Given the following information for Nugget Corporation, answer the questions below.

November December January February March Sales $300,000 $250,000 $275,000 $325,000 $350,000

Cash collected in month of sale 10% Credit collections: Collected in month of sale 10% Collected in month following the sale 75% Collected in second month following the sale 15%

Each question should have one amount in the answer field.

You must format your answers as follows: $x,xxx

1 Total collections from cash sales for the quarter ending March 31, 2018.

2 Total collections from credit sales for the quarter ending March 31, 2018.

Variable Production Cost Variance Analysis Iron Products Inc. produces prefabricated iron fencing used in commercial construction. Variable overhead is applied to products based on direct labor hours. The company uses a just-in-time production system and thus has insignificant inventory levels at the end of each month.

The company's income statement for the month of November comparing actual results with the flexible budget based on actual sales of 2,000 units is shown below.

Iron Products is disappointed with the actual results and has hired you as a consultant to provide further information as to why the company has been struggling to meet budgeted net profit. Your review of the above budget versus actual analysis identifies variable cost of goods sold as the main culprit. The unfavorable variance for this line item is $67,400.

After further research, you are able to track down the following standard cost information for variable production costs:

Direct materials (50 pounds per unit at $5 per pound)            $250

Direct labor (3 hours at $20 per hour)                                    60

Variable overhead (3 direct labor hours at $30 per hour)      90

Standard variable production cost per unit                         $400

Actual production information related to variable cost of goods sold for the month of November is as follows:

• 2,000 units were produced and sold.

• 110,000 pounds of material were purchased and used at a total cost

of $528,000.

• 5,600 direct labor hours were used during the month at a total cost

of $134,400.

• Variable overhead costs totaled $205,000.

Required

a. Calculate the material s price variance and materials quantity variance. Clearly

label each variance as favorable or unfavorable.

b. Identify the highest favorable variance and highest Calculate the labor rate

variance and labor efficiency variance. Clearly label each variance as favorable or

unfavorable.

c. Calculate the variable overhead spending variance and variable overhead

efficiency variance. Clearly label each variance as favorable or unfavorable.

d. List each of the six variances calculated in requirements a, b, and c, and total the

variances to show one net variance. Clearly label the net variance as favorable

or unfavorable. Explain how this net variance relates to variable cost of goods

sold on the income statement.

e. Identify the highest favorable variance and highest unfavorable variance from the

six listed in requirement d, and provide one possible cause of each variance.

Glow Bright Co. manufactures light bulbs. Glow Bright's purchasing policy requires that the purchasing agents place each quarter's purchasing requirements out for bid. This is because the Purchasing Department is evaluated solely by its ability to get the lowest purchase prices. The lowest cost bidder receives the order for the next quarter (90 working days).

To make its bulb products, Glow Bright requires 61,200 pounds of glass per quarter. Glow Bright received two glass bids for the third quarter, as follows:

• Mid-States Glass Company: $25.00 per pound of glass. Delivery schedule: 61,200 (680 lbs. x 90 days) pounds at the beginning of July to last for 3 months.
• Akron Glass Company: $25.15 per pound of glass. Delivery schedule: 680 pounds per working day (90 days in the quarter).

Glow Bright accepted Mid-States Glass Company's bid because it was the low-cost bid.

1. All of the following are ways in which Glow Bright could develop long-term partnerships with its suppliers except:

1. share research and development efforts.
2. ignore internal costs caused by delivery delays while contracting on the best price point basis.
3. share production schedules.
4. establish electronic data interchange.
5. establish supplier raw materials logistical support.

2. Hidden costs beyond the price of Mid-States Glass Company's bid include all of the following except:

3. Considering just inventory financing costs, what is the additional cost per pound of Mid-States Glass Company's bid if the annual cost of money is 8%? Round to the nearest cent.
$ per lb.

Problem 6-5 Julia Baker died, leaving to her husband Morgan an insurance policy contract that provides that the beneficiary (Morgan) can choose any one of the following four options. Money is worth 2.50% per quarter, compounded quarterly. Compute Present value if: Click here to view factor tables (a) $56,790 immediate cash. (Round factor values to 5 decimal places, e.g. 1.25124 and final answer to 0 decimal places, e.g. 458,581.) Present value $ Link to Text Link to Text (b) $4,020 every 3 months payable at the end of each quarter for 5 years. (Round factor values to 5 decimal places, e.g. 1.25124 and final answer to 0 decimal places, e.g. 458,581.) Present value $ Link to Text Link to Text (c) $19,080 immediate cash and $1,908 every 3 months for 10 years, payable at the beginning of each 3-month period. (Round factor values to 5 decimal places, e.g. 1.25124 and final answer to 0 decimal places, e.g. 458,581.) Present value $ Link to Text Link to Text (d) $4,020 every 3 months for 3 years and $1,630 each quarter for the following 25 quarters, all payments payable at the end of each quarter. (Round factor values to 5 decimal places, e.g. 1.25124 and final answer to 0 decimal places, e.g. 458,581.) Present value $ Link to Text Link to Text Which option would you recommend that Morgan exercise? Click if you would like to Show Work for this question: Open Show Work

Investigating Variances. Robotsy, Inc., produces robots sold at a variety of retail stores throughout the world. Standard cost information for each robot is presented as follows:

Robotsy produced and sold 100,000 robots for the year and encountered the following production variances:

Company policy is to investigate all unfavorable variances above 5 percent of the flexible budget amount for direct materials, direct labor, and variable overhead.

1. Identify the variances that should be investigated according to company policy. Show calculations to support your answer.
2. What recommendations would you make for the company’s current policy?
3. Identify the highest favorable variance and highest unfavorable variance and provide one possible cause of each variance.
4. Victoria Posey, the manager at Robtsy, Inc., reviewed the company’s variance analysis report. The materials price variance of $(300,000) was the most significant favorable variance for the month, and the materials quantity variance of $290,000 was the most significant unfavorable variance. Victoria would like to reward the company’s purchasing agent for achieving such substantial savings by giving him a $2,000 bonus while not providing any bonus for the production manager.

• Do you agree with Victoria’s approach to awarding bonuses? Explain.
• What circumstances might lead to the conclusion that the purchasing agent should not receive a bonus?

MACROECONOMICS PAPER ASSIGNMENT

The Physicians for a National Health Program

and Single Pay National Health Care Insurance

Due April 12

One of our country’s most significant fiscal policy issues is rising health care costs. The Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is a non-profit organization of 20,000 physicians, medical students, and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance (or Medicare For All) as a means of reforming health care in the United States. It is currently the health care position of Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

For this paper assignment, each student will review the PNHP website (as well as other sources contained in Blackboard) and write a TYPED paper of no more than 300 words with respect to the following:

- What is single payer health care?

- What does PNHP consider the most serious health care spending problem? Why?

- What are PNHP’s biggest problems with Obamacare, which was another way of dealing with health care reform?

- How will single pay health care be paid for?

- Do you agree with PNHP’s positions? If so, why? If not, why not?

Prior to writing your paper, watch the Crash Course Economics video “The Economics of Heath Care” and read the “Health Care Primer” found in the Blackboard folder. As part of your paper, cite at least one outside article or book and reference it at the end (name, author, date, web link). Grading will be based on your knowledge of PNHP’s position, addressing each of the above questions (using the primer and video as a reference), and the thoughtfulness in arguing your position. The paper can be submitted via email attachment or through Blackboard – no hard copies.

The owner of a private firm has requested that you estimate the value of the firm so that it can be marketed for sale. The firm creates custom, made-to-order furniture. The firm’s most recent results are shown in Appendix A.

Management expects revenues, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, depreciation (and amortization), and capital expenditures to grow 20% annually for the next five years with taxes remaining at 40% for each year. Balance sheet items in the most recent year include $10 million of outstanding, interest-bearing debt and $10 million book value of equity. The outstanding debt is expected to remain constant for this analysis, and management anticipates no changes in working capital. Free cash flows are estimated to grow at 5% after the five year period.

Industry averages for market value of equity are three times book value, for beta are 1.30, and for market debt ratio are 20%. Average market multiple for the industry is 7 times net income, and the Treasury bond rate is assumed to be 7%.

Based on this information and the information covered in Unit 3, prepare a DCF and Market Multiple analysis (in Excel) to help the owner estimate firm value. Please make sure to include your calculations for the following items:

Annual Free Cash Flows

Cost of debt

Cost of equity

WACC

Terminal Value

Firm Value, Debt Value, and Equity Value

Would

the owner prefer the DCF or Market Multiple approach to valuation? Why?

Sirens wailing, a black government car pushes through the traffic, past the beggars and street vendors, up a potholed road. Vehicles like these, the perks of a growing number of political appointees, are a common sight in Accra—and a source of popular outrage. Since Nana Akufo-Addo took office as president in January 2017 the number of government ministers has soared by 42% to 125, each with a car, guards and a taxpayer-funded home.

Outside Ghana Mr Akufo-Addo has been hailed as a hero. When he was sworn in, it was as if he was a passenger in a plummeting aeroplane who had just been handed the controls. His predecessor, John Mahama, had taken a high-flying economy—growth was 17% in 2011 thanks to the first production of oil from its Jubilee Field—and promptly put it into a nose-dive. Under Mr Mahama inflation soared, the economy slowed and public debt ballooned, with much of the borrowed money squandered on higher wages for public employees.

After taking the controls Mr Akufo-Addo said he would deliver “Ghana Beyond Aid”. He swiftly imposed discipline on government spending (new ministers notwithstanding). Fifty-three years after the imf first bailed out Ghana, the 16th rescue package for the country ended in April. The fund now praises the government’s economic management. A glowing staff report said Ghana had tamed inflation (which fell back to 9% this year after reaching 17% in 2016). It also won acclaim for cleaning up rotten banks and achieving a budget surplus (before interest payments).

Yet the praise should be tempered. Some 3.1m people, or about one-tenth of the population, live on less than $1.90 per day, the World Bank’s measure of extreme poverty. It has been a stubborn problem. Although Ghana cut its poverty rate in half in the 20 years to 2013, most of that progress occurred in the 1990s, when it fell by almost two percentage points a year. Since 2006 progress has slowed to about one percentage point per year.

Many of the government’s flagship investment programmes have been sunk by mismanagement. One especially embarrassing example is that of the Komenda Sugar Factory, which was built three years ago with a loan from the Indian government, and which was supposed to provide more than 7,000 jobs. Yet it is idle because it does not have any sugar cane to process. In all about one-third of infrastructure projects in Ghana are never finished.

Worse still, many were paid for with borrowed money. A rebasing of gdp last year has flattered the country’s balance-sheet. Ghana’s debt-to-gdp ratio, which hit 73% in 2016, looks quite tame this year at 62% (it would have been 76% under the old gdp measure).

But simply changing the estimated size of the economy does not magically bring in more tax. Interest payments still consume one-third of government revenues, which is more than it spends on education or health. Increasing the amount raised in taxes will be tough, because most of the economy is informal. The imf notes that taxes make up a smaller share of gdp (14% in Ghana) than in most other developing countries and classifies it as being at “high risk of debt distress”.

Investors are also wary and demand much higher interest rates to hold Ghana’s foreign-currency bonds compared with Nigeria’s or Kenya’s. One reason is that they worry the government will start spending freely ahead of elections in 2020, as governments often have in the past. Gregory Smith of Renaissance Capital, a bank, points out that budget deficits were almost one percentage point of gdp higher in each of the seven election years since 1990 than in non-election years. The trend has accelerated: in 2012 and 2016 deficits ballooned by almost three percentage points of gdp.

Mr Akufo-Addo won the election in 2016 with the preposterous promise of a factory in every district. This time he might do better by breaking the old pattern of running up debts before an election, only to turn to the imf afterwards for another bail-out.

____________

This questions is based on the article above, "After its 16th bail-out, Ghana hopes to put the IMF behind it," published by The Economist on June 22, 2019. The article discusses the political economy of fiscal expenditure in Ghana.

What does the pattern of the budget deficits of Ghanaian governments since 1990, as described in the article, imply for the optimality of the country’s fiscal policy over time? What roles do politics and elections seem to have played in the government’s expenditure policies? Does the deficit pattern indicate the use of an optimal or an inefficient (suboptimal) fiscal policy? Why? Please support your explanation with appropriate examples or quotations from the article.