1) Do you believe that social security benefits will be reduced in the near future?

2) Do you believe that the current social security program is well managed?

3) What type of means tests would you recommend for social security receipts?

Microorganisms called psychrophiles will grow only at low temperatures (at or near 0°C). This restriction on a microbes growth would most directly impact

a. inoculation

b incubation

c isolation

d inspection

e inspection

f information gathering

g identification

When you hold an insect at the near point of your eye it subtends an angle of 5.00 10-3 rad. Determine the maximum angular size of the insect when viewed through a magnifying glass (simple magnifier) that has a focal length of 8.70 cm.

Please comment on the economic thought of the following statement, and state why. Then provide whether you agree or disagree with one or both bulleted statements:

Critics have charged that, in carrying out an economic analysis, the commercial nuclear power industry does not consider the cost of decommissioning, or “mothballing,” a nuclear power plant and that the analysis is therefore optimistic. As an example, consider the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefont twin nuclear generating facility under construction at Scottsboro, in northern Alabama. The initial cost is $1.5 billion and the estimated life is 40 years. The annual operating and maintenance costs are assumed to be 4.6% of the initial cost during the first year and are expected to increase at an annual rate of 0.05% thereafter. Annual revenues are estimated to be three times the annual operating and maintenance costs throughout the life of the plant.

• The criticism that the economic analysis is over-optimistic because it omits “mothballing” costs is not justified, since the addition of a cost of 50% of the initial cost to “mothball” the plant decreases the 8.95% rate of return only to approximately 8.77%.
• If the estimated life of the plants is more realistically taken to be 25 years instead of 40 years, then the criticism is justified. By reducing the life to 25 years, the rate of return of approximately 9% without a “mothballing” cost drops to approximately 7.7% when a cost to “mothball” the plant equal to 50% of the initial cost is added to the analysis.

The financial statements for Castile Products, Inc., are given below: Castile Products, Inc. Balance Sheet December 31 Assets Current assets: Cash $ 6,500 Accounts receivable, net 35,000 Merchandise inventory 70,000 Prepaid expenses 3,500 Total current assets 115,000 Property and equipment, net 185,000 Total assets $ 300,000 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity Liabilities: Current liabilities $ 50,000 Bonds payable, 10% 80,000 Total liabilities 130,000 Stockholders’ equity: Common stock, $5 par value 30,000 Retained earnings 140,000 Total stockholders’ equity 170,000 Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 300,000 Castile Products, Inc. Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31 Sales $ 420,000 Cost of goods sold 292,500 Gross margin 127,500 Selling and administrative expenses 89,500 Net operating income 38,000 Interest expense 8,000 Net income before taxes 30,000 Income taxes (30%) 9,000 Net income $ 21,000 Account balances at the beginning of the year were: accounts receivable, $25,000; and inventory, $60,000. All sales were on account. Assets at the beginning of the year totaled $280,000, and the stockholders’ equity totaled $161,600. Required: Compute the following: 1. Gross margin percentage. (Round your percentage answer to 2 decimal places (i.e., 0.1234 should be entered as 12.34).) 2. Net profit margin percentage. (Round your answer to the nearest whole percentage place (i.e., 0.1234 should be entered as 12%).) 3. Return on total assets. (Round your percentage answer to 1 decimal place (i.e., 0.1234 should be entered as 12.3).) 4. Return on equity. (Round your percentage answer to 1 decimal place (i.e., 0.1234 should be entered as 12.3).) 5. Was financial leverage positive or negative for the year?

**SHOW ALL WORK IN EXCEL QM**

Problem-7:

Management of the First Syracuse Bank is concerned about a loss of customers at its main office downtown. One solution that has been proposed is to add one or more drive-through teller stations to make it easier for customers in cars to obtain quick service without parking. Chris Carlson, the bank president, thinks the bank should only risk the cost of installing one drive-through. He is informed by his staff that the cost (amortized over a 20-year period) of building a drive-through is $12,000 per year. It also costs $16,000 per year in wages and benefits to staff each new teller window.

The director of management analysis, Beth Shader, believes that the following two factors encourage the immediate construction of two drive-through stations, however. According to a recent article in Banking Research magazine, customers who wait in long lines for drive-through teller service will cost banks an average of $1 per minute in loss of goodwill. Also, adding a second drive-through will cost an additional $16,000 in staffing, but amortized construction costs can be cut to a total of $20,000 per year if two drive-throughs are installed together instead of one at a time. To complete her analysis, Shader collected one month’s arrival and

service rates at a competing downtown bank’s drive-through stations. These data are shown as observation analyses 1 and 2 in the following tables.

• Simulate a 1-hour time period, from 1 to 2 p.m., for a single-teller drive-through.
• Simulate a 1-hour time period, from 1 to 2 p.m., for a two-teller system.
• Conduct a cost analysis of the two options. Assume that the bank is open 7 hours per day and 200 days per year.

OBSERVATION ANALYSIS 1: INTERARRIVAL TIMES FOR 1,000 OBSERVATIONS

OBSERVATION ANALYSIS 2: CUSTOMER SERVICE TIME FOR 1,000 CUSTOMERS