1. You have just been elected president of the United States, and the present Chair of the Federal Reserve Board has resigned. You need to appoint a new person to this position, as well as a person to chair your Council of Economic Advisers. Using your knowledge of macroeconomics, identify the personal characteristics and the views on macro theory and policy you would want your appointees to have and implement.   Remember, the economic health of the entire nation and solution to keeping the economy growing will be impacted by this decision.

2. As you know, during the Great Recession, the Fed proposed a number of "bail out" measures to address the “great recession”. Indicate why or why not you would recommend that your new appointee use similar measures if this situation arises again. Should the Fed have a bond-buying program? Identify any new policies that you would like your candidate to follow.

Sky Kitchens is the second largest airline caterer in the United States, providing nearly all the meals for passengers of three major airlines and several smaller commuter airlines. As part of a total quality management (TQM) program, its largest airline client, Continental Airlines, has recently met with representatives of Sky Kitchens to discuss a customer satisfaction program that it is planning to implement. Continental plans to interview a sample of its customers four times a year. In the survey, it intends to ask customers to rate the quality of meals provided on a 1–10 scale, where 1 means poor and 10 means excellent. It has just completed a benchmark study of 1,000 customers. In that study, meals received an average rating of 8.7 on the 10-point scale, with a standard deviation of 1.65. Continental has indicated that it wants Sky Kitchens to guarantee a level of satisfaction of 8.5 in the first quarterly survey, to be conducted in three months. For its quarterly surveys, Continental plans to use a sample size of 500. In the new contract with Sky Kitchens, Continental wants to include a clause that will penalize Sky Kitchens $50,000 for each one-tenth of a point it falls below an average of 8.5 on the next survey’s satisfaction scale.

1. What is the 99.74% confidence interval (CI) for the true satisfaction level based on the benchmark survey?

2. What is the 99% confidence interval (CI) for the true satisfaction level based on the benchmark survey?

3. What is the 95.44% CI for the true satisfaction level based on the benchmark survey?

4. What is the 95% CI for the true satisfaction level based on the benchmark survey?

5. As Sky Kitchens, what do you think of Continental’s requirement for a level of satisfaction of 8.5 in the first quarter survey?

6. Assume that the upcoming 1st -quarter satisfaction survey shows anaverage rating of 8.4 on satisfaction with meals. Assume that the population standard deviation is1.65. Compute the 99% CI for the true satisfaction level based on the 1st-quarter survey. As Sky Kitchens, what is the best way to present and interpret the resulting CI?

7. If you were negotiating for Sky Kitchens, how would you respond to Continental regarding the penalty clause? Is there a better or more reasonable way to revise it

1. In your opinion, how is social media changing the political process in the United States? Is the change good or bad? Why?

2. On balance, do you think the explosion of social media has made our society better? In what ways? In what ways has social media made social life worse?

3. Have we given social media too much power over our lives?

Below is a distribution of race in the United States from 2014.

White= 60.5%

Black= 12.5%

Hispanic= 18.3%

Asian= 5.7%

Other= 3%

If we were to randomly choose 150 people for a survey, what is the probability that less than 70 of them would be white (round to 3 decimal places)?

Would this be unusual? If so, give some reasons why a particular sample might have less than 70 whites.

What is the probability that we would randomly choose a sample of 150 people and more than 22 of them were black (to 3 decimal places)?

What is the probability you would randomly select two Americans and they would both be white?

How many Asian people should we expect to have in a randomly selected group of 150 people?

Explain why you agree or disagree with the following statement.

Companies in the United States often choose to source items from foreign firms due to cost reasons. Some countries that function as manufacturing hubs have lower wage rates or relaxed working regulations which create cost savings that can be passed on to purchasing companies. Another possible explanation for sourcing items from other companies could be manufacturing efficiency. If a necessary component for a product is manufactured near another component then it may make sense to choose to source the component from that country instead of moving the components around and increasing costs.

1.In Canada and the United States, the use of technology for training has fallen below projections; in fact, the adoption of training technologies has been relatively slow and most training still takes place in the classroom. What are some of the reasons for this, and what are the potential barriers to the adoption of training technologies?

4.If you had the choice, would you choose a computer-based training program or a traditional classroom program? Which would you prefer, and why? Do you think your satisfaction, learning, and performance would differ in a computer-based program versus a traditional classroom program? Explain your reasoning.

8.Research on the effects of computer-based training has found that it is more effective than classroom instruction when trainees can choose the program (computer-based or classroom) and when the instructional methods used to deliver the programs are different. What are the implications of these two findings for understanding the effects of computer-based training and for the design and delivery of computer-based training programs?

10.What does learner control refer to and what role does it play in technology-based training? Why is learner control not always effective? What can be done to make it more effective?

Abe's Steakhouse is the largest upscale steakhouse company in the United States, based on total company- and franchisee-owned restaurants. The company's menu features a broad selection of high-quality steaks and other premium offerings. Assume the information below is from a recent annual report:

a. Common stock, $0.01 par value; 100,090,000 shares authorized; 23,563,356 issued and outstanding at the end of the current year, 23,385,356 issued and outstanding at the end of last year.

b. Additional paid-in capital: $194,389,000 at the end of the current year and $169,431,000 at the end of last year.

c. Retained earnings / (accumulated deficit): ($82,397,000) at the end of last year.

d. In the current year, net income was $53,983,000 and a cash dividend of $7,138,000 was paid.

Required:

Prepare the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet to reflect the above information for the current year and last year. (Amounts to be deducted should be indicated with a minus sign.)

CHAPTER TWO

Recent sanctions by the United States and Europe against Russia are posing problems for global

automakers. The sanctions, imposed in response to Vladimir Putin’s policy decisions are creating

challenges not only for Russian citizens, but also for U.S. and European companies. France’s

Renault is likely to be hit hardest. It is the most dependent on the Russian market followed by

South Korea’s Kia and Hyundai, and Japan’s Nissan, and German automakers VW and

Mercedes. If these sanctions persist, the companies could experience considerable production

issues. Already, General Motors is offering buyouts to its workers in Russia as sales slump in the

country.

1.

Consider the impact of the sanctions relative to the overall attractiveness of the Russian

market. What are the political and economic costs of doing business in countries like

Russia where political problems threaten economic growth?

2.

What strategic alternatives are open to companies like Renault that depend on the

Russian market.

3.

What are the tradeoffs of operating in an emerging market like Russia where political

uncertainty is high as compared to a more established market.

Suppose that the mean retail price per gallon of regular grade gasoline in the United States is $3.45 with a standard deviation of $0.20 and that the retail price per gallon has a bell-shaped distribution. (a) What percentage of regular grade gasoline sold between $3.25 and $3.65 per gallon? % (b) What percentage of regular grade gasoline sold between $3.25 and $3.85 per gallon? % (c) What percentage of regular grade gasoline sold for more than $3.85 per gallon? %