There are two kinds of consumers who are looking to buy auto insurance from an insurance firm – Reckless drivers (R) and Safe Drivers (S). 50 percent of the consumer population is R and 50 percent is S.The insurance company’s cost of servicing a consumer is $80 if she is a safe driver and $120 if she is a reckless driver. The value of the insurance is $100 to S and $150 to R.

What is the total surplus?

Suppose the firm cannot distinguish between reckless and safe drivers.

What is the total surplus at this market equilibrium?

From the perspective of an entrepreneur who is considering entering the ghost kitchen industry, evaluate the competitive environment of the industry using Porter’s Five Forces model.

Who wants to be a trillionaire?

The Economist Oct 26th, 2006 | HONG KONG | from the print edition

BY THE end of October, China's foreign-exchange reserves are likely to top $1 trillion, twice their level two years ago and more than one-fifth of global reserves. This handsome sum would be enough to buy all the gold sitting in central banks' vaults (indeed, twice over) or almost all of London's residential property.

China's massive hoard is the result of its large current-account surplus, significant inward foreign direct investment, and big inflows of speculative capital over the past couple of years. In theory, flows of foreign money into China should push up the yuan, but China has resisted this, forcing the central bank to buy up the surplus foreign currency. The growth in reserves has slowed in recent months, but it is still averaging a hefty $16 billion a month.

China's official reserves already far exceed what is required to ensure financial stability. As a rule of thumb, a country needs enough foreign exchange to cover three months' imports or to settle its short-term foreign debt. China's reserves are equivalent to 15 months of imports and are six times bigger than its short-term debt. The explosion in reserves is also a headache for the central bank. It creates excess liquidity, which risks fuelling higher inflation, asset-price bubbles and imprudent bank lending.

There are two simple ways to stop reserves rising. China could set free its exchange rate or it could relax restrictions on capital outflows and allow private citizens to hold foreign assets. Significant moves of either kind seem unlikely in the near future. So long as China runs a large external surplus (the natural result of its high saving rate) and refuses to set its currency free, its stash of foreign currency will probably continue to mount.

How that money is invested has big implications for the world economy, not just for China. Brad Setser, head of global research at Roubini Global Economics, estimates that about 70% of it is invested in dollars, mainly Treasury securities. This has propped up the dollar and reduced American bond yields—by up to 1.5 percentage points according to some estimates. A big shift out of dollars could therefore push up bond yields and hence mortgage rates, damaging America's already crumbling housing market.

China's central bank is thought to be switching from Treasury bonds to American mortgage backed securities and corporate bonds in an attempt to earn higher yields. Chinese officials have also discussed in private the need to diversify reserves out of dollars in order to reduce exposure to a big drop in the greenback. The bank may be putting a bigger slice of any increase in reserves into euros and emerging Asian currencies, but so far there is little sign of a shift out of its existing stock of dollars. One problem is that China's investments are so big that they move markets. Shifting money into euros would push down the dollar. China would then not only suffer a capital loss on its remaining dollar reserves, but it could also be forced to buy yet more reserves to hold its currency down against a weaker dollar

Fear of a capital loss, and dissatisfaction with unrewarding yields, have triggered a flurry of ideas on how to put the money to better use. One popular idea is to use some of China's reserves to buy oil and other commodities. The snag is that stockpiling oil would push up prices, yet absorb only a tiny proportion of the sums at China's disposal. Buying the equivalent of sixmonths' oil consumption, as has been suggested, would take only 8% of total reserves at current prices, but the extra oil bought would amount to three times the growth in global oil demand this year. Buying gold would have similar results: if China invested just 5% of its reserves in gold, it could buy the world's entire annual mine production.

Another proposal is to spend more money on infrastructure investment, which would yield a much higher return than American bonds. However, since China's investment already accounts for 40% of GDP, it is not clear that China needs more. Writing off banks' non-performing loans might seem more sensible. In 2004 and 2005 the People's Bank of China did indeed shift $60 billion to state banks. The remaining stock of bad loans is now around $250 billion, according to UBS.

By buying American bonds, China is subsidising rich American consumers while China's health care, education and social safety net are starved of funds. So why not use reserves to relieve rural poverty, improve health care, or inject money into the under-funded pension system?

Unfortunately, all of these proposals to spend money at home misunderstand the nature of foreign reserves. The problem is that conversion of the foreign currency into yuan would put upward pressure on the yuan and so force the central bank to buy yet more foreign currency to hold it down. Reserves would return to their original level.

The only real solution to the poor return on China's reserves is to stop accumulating them. That requires policy reforms to reduce China's massive saving, which drives its current-account surplus, and a more flexible exchange-rate system. But before that happens, China's reserves could well hit $2 trillion.

QUESTIONS:

1) Based on the article facts, why was China's massive hoarding of foreign exchange reserves the result of its large current-account surplus, significant inward foreign direct investment, and big inflows of speculative capital? Explain and motivate your answer

2) Based on the facts in the article, would you say that China is following a new-mercantilist policy? Explain and motivate your answer (Maximum length one page).

3) Based on the facts in the article, would you say that China is a currency manipulator? Make use of a demand and supply diagram to explain your answer

4) Note: this is a research-based question and all sources used should be properly referenced. What happened to China’s foreign exchange reserves since 2006? Is China still hoarding massive foreign exchange reserves? What are the implications of this in terms of new-mercantilist policy and currency manipulation?

Handoff report at 0800

“The patient is a young man who was transferred from the ICU yesterday. He was in a motor vehicle accident (MVA) 14 days ago. He had some head trauma and subsequent evacuation of a subdural hematoma. He is unconscious, unresponsive to painful stimuli, and has flaccid extremities. Pupils round, sluggish reaction to light. He has several abrasions on his face and several bruised areas on his shoulders and chest from the accident. Vital signs are T: 97.8, P: 94, R:24, BP: 124/80, pulse ox 94%. Mother at bedside; she questions everything you do.”

The patient’s current flowcharts contain the following information:

2:00 PM nursing assessment: Pupils round to R & L, nonreactive to light. R:12 Cheyne-Stokes, P 80, BP 150/80. Skin warm, jerky movements of upper extremity noted. The physician writes the following orders:

• Oxygen at 12L/min per non-rebreather mask
• Check oxygen saturation q1h
• Vital signs q1h
• CT scan of the head stat
• ABGs stat

1) Identify the nursing interventions that require immediate follow-up:

2) Identify the nursing actions that you can delegate/assign to unlicensed assistive personnel

3) Critical Reflection: To provide patient-centered care, list how you would support the mother at this time?

Discuss the significance of the numerator and denominator in the corporate value proposition. Who benefits from the maximization of corporate valuation? (Note: Milton Friedman, among other notable financial economists, had definitive opinions on this.) Why theoretically do so many entities benefit? Do you agree that they all benefit?

The following data are from a random sample of 10 students who participated in a study undertaken to investigate the effect of sleep time (measured in average number of hours of sleep per night) on GPA (grade point average, measured on a 4-point scale).

a. Find the equation between GPA (y) as function of sleep time (x).

b. What is the estimated GPA of a student who averages 5 hours of sleep per night?

c. What is the coefficient of determination?

*Please don't use the EXCEL from.

From ”The Basic Practice of Statistics” by Moore. Many people who come to clinics to be tested for HIV don’t come back to learn the test results. Clinics now use ”rapid HIV tests” that give a result while the client waits. In a particular clinic use of rapid tests increased the percent of clients who learned their test results from 69% to 99.7%.

The trade-off for fast results is that rapid tests are less accurate than slower laboratory tests. Applied to people who have no HIV antibodies, one rapid test has probability 0.004 of producing a false positive.

• If a clinic tests 200 people who are free of HIV antibodies, what is the chance that no false positives occur?

- What is the probability that at least one false positive occurs?

You are a CPA who has recently transferred from the auditing and assurance department to the forensic accounting department of a public accounting firm where you have worked for two years. You receive a call from Sterling Preston, a senior manager in your group, who tells you that the next morning the two of you will drive to Suburbia, Illinois for a meeting. You confirm that you will be in the office at 7:00 a.m. to ride with Sterling to the meeting.

The next morning, while driving, Sterling explains what might happen in the meeting:

“WrecksAll Drugs has recently requested proposals from firms for audit services. Although our firm is not interested in the audit, the owner has also expressed concern about potential fraud at the company. We are headed to the law offices of an attorney for WrecksAll Drugs, which is a group of privately owned drug stores in Suburbia. Have you ever been there? Me either, but it’s a big town. We have a lead on a possible embezzlement. One of our audit partners spoke to their attorney, who may need an investigation at the Company. The owner, Ben Broughton, found some funny business in the deposits. The Director of Accounting, Conrad Scaglia, has been put on leave. They are going to explain what is going on to see if we can help. Just listen and take some notes, and of course, ask clarifying questions as needed.”

You and Sterling arrive and are ushered into a conference room at the law firm. Present are Ben, his lawyer, you, and the senior manager. The lawyer does most of the talking:

“WrecksAll operates 3 retail stores across the city, and competes with stores of two national chains, and also with several retail drug stores located on site at area hospitals. The Company has developed a successful niche in the marketplace by locating its stores near otherwise underserved residential neighborhoods, and by providing personalized service, generating loyalty form a core base of its customers. Much of its core customer base tends to be elderly and below median income for Suburbia.”

Ben, the owner, interjects:

“One service we provide to qualified customers is that we fill prescriptions on credit for customers enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or private medical insurance plans. We file claims for customers for drug purchases, and the insurance reimbursement checks are received directly by us from health insurance programs, in payment of customer credit accounts. We don’t make too many mistakes. I am the only person who can write off a customer’s account. Of course, we also accept payment by cash, check, or major credit card for all customers.”

The attorney continues:

“Ben has found suspicious activity in the deposits. Every shift, a deposit slip is completed by each cashier and deposit amounts (cash, checks and credit card batches) are removed from the cashier’s register and are keyed into the point of sale register by the cashier as a register withdrawal for deposit. As a matter of procedure, bank deposit slip totals can be compared to the register reports for each shift and each cashier. Deposit slip totals nearly always agree to the register report totals. However, often throughout each week, certain deposits contain less cash than indicated on the register report. By an equal amount, these same deposits contain more value in checks than indicated on the register report.”

After the conclusion of the meeting at the attorney’s office, you will visit WrecksAll’s offices, which are located in the rear of the retail space for WrecksAll store #2. Sterling will leave you at WrecksAll offices for some initial fact finding while he attends a sales call and lunch with another law firm in Suburbia, and then he will rejoin you in the afternoon at WrecksAll.

You and Sterling are left alone in the conference room and you discuss the following questions. Provide your written answers to these questions below, and prepare to discuss them in class. 1) Form one or more initial hypotheses about what could be happening to explain why deposits balance with the register

1 While this case is based on a collection of experiences from professionals in practice, all names, facts, documents and data provided in this case are fictional representations. reports in total, but cash deposited is less than amounts reflected on the register report and checks deposited are greater than the amount reflected on the register report.

2) For each of the hypotheses stated in #1) above, label which ones are fraud hypotheses and which hypotheses, if true, would be non-fraud explanations?

3) List what information and documents you would like to receive in order to begin investigation of this matter?

4) The owner suspects that Conrad, the Director of Accounting, has manipulated the deposits. Conrad is on leave, pending conclusion of the investigation. Would you like to request that Conrad come in for an interview with you today? Why, or why not?

5) Availability of WrecksAll staff and your time is currently limited. After some initial fact finding today, your firm will propose a scope of services to WrecksAll and its attorney and ask to execute an engagement letter to complete the investigation. Review the WrecksAll organization chart that follows. The organization chart indicates the titles for each position, which can indicate the nature of job responsibilities for each position. Each position also is connected by a line to a position above it, indicating the supervisor for each position in the chain of command. Some of the boxes near the bottom of the organization chart represent numerous positions of identical responsibility, such as cashier. Document and select three individuals from the organization chart you would like to interview today in order to help you better plan the engagement and revise your current hypotheses about the cause of differences between deposits and company register report details. Which three positions would you ask to interview today? Explain why you have selected each of these individuals.

A researcher with the Department of Education followed a cohort of students who graduated from high school in a certain​ year, monitoring the progress the students made toward completing a​ bachelor's degree. One aspect of his research was to determine whether students who first attended community college took longer to attain a​ bachelor's degree than those who immediately attended and remained at a​ 4-year institution. The data in the table attached below summarize the results of his study. Complete parts​ a) through​ e) below.

Community College Transfer:

n:268

Sample mean time to​ graduate, in years 5.49

Sample standard deviation time to​ graduate, in years 1.144

No Transfer

n 1175

Sample mean time to​ graduate, in years 4.51

Sample standard deviation time to​ graduate, in years 1.013

a) What is the response variable in this​ study? What is the explanatory​ variable?

A.The response variable is the use of community college or not. The explanatory variable is the time to graduate.

B.The response variable is the time to graduate. The explanatory variable is the use of community college or not.

C.The response variable is the time to graduate. The explanatory variable is the number of students.

D.The response variable is the number of students. The explanatory variable is the time to graduate.

​b) Explain why this study can be analyzed using inference of two sample means. Determine what qualifications are met to perform the hypothesis test about the difference between two means. Select all that apply.

A.The sample sizes are large​ (both greater than or equal to​ 30).

B.The population is given to be normally distributed.

C. The samples are independent.

D.The sample sizes are not more than​ 5% of the population.

E.The samples can be reasonably assumed to be random.

​c) Does the evidence suggest that community college transfer students take longer to attain a​ bachelor's degree? Use an

alpha equals 0.01α=0.01 level of significance. Perform a hypothesis test. Determine the null and alternative hypotheses.

A.Upper H 0H0​: mu Subscript community college Baseline equals mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college=μno transfer​,

Upper H 1H1​:mu Subscript community college Baseline greater than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college>μno transfer

B.Upper H 0H0​: mu Subscript community college Baseline greater than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college>μno transfer​,

Upper H 1H1​: mu Subscript community college Baseline less than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college<μno transfer

C.Upper H 0H0​: mu Subscript community college Baseline equals mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college=μno transfer​,

Upper H 1H1​: mu Subscript community college Baseline less than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college<μno transfer

D. Upper H 0H0​:mu Subscript community college Baseline less than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college<μno transfer​,

Upper H 1H1​:mu Subscript community college Baseline greater than mu Subscript no transferμcommunity college>μno transfer