Fatima Hopkins, the CEO of Central Adventures, is having difficulties with all three of her top management level employees. With one manager making questionable decisions, another threatening to leave, and the third likely ‘in the red’, Fatima is hoping there is a simple answer to all her difficulties, and needs some advice from her accountant on how to proceed.

Central Adventures owns and operates three amusement parks in Michigan: Central Funland, Central Waterworld, and Central Treetops. Central Adventures has a decentralized organizational structure, where each park is run as an investment center. Each park manager meets with the CEO at least once annually to review their performance, as measured by their park’s ROI. The park manager then receives a bonus equal to 10% of their base salary for every ROI percentage point above the required rate.

Central Funland is an outdoor theme park, with twelve roller coaster rides and several other attractions. This park has first opened 1965, and most of the rides have been in operation for 20+ years. Attendance at this park has been relatively stable over the past ten years. The park manager of Funland, Janet Lieberman, recently shared with Fatima a proposal to replace one of their older rides with a new roller coaster, a hybrid steel and wood rollercoaster with a 90 degree, 200 foot drop and three inversions. The proposal indicated that the ride would cost $8,000,000 with an estimated life of 20 years. In addition, this new style of coaster would require additional maintenance, costing $125,000 each year. However, it projected that this new attraction would boost attendance, earning the park an additional $1,190,000 per year in revenues. Janet ultimately decided not to invest in this new attraction.

Central Waterworld is an indoor water park, operating year-round. Run by park manager David Copperfield, Waterworld was built in 2016 and has increased attendance by 20% every year since. David recently sent you an email complaining that, based on the current bonus payout schedule, Janet Lieberman’s bonus last year was significantly higher than his. He points to the increasing attendance, and says that his park is being punished for having opened so recently (his park assets are much more recent than the roller coasters at Funland). He currently has an employment offer from another company at the same pay rate, which he says he will accept if his performance is not appropriately acknowledged.

Central Treetops includes a high ropes course and has a series of ziplines that criss-cross over the Chippewa River. For many years, it was a popular venue for corporate team-building activities, so it is equipped with a main indoor facility with cafeteria and overnight guest rooms. This park has lost popularity in recent years, and has been ‘in the red’ for the past two years. If the park is not profitable this year, you will need to decide whether to close it - permanently. Central Adventures has a $86,000 mortgage payment on the land and buildings for Treetops, which would still need to be paid if the park is closed. Incidentally, you recently had a conversation with the regional head of the YMCA, who would like to open a summer camp in the central Michigan region. If you decided to close Treetops, you are fairly certain that you could lease that land to the YMCA for $250,000 annually.

A partial report of this year’s financial results for Central Adventures shows the following:

In addition to the information above, there are $2,542,920 in corporate costs, which are currently allocated evenly between the three parks. These costs are primarily due to employee benefits costs, which are billed at the corporate level. If the Treetops park is closed, the allocated corporate costs would decrease by $12,000. Central Adventures has a required rate of return of 12 percent (set at the company’s weighted-average cost of capital) and are subject to 18% income taxes.

Fatima needs to see this year’s performance results before she can make any decisions. Is David’s complaint about the performance evaluation metrics valid? Is that also affecting management decisions in the form of Janet’s rejection of the proposed new rollercoaster? And is the company better off without Treetops? She sets off to the company accountant’s office to help get some answers.

During the 1940s, military ships from the South Pacific accidentally introduced brown tree snakes from Australia to the island of Guam. These snakes eat birds, lizards, and small mammals in their native range of Australia. Since no species on Guam eats the snakes, their population has grown rapidly. Researchers estimate that two million tree snakes now inhabit the island. So far, 10 species of birds and 5 species of lizards have disappeared from Guam; small mammals have also decreased in abundance.

Use this information and your knowledge about biology to answer questions 1 – 5

1. Since the brown tree snake is a keystone species in Guam, it must also be a keystone species in Australia. True or false?

2. Native predators of birds on Guam likely decreased in abundance after brown tree snakes arrived. True or false?

3. If birds on Guam usually disperse seeds, brown tree snakes likely had a negative indirect effect on plants. True or false?  

4. Since more prey and fewer predators occur on Guam than in Australia, the density of brown tree snakes in Guam likely exceeds the density in Australia. True or false?

5. If some species of the now-extinct lizards used to eat bird eggs, brown tree snakes had a positive direct effect and a negative indirect effect on birds. True or false?

This is also the information provided

You are planning to introduce the vaccine for HSRS (High Severity Respiratory Virus) into the Pyrexia community. This vaccine has been trialled in a communicable disease research facility in the United States and initial studies have shown that it has a high degree of vaccine efficacy (>90%).

Provide TWO possible reasons why this level of vaccine efficacy may not be achieved for the vaccination program that you are planning to implement in the Pyrexia community.

Four in 10 low-income Americans do not have health insurance, and half of the nearly 46 million uninsured people in the United States are poor. About one-third of the uninsured have a chronic disease, and they are six times less likely to receive care for a health problem than the insured. In contrast, 94% of upper-income Americans have health insurance.

What are your thoughts about this disparity?

In recent years, large financial institutions such as mutual funds, investment bank and pension funds have become the dominant owners of stock in the United States. The research shows that about 73% of ownership in large U.S. corporates are held by these institutional investors. In German, the dominant shareholders are usually Investment Bank. Moreover, these institutions are becoming more active in corporate affairs. What are the implications of this trend for agency problem and corporate control?

Write your initial discussion post thinking carefully about health reform efforts in the United States.

• Why do you think Clinton health reform failed but Obama health reform succeeded?
• Do you foresee major health reform efforts succeeding in the next decade? Why or why not?
• Do you think that the current health reform is meeting the expectations of population? Why? Why not?

You are the CFO of a U.S. firm whose wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico manufactures component parts for your U.S. assembly operations. The subsidiary has been financed by bank borrowings in the United States. One of your analysts told you that the Mexican peso is expected to depreciate by 30 percent against the dollar on the foreign exchange markets over the next year. What actions, if any, should you take?

News reports from the western United States occasionally report incidents of cattle ranchers slaughtering many newborn calves and burying them in mass graves rather than transporting them to markets. Assuming that this is rational behavior by profit-maximizing "firms," explain what economic factors may influence such behavior. Justify your answer. *150 words minimum ; don't copy/paste other responses