Which of the following would be considered a personal contingent liability for a guarantor of a business loan?

A) The individual has subordinated debt to the business.
B) The individual has guaranteed another loan to an unrelated business.
C) The individual is considering borrowing to purchase real estate.
D) The individual is engaged to be married.

Which of the following would be considered a personal contingent liability for a guarantor of a business loan? A) The individual has subordinated debt to the business. B) The individual has guaranteed another loan to an unrelated business. C) The individual is considering borrowing to purchase real estate. D) The individual is engaged to be married.

Read the Point and Counterpoint arguments and answer the question listed below:

Which argument do you agree with (point or counterpoint)? Explain your reasoning. One page

Point

Not everything we secretly want we admit to wanting. Money is one example. One psychologist found that few people would admit to wanting money, but they thought everyone else wanted it. They were half right - everyone wants money. And everyone wants power.

Harvard psychologist David McClelland was justifiably famous for his study of underlying motives. McClelland would measure people's motivation for power from his analysis of how people described pictures (called the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT). Why didn't he simply ask people how much they wanted power? Because he believed that many more people really wanted power than would admit, or even consciously realize. And that is exactly what he found.

Why do we want power? Because it is good for us. It gives us more control over our own lives. It gives us more freedom to do as we wish. There are few things worse in life than feeling helpless, and few better than feeling in charge of your destiny.

Take Steve Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisors and the most powerful man on Wall Street. He buys Picassos, he lives in a mansion, he has white-gloved butlers, he travels the world first class. People will do almost anything to please him, or to even get near him. One writer notes, "Inside his offices, vast fortunes are won and lost. Careers are made and unmade. Type A egos are inflated and crushed, sometimes in the space of hours." All of this is bad for Steve Cohen, how?

Research shows that people with power and status command more respect from others, have higher self-esteem (no surprise there), and enjoy better health than those of less stature.

Usually, people who tell you power doesn't matter are those who have no hope of getting it. Being jealous, like wanting power, is one of those people just won't admit to.

Counterpoint

Of course it is true that some people desire power, and often behave ruthlessly to get it. For most of us, however, power is not high on our list of priorities, and for some people, power is actually undesirable.

Research shows that most individuals feel uncomfortable when placed in powerful positions. One study asked individuals, before they began work in a four-person team, to "rank, from 1 (highest) to 4 (lowest), in terms of status and influence within the group, would you like to achieve." You know what? Only about one-third (34 percent) of participants chose the highest rank. In a second study, researchers studied employees participating in Amazon's Mechanical Turk online service. They found, when employees were asked about their reasons for belonging to the three groups (which would be a workplace, a volunteer group, a congregation, etc.) that were most important in their life, that the main reason people want power is to earn respect. If they can get respect without gaining power, that is what most preferred. In a third study, the authors found that individuals preferred power only when they had high ability - in other words, where their influence helped their groups.

This interesting research suggests that we often confuse the desire for power with other things—like the desire to be respected and to help our groups and organizations succeed. In these cases, power is something most of us seek for more benevolent ends—and only in cases when we think the power does good.

Another study found that the majority of people want respect from their peers, not power. Cameron Anderson, the author of this research, sums it up nicely: "You don't have to be rich to be happy, but instead be a valuable contributing member to your groups," he comments. "What makes a person high in status in a group is being engaged, generous with others, and making self-sacrifices for the greater good."

Oh, and about Stevie Cohen...you realize that he is being investigated by the SEC? The SEC investigator: Preet Bharara, the same one who got Rajat Gupta.

Sources: B. Burrough and B. McLean, "The Hunt for Steve Cohen," Vanity Fair (June 2013), downloaded May 13, 2013, from http://www.vanityfair.com/; C. Anderson, R. Willer, G. J. Kilduff, and C. E. Brown, "The Origins of Deference: When Do People Prefer Lower Status?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (2012), pp. 1077--1088; C. Anderson, M. W Kraus, A. D. Galinsky, and D. Keltner, "The Local-Ladder Effect: Social Status and Subjective Well-Being," Psychological Science 23(7), 2012, pp. 764--771; and S. Kennelly, "Happiness Is About Respect, Not Riches," Greater Good (July 13, 2012), downloaded May 4, 2013, fromhttp://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

The Evergreen Chemical Corporation, established in 1990, has managed to earn a consistently high rate of return on its investments. The secret of its success has been the strategic and timely development, manufacturing, and marketing of innovative chemical products that have been used in various industries. Currently, the management of the company is considering the manufacture of a thermosetting resin as packaging material for mobile devices. The Company's Research and Development Department has come up with two alternatives: an epoxy resin, which would have a lower startup cost, and a synthetic resin, which would cost more to produce initially but would have greater economies of scale. At the initial presentation, the project leaders of both teams presented their cash flow projections and provided sufficient documentation in support of their proposals. However, since the products are mutually exclusive, the firm can only fund one proposal.

In order to resolve this dilemma, Tim Lui, the Assistant Treasurer, and a recent MBA from a prestigious university has been assigned the task of analyzing the costs and benefits of the two proposals and presenting his findings to the board of directors. Tim knows that this will be a difficult task, since the board members are not all familiar with financial concepts. The Board has historically had a strong preference for using rates of return as its decision criteria. On occasions it has also used the payback period approach to decide between competing projects when they are close competitors. However, Tim is convinced that the net present value (NPV) method is the best and when used correctly will always create the most value to the company.

After obtaining the cash flow projections for each project (see Tables 1 & 2), and crunching out the numbers, Tim realizes that the presentation is more difficult than he thought. The various capital budgeting techniques, when applied to the two series of cash flows, provide inconsistent results. The project with the higher NPV has a longer payback period, as well as a lower Internal Rate of Return (lRR). Tim scratches his head, wondering how he can convince the Board that the IRR and Payback Period can often lead to incorrect decisions.

In looking over the documentation prepared by the two project teams, it appears to you that the synthetic resin technology would require extensive development before it could be implemented whereas the epoxy resin technology is available “off-the-shelf." What impact might this have on your analysis?  

Problem 2. The US National Park Service (NPS) believes that airborne sulfur pollution and acid rain has significantly reducing the water quality in several lakes and streams in the Adirondacks State Park in NY. Many of these water bodies are considered biologically ‘dead.’ Coal fired power plants in the Midwest contribute most of the pollution. If 70% of the sulfur pollution was removed, the NPS believes that many of the lakes and streams would return to their natural biological state. The costs and benefits associated with this project are as follows:

1. Construction cost for sulfur removal equipment = $300 million for each of the first three years of the project. (During these three years there are no other costs associated with the project.)

2. Operation and maintenance costs = $ 85 million per year (These costs begin to accrue once the project comes on-line in the fourth year. They continue to accrue over the entire life of the equipment, i.e., through the 20th year.)

3. Estimated increase in revenues earned by the Adirondacks State Park = $ 150 million per year (These additional revenues accrue so long as the sulfur reduction equipment is operating.)

4. Reduced incidence of acid rain in the Adirondacks Park area valued at: = $ 2 million per year. (These benefits begin accruing once the project comes on-line and are assumed to continue over an infinitely long time period.) Assume that the discount rate is 3% per year.

Sensitivity analysis: To determine the sensitivity of your conclusion regarding whether the project makes economic sense or not, (a) evaluate the project at a discount rate of 5% per year, and (b) assume that the estimated increase in Park revenues is $130 million per year instead of $150 million per year. You can assume a discount rate of 3% per year for this. What is your conclusion now?

Policy recommendation: Based on all your calculations, what is your overall recommendation regarding this project?

PROBLEM IV Binghamton University is building a recreation center. The estimated construction cost is $12 million with annual staffing and maintenance costs of $750,000 over the 20-year life of the project (ie, t = 0, 1, 2, …, 19). At the end of the life of the project (ie, at t = 19), Binghamton expects to be able to sell the land for $4 million, though the amount could be as low as $2 million and as high as $5 million. Analysts estimate the first-year benefits (accruing at the end of the year of the first year, ie at t =1) to be $1.2 million. They expect the annual benefit to grow in real terms due to increases in population and income. Their prediction is an annual growth rate of 4 percent, but it could be as low as 1 percent or as high as 6 percent. Analysts also estimate the real discount rate for Binghamton to be 6 percent per year, though it could be a percentage point lower or higher.

1. Calculate the present value of net benefits for this project using the analysts’ predictions.

2. Investigate the sensitivity of the present value of net benefits to alternative projections within the ranges given by the analysts. Change only one assumption at a time, and try all possible combinations of assumptions (there are 27 possible combinations).

3. Based on your analysis on parts 1 and 2 of this problem, do you think Binghamton University should build the recreation center?

VI.   CASE STUDY NO. 3 WELCO COMPANY

During the audit of Welco Company, the auditor noted in vouching items in Travel Expense that a receipt for $750 for the dinner of a salesman with a prospective customer seemed excessive. Upon closely examining the receipt, it seemed like a 1 had been changed to a 7-Changing the receipt from $150 t $750. Upon examining other items; two other dinner bills appeared to have been altered similarly. Yet, the auditor decided that at most a few thousand dollars were involved for a multi-billion dollar company­ the amount was clearly not material. Since the risk of material fraud appeared remote, no additional work was done.

1.   What is the auditor's obligation, if any, to communicate this matter under SAS No. 99?

2.   . Assuming that the individual involved was the senior vice president of sales, what is the auditor's obligation, if any, to communicate the matter under SAS No. 99?

Exercise 9-07

Windsor Company follows the practice of pricing its inventory at the lower-of-cost-or-market, on an individual-item basis.

From the information above, determine the amount of Windsor Company inventory.

Exercise 9-07

Bonita Company follows the practice of pricing its inventory at the lower-of-cost-or-market, on an individual-item basis.

From the information above, determine the amount of Bonita Company inventory.

JAVA Exercise

BasketBall Bar Chart

Write a program that allows you to create a bar chart for the active members of a basketball team during a game. (Recall: there are only 5 active players on the court per team in a standard basketball game.)

Your program should do the following tasks:

• Prompt the user to store the first name of the five players

• Prompt the user to enter the points scored by each player

a. Use a while or do…while loop to check for input validation for the points (which cannot be negative)

• Calls a method to construct the chart for each player (based on the number of points). The method should have the following characteristics:

a. The method accepts two parameters – the player name and the points scored by that player

b. The method does not return a value

c. The method generates an asterisk (i.e. *) for every point scored. For instance, it should display *** if the player scored 3 points. Use a for loop to generate the asterisks.

d. Use the format method from the String class to align your player’s names neatly. (See Week 3 Lecture 1 Class code for a recap of this concept.)

A sample of the output is shown below (note: the text does not have to be exact. This output included to show you how the ‘chart’ would be generated):

Enter the first names of the 5 players: Jaden Tommy Danny Mason Bobby

Enter points earned by Jaden: 12

Enter points earned by Tommy: 6

Enter points earned by Danny: 4

Enter points earned by Mason: 1

Enter points earned by Bobby: 9

Points for Game

Jaden ************

Tommy ******

Danny ****

Mason *

Bobby *********