Monetary policy focuses on adjusting the supply of money in the economy to manage inflation and unemployment. However, it is not without it's limitations. One of the limits is that by reducing interest rates, the FED seeks to stimulate borrowing and thus purchasing. However, is there a lower limit where if rate goes down any lower people don't borrow any additional money to buy things? Some countries have reached interest rates of zero (Japan and Finland) and even taken them into negative territory - yes, that means you actually pay back less than you borrow! Currently in the U.S. interest rates are at historic lows (and even were negative for a day or two late last year). Have we reached that point where lower rates have no effect on borrowing and spending? Economists call this a "Liquidity Trap." Is the United States entering a liquidity trap?

The automobile fuel called E85 consists of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. E85 can be used in so-called flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs), which can use gasoline, ethanol, or a mix as fuels. Assume that gasoline consists of a mixture of octanes (different isomers of C8H18 ), that the average heat of combustion of C8H18(l) is 5400 kJ/mol , and that gasoline has an average density of 0.70 g/mL . The density of ethanol is 0.79 g/mL .

A. How many gallons of E85 would be needed to provide the same energy as 40 gal of gasoline?

Express your answer to two significant figures and include the appropriate units.

B.

If gasoline costs $ 3.88 per gallon in the United States, what is the break-even price per gallon of E85 if the same amount of energy is to be delivered?

Express your answer using three significant figures.

Select one problem that relates to you and your current position in the work environment. Complete your response in 750-1,000 words. Support your response with personal experiences or examples.

Alternate Scenario: If you are in an industry that does not deal with any foreign exchange transactions, use the petroleum industry for this assignment. Imagine that you work for a domestic oil refinery, and answer either question G11-1 or G11-2. You do not work for an oil producer, but rather for a refinery, which turns crude oil into many different petroleum products, from jet fuel to gasoline, which are then sold to world markets. You have the option of purchasing crude oil from U.S. sources or from various foreign countries. You must purchase crude oil in order to make products that you can sell in the United States or in other countries.

Scenario: When the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development described poverty as “to a large extent... a state of mind,” this made his position about social services clear. Imagine that you have an opportunity to meet with him to discuss your views on poverty, its causes, and how poverty can be addressed in meaningful ways.

1. What are your views on poverty? Would you describe yourself as having a conservative, liberal, or developmental perspective? Why?

2. What would you like to tell others whose views differ from your own? What aspects of their perspectives do you disagree with? What evidence supports your views and refutes theirs?

3. Why are poverty and how to respond to it such contentious issues in the United States? How can the different views be reconciled so that poverty can be addressed in meaningful ways?

Question 1
The minimum wage was first set by the Bake Shop Act, a law passed during the presidency of _____.
Herbert Hoover

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Richard Nixon

Lyndon Johnson

Question 2
The Supplemental Security Income increased federal support for the _____.
blind

all of these

elderly

disabled

Question 3
The purpose of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is to help poor people who are _____.

homeless

working

unable to work

unemployed

Question 4
The EITC bonus received by a low-income person:

increases indefinitely as long as their annual income keeps increasing

remains constant as their income increases

decreases as their income increases

increases until it reaches a certain peak ($20,000 maximum)

Question 5
The majority of the assistance the United States government offers to poor people is done through:

job guarantees

cash transfers

in-kind transfers

income tax exemptions

A U.S. company has a ¥750 million payable due in one year to a bank in Japan. The current spot rate S($/¥) = $0.0086/¥ and the one-year forward rate F360($/¥) = $0.0092/¥. The annual interest rate is 3 percent in Japan and 6 percent in the United States.

a. How to implement a hedge using a forward contract? Compute the guaranteed dollar payment in one year using the forward hedge.

b. How to implement a money market hedge? Compute the guaranteed dollar payment in one year using money market hedge.

c. If the U.S company decides to hedge using call option on yen, what would be the dollar payment in one year? Assume that the spot exchange rate S($/¥) = $0.0092/¥ in one year. Also suppose that a one-year call option on yen has an exercise price of $0.0086/¥ and a premium of $0.00012/¥.

Social media provides an enormous amount of data about the activities and habits of people using social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The belief is that mining that data provides a treasure trove for those who seek to quantify and predict future human behavior. A marketer is planning a survey of Internet users in the United States to determine social media usage. The objective of the survey is to gain insight on these three items: key social media platforms used, frequency of social media usage, and demographics of key social media platform users.

a.For each of the three items (key social media platforms used, frequency of social media usage, and demographics of key social media platform users listed), indicate whether the variables are categorical or numerical. If a variable is numerical, is it discrete or continuous?

b.Develop five categorical questions for the survey.

c.Develop five numerical questions for the survey.

On March 29th the number of confirmed cases of the Covid-19 per state was obtained from the internet. A random number generator was used to get the sample data on the sheet named Sample data

What is the lower boundary on the 95% confidence interval for the whole number average of confirmed Covid 19 cases in the country?

What is the upper boundary on the 95% confidence interval for the whole number average of confirmed Covid 19 cases in the country?

The actual number of mean confirmed covid-19 cases in the United States is 2580. Did your confidence interval capture the mean? Why or why not?

Sample Data

1. a. "On hold" times for callers to a local cable television company are known to be normally distributed with a standard deviation of 1.4 minutes. Find the average caller "on hold" time if the company maintains that no more than 6% of callers wait more than 5.6 minutes. (Give your answer correct to two decimal places.)

b. Of all mortgage foreclosures in the United States, 45% are caused by disability. People who are injured or ill cannot work--they then lose their jobs and thus their incomes. With no income, they cannot make their mortgage payment and the bank forecloses. 11 mortgage foreclosures are audited by a large lending institution. (Give your answers correct to three decimal places.)

(i) Find the probability of P(Five or fewer of the foreclosures are due to disability)

(ii) Find the probability of P(At least three foreclosures are due to a disability)

(No scribbling/chicken scratch! Please show work)

1. A researcher at the Annenberg School of Communication is interested in studying the use of smartphones among young adults. She wants to know the average amount of time that college students in the United States hold a smartphone in their hand each day. The researcher obtains data for one day from a random sample of 25 college students (who own smartphones). She installs an app that registers whenever the smartphone is being held and the screen is on. The sample mean is 230 minutes, with a standard deviation of 11 minutes.

a) What is the 95% confidence interval for average daily time a smartphone is used among college students?

b) What value of t is used in the confidence interval?

c) What is the standard error?

d) What is the lower bound of the confidence interval and the upper bound of the confidence interval?