD) suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD) suit (e.g., 2S, TC, KD)

is invalid, another error message
should be shown. Either way, the
code should keep prompting until a
valid card is entered before moving on
to get the next player’s card. Here is
an example of what you should do à 5H

If it

Invalid card, please re-enter Player 3: Enter card rank and9d
Invalid card, please re-enter Player 3: Enter card rank and9D

Player 4: Enter card rank and

7. Once4validcardentrieshavebeenentered,the4cardsshouldbedisplayedlikethis:

   JC, 6S, 9D, 5H

8. You must then determine which card wins the round. That is, which player has the best card. To do this, you must follow these rules:

   • A card which is of the trump suit always beats a card that is a non-trump suit.

   • If two cards have the same suit, the one with the higher rank is better. 'A' is the highest

     rank and '2' is the lowest.

   • The card played by player 1 is called the “suit led”. If no other player has a higher ranking card of the same suit as the suit led, and no other player has the trump suit, then player 1 has the best card and wins.

9. Inyourmainfunction,iftherankofthefirst(orany)playerisa'.'character,thentheprogram should quit. The TA’s will need this functionality in order to test your program.

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Name and describe the four types of delivery. Give a comparison between two types (your choice). Of the two Indicate which you think would enable a speaker to be most effective and tell why or why no? State if you feel it is important for a speaker to rehearse the presentation/speech before delivery; if so state why, if not state why not?

In manuscript presentations, speakers read their remarks word for word from a prepared statement. Manuscript speaking is common at annual company meetings, conventions, and press conferences. Unfortunately, few experiences are as boring as the average manuscript presentation. Novice speakers often try to conceal their nervousness at facing a large audience by reading from a script—and turn into lifeless drones when doing so. Because most speakers are not trained at reading aloud, their delivery is halting and jerky. Even worse, a nervous speaker who relies too heavily on a manuscript can make serious mistakes without even knowing it. Management consultant Marilyn Landis describes one

Memorized Presentations

If speaking from a script is bad, trying to memorize that script is even worse. You have probably been subjected to a memorized sales pitch from a telemarketer or door-to-door salesperson. If so, you know that the biggest problem of a memorized presentation—one recited word for word from memory—is that it sounds memorized. Speakers who recite their presentations from memory often fail to incorporate natural nonverbal expressions or demonstrations of emotion in their delivery. As a result, their speeches sound rehearsed to the point of almost being robotic. It might seem that memorizing a presentation would help alleviate your nervousness, but, in fact, memorization almost guarantees that stage fright will become a serious problem. Speakers who devote large amounts of time to simply learning the words of a talk are asking for trouble. During the presentation, they must focus on remembering what comes next instead of getting involved in the meaning of their remarks. It is difficult to recover from forgetting a portion of a memorized speech without the mistake being obvious to the audience.Sometimes it is necessary to memorize parts of a presentation, because referring to notes at a critical moment can diminish your credibility. A salesperson is usually expected to know a product’s major features: how much horsepower it has, how much it costs, or how many copies per minute it delivers. A personnel manager might be expected to know, without referring to a brochure, the value of employee life insurance (if each employee’s benefit is the same) and how much employees contribute to the premium. A coworker would look foolish at a retirement dinner if she said, “Everyone knows about Charlie’s contributions …” and then had to pause to refer to her notes. In such situations, it is recommended to memorize only the essential parts of a presentation

Extemporaneous Presentations

An extemporaneous presentation is planned and rehearsed but not memorized word for word. When you speak extemporaneously, you learn your key points and become familiar with the support you will use to back them up. In other words, you practice the big picture but let the specific words come naturally during your delivery. If you prepare carefully and practice your presentation several times with a friend, a family member, or even a group of coworkers or subordinates, you will have a good chance of delivering an extemporaneous talk that seems spontaneous—and maybe even effortless. Almost every presentation you plan—a sales presentation, a talk at the local high school, a progress report to a management review board, a training lecture, an annual report to employees or the board of directors—should be delivered extemporaneously.

Impromptu Presentations

Sooner or later you will be asked to give an impromptu presentation—an unexpected, off-the-cuff talk. A customer might stop in your office and ask you to describe the new model you will have next spring. At a celebration dinner, you might be asked to “say a few words.” A manager might ask you to “give us some background on the problem” or to “fill us in on your progress.” You may suddenly discover at a weekly meeting that your subordinates are unaware of a process they need to know about to understand the project you are preparing to explain.

Giving an impromptu talk need not be as threatening as it seems. Most of the time, you will be asked to speak about a subject within your expertise—such as a current project, a problem you have solved, or a technical aspect of your training—which means you have thought about the topic before. Another reassuring fact is that most listeners will not expect perfection in unrehearsed remarks.

Your impromptu presentations will be most effective if you follow these guidelines.⁴

Read Case Ticketmaster – Making Better Decisions passage below and answer the following questions 1-4 in bold :

Case Study: Ticketmaster
In 2010, Ticketmaster found out the hard way that the entertainment industry is not, in fact, as recession-proof as it was once widely believed to be. The company, which sells tickets for live music, sports, and cultural events, and which represents a significant chunk of parent company’s Live Nation Entertainment’s business, saw a drop in ticket sales that year of a disconcerting 15 percent. Then there was the mounting negative press, including artist boycotts, the vitriol of thousands of vocal customers, and a number of major venues refusing to do business with Ticketmaster.

Yet 2012 has been more friendly to the company—under the leadership of former musician and Stanford MBA- educated CEO Nathan Hubbard, who took over in 2010 when Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, the country’s largest concert promoter. Third-quarter earnings were strong, with just under $2 billion in revenue, a 10 percent boost from the same period last year, driven largely by Live Nation’s ticketing and sponsorship divisions. Ticketmaster was largely responsible as well, thanks to the sale of 36 million tickets worth $2.1 billion, generating $82.1 million in adjusted operating income, which translates to an increase of 51 percent for the year.
That’s because Hubbard knows how to listen, and read the writing on the wall, “If we don’t disrupt ourselves, someone else will,” he said, “I’m not worried about other ticketing companies. The Googles and Apples of the world are our competition.”

Some of the steps he took to achieve this included to the creation of Live Analytics, a team charged with mining the information (and related opportunities) surrounding 200 million customers and the 26 million monthly site visitors, a gold mine that he thought was being ignored. Moreover Hubbard redirected the company from being an infamously opaque, rigid and inflexible transaction machine for ticket sales to a more transparent, fan-centered e-commerce company, one that listens to the wants and needs of customers and responds accordingly. A few of the new innovations rolled out in recent years to achieve this include an interactive venue map that allows customers to choose their seats (instead of Ticketmaster selecting the “best available”) and the ability to buy tickets on iTunes.

Hubbard eliminated certain highly unpopular service fees, like the $2.50 fee for printing one’s own tickets, which he announced in the inaugural Ticketmaster blog he created.
Much to the delight of event goers—and the simultaneous chagrin of promoters and venue owners, who feared that the move would deter sales—other efforts toward transparency included announcing fees on Ticketmaster’s first transaction- dedicated page, instead of surprising customers with them at the end, while consolidating others. “I had clients say, ‘What are you doing? We’ve been doing it this way for 35 years,’” Hubbard recalled, “I told them, ‘You sound like the record labels.’”

Social media is an integral part of listening, and of course, “sharing.” Ticketmaster alerts on Facebook shows friends of purchasers who is going to what show. An app is in the works that will even show them where their concert going friends will be seated. Not that it’s all roses for Ticketmaster—yet. Growth and change always involve, well, growing pains, and while goodwill for the company is building, it will take some time to shed the unfortunate reputation of being the company that “everyone loves to hate.” Ticketmaster made embarrassing headlines in the first month of 2013 after prematurely announcing the sale of the president’s Inaugural Ball and selling out a day early as a result, disappointing thousands. But as the biggest online seller of tickets for everything from golf tournaments to operas to theater to rock concerts, and with Hubbard’s more customer-friendly focus, Ticketmaster should have plenty of opportunity to repent their mistake

1. Identify the problems that Ticketmaster was facing, using cause and effect analysis. What were the Symptomatic Effects? What were the Underlying Causes?

2. What process(es) did Nathan Hubbard use to Generate Alternatives? What alternatives were available to Mr. Hubbard? What types of Uncertainty did he experience?

3. How did Mr. Hubbard select his most desirable alternative? Describe which type of Decision Making he used, and explain your findings.

4. Were the recent decisions that Mr. Hubbard made effective, according to the concepts in Chapter 7 – Decision Making? Explain your response.

Part 1 (Objective C++ and please have output screenshot)

The purpose of this part of the assignment is to give you practice in creating a class. You will develop a program that creates a class for a book. The main program will simply test this class.

The class will have the following data members:

1. A string for the name of the author
2. A string for the book title
3. A long integer for the ISBN

The class will have the following member functions (details about each one are below:)

1. A default constructor
2. A Print function which prints out all the information about the book.
3. A GetData function which reads information from a file into the data members.
4. A function GetISBN that returns the integer containing the ISBN. (This will be needed in Part 2).

You must create your program using the following three files:

book.h – used for declaring your class. In this header file, the declarations of the class and its members (both data and functions) will be done without the definitions. The definitions should be done in the book.cpp file.

book.cpp – contains the definitions of the member functions:

1. The default constructor will initialize the author's name to “No name”, the title to "Unknown title", and the ISBN to 0.
2. The Print function will display all of the information about a book in a clear format. This will be a const function because it does not change the data members. For formatting purposes, you may assume that no name will have more than 20 characters and that no book title will have more than 50 characters.
3. The GetData function will have the input file as a parameter, will read information from the file and put appropriate values into the data members. (See below for the format of the data file.)
4. The GetISBN function will simply return the long integer containing the ISBN. It also will be a const function.

Mp8bookDriver.cpp – should contain the main program to test the class.

It should declare two book objects (book1 and book2) using the default constructor. Call the print function for book1 (to show that the default constructor is correct). Open the input file and call the GetData function for book2 and then print its information. Finally, test the GetISBN function for book2 and output the result returned from the function.

Format of Data file
The name of the data file is mp7book.txt
It has data for one book arranged as follows:

• The name is on one line by itself (hint: use getline).
• The title is on a line by itself.
• The ISBN is on the third line.

mp7book.txt

Jane Smith
History Of This World
12349876

Get this part of the program working and save all the files before starting on Part 2. The output should be similar to the following:

Testing the book class by (your name)

The information for book 1 is:
No name Unknown title 0
The information for book 2 is:
Jane Smith History Of The World 12349876
book2 has ISBN 12349876
Press any key to continue

Part 2

Now you will use the book class to create an array of books for a small library. Note that the book.h and book.cpp files should not have to be changed at all - you just have to change the main program in the Mp8bookDriver.cpp file.

There is a new data file, mp7bookarray.txt. It contains the information for the books in the library using the same format as described above for each book. There will be exactly 10 books in the file.

Declare an array of books that could hold 10 book objects. Open the new data file and use a loop to call the GetData function to read the information about the books into the objects in the array. Print out the list of books in the library in a nice format. Notice that the books are arranged in order by ISBN in the data file.

Now imagine customers coming into the library who want to know whether a particular book is in the collection. Each customer knows the ISBN of the book. Open the third data file (mp8bookISBN.txt) which contains ISBN's, read each one, and use a binary search to find out whether the book is in the array. If it is found, print out all the information about the book, if not, print an appropriate message. Then repeat the process for each of the ISBN's until you get to the end of the file.

mp8bookarray.txt

H. M. Deitel
C++ How to Program
130895717
Judy Bishop
Java Gently
201593998
Jeff Salvage
The C++ Coach
201702894
Thomas Wu
Object-Oriented Programming with Java
256254621
Cay Horstmann
Computing Concepts with C++
471164372
Gary Bronson
Program Development and Design
534371302
Joyce Farrell
Object-Oriented Programming
619033614
D. S. Malik
C++ Programming
619062134
James Roberge
Introduction to Programming in C++
669347183
Nell Dale
C++ Plus Data Structures
763714704

mp8bokkISBN.txt
201593998
888899999
763714704
111122222
256254621
130895717
488881111
534371302
619033614

Part I

We’ll use the “Debt and Taxes” tab in the Lab 5 Excel Workbook

The Economic Data Runs from 1946 (1^st year post WW2) to 2016

Note: This issue is tremendously more complicated than the two variables presented here. This is only a partial look at the issue and there is ample room for debate as causes of the issues at hand.

1) Examining the Relationships

              Create and copy in the following Charts

                             1) Line Chart with “Year”, “Top Bracket %”, and “Debt (Relative to 1946)”

                             2) Scatterplot with “Year” and “Top Bracket %,” choose “Show Trendline”

                             3) Scatterplot with “Year” and “National Debt (Trillions),” choose “Show Trendline”

              a) What trends do you see over time?

              b) Do “Top Bracket %” and “National Debt(Trillions)” appear associated?

              c) What might be a possible confounding factor?

2) Running Regressions

              a) Use “Data->Data Analysis->Regression” with “Top Bracket” as the y variable and

“Year” as the x- variable.

What is your model? Slope t-value? F-Value? R squared?

              b) Run a second regression with “National Debt(Trillions)” as the y variable and

                             “Year” as the x-variable.

What is your model? Slope t-value? F-Value? R squared?

c) Run a final regression with “National Debt(Trillions)” as the y variable and

                             “Top Bracket %” as the x-variable

What is your model? Slope t-value? F-Value? R squared?

              d) Based on the R squared from part c) how much of the debts change is due to taxes?

Part II

We will use the “Twins Data” tab in the workbook.

1) Single Variable

              a) Create a Scatterplot of “Wins” and “Runs” (You might need to rescale the axis for each)

              b) Run a Regression with “Wins” as y and “Runs” as x

c) What is your model? Slope t-value? F-Value? R squared?

2) Multivariable

              a) Traditional Stats

                             Run a regression with “Wins” as the y variable and both “Batting Average” and “ERA”

as the two x variables

What is your model? Slope t-values? F-Value? R squared?

              b) Moneyball Stats

                             Run a regression with “Wins” as the y variable and “OPS” and “WHIP” as the x variables

What is your model? Slope t-value? F-Value? R squared?

3) Of the 3 options which model do you feel works the best? Explain.