Market: ____ (Explain who is your target market AND why. If you do not know why yet, please explain what kind of research/information you plan to get to support the why. Be specific)

The accountant for Becker Company wants to develop a balance sheet as of December 31, 2016. A review of the asset records has revealed the following information:

Required:

The accountant for Becker Company wants to develop a balance sheet as of December 31, 2016. A review of the asset records has revealed the following information:

Required:

What are Stakeholder ethical considerations of organizational strategies, marketing, and operations.in the United states when implementing digital equality in an environment of diversity?

“I want sales representatives who can stand on their own. Once they have been through training and show how to apply their knowledge, it shouldn’t be necessary for me to constantly tell them how they are doing. The stars always shine; it’s the other reps who need my attention.” Comment on this statement. Do you agree or disagree?

“So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate,” tweeted President Trump. A database of Trump remarks contains 320 references to fake news, named as term of the year in 2017. Leading news channels are not immune, for example in 2016 a story claiming HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nayhan had chanted a Hindu prayer went viral in India and was tweeted by main news channels. Fake news has been blamed for causing tension between countries, for example the Deputy Chairman of Dubai Police blamed Al Jazeera for deepening the crisis between Qatar and the UAE. Fake news has also resulted in tighter regulation of social media, and is now seen as a threat to democracy and free debate.

Historically, political interests have always misrepresented facts, but the identification, categorization and concept of fake news has become more complex and challenging. One team of students from Berkeley identified four classifications; clickbait, propaganda, commentary and humour and built a tool www.classify.news which scores the truth of information based on its URL. Their site claims 84% accuracy but the sample is based on only 5000 articles. IBM tested a prototype Question Answering Machine (QAM) called Watson to separate fact from fiction, and Google funded a fact checking operation called Full Fact to develop an automated fact-checking system. However, the successful implementation of fact checking models requires a constantly updated corpus of knowledge which is verified.

There are different data science architectures to check facts. The traditional NLP method of fake news detection is used by Thomson Reuters, a trusted global news source. Tracer News is a sensitive algorithmically driven system which filters news stories and social feeds for truth, and assigns a veracity score. It’s claimed to be 84% accurate, and with a sample of 5 tweets the system achieves 78% accuracy on distinguishing rumour and fact.

Research has shown that tweets containing false news spread faster and wider on Twitter than those with valid news. One estimate claims that in the month before the 2016 US election people read up to 3 articles of fake news. How this may possibly effect our attitudes is unknown, and psychologists have taken an interest in fake news. The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) was used to measure the ability to think analytically and consequently to predict people who can distinguish fake news from real news. Research has shown that if people agree with a message then they are more likely to believe it.

Social platforms such as Facebook are attempting to crack down on fake news in response to pressure. Facebook was accused of publishing fake posts using the name Lewis, who is a financial expert. Many people were thereby scammed to trust a financial product. Lewis pursued legal action to force social media to change their policy on advertising and be liable for hosting scams. Facebook are now playing an editorial role by changing the way News Feed functions. CEO Zuckerberg commented that sensationalism, misinformation and polarization are too common.

Countries such as Malaysia are making fake news punishable with up to 10 years in prison in an effort to protect national security. The law penalizes those who create, offer, circulate, print or publish fake news, which is defined as “any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas”. Opponents call this an attack on freedom of speech and fear the new law could be used to penalize critical attacks on the government.

Human fact checkers are a rigorous and expensive way to combat fake news. A simple claim could take hours to verify and the manpower required could be considerable. If the responsibility lies with algorithms, false positives and negatives could lead to the suppression of a news story. In the UAE, the Youth Media Council is playing a role in the UAE’s strategy of developing the media sector and verifying credible from fake news. In a Dubai competition the winners research had explored a fake news incident whereby students’ names were spread on social media as soldiers who had died. Workshops to educate and teach young people skills to identify fake news were suggested.

Technology has enabled anyone to create news and for that news to go viral. The success of the message is not reliant on the truth of the contents, and there is too much information to validate. Many questions are raised about the effects of tagging news as fake, susceptibility to fake news, is fake news more real if its viral, and how to identify fake news. How can we create and sustain a global culture which promotes and values truth? What indeed is the truth of an event when multiple perspectives of the same event can hold truth.

1. What is/are the problem/problems here? Is there an underlying fundamental problem?
2. Who are the major stakeholders and what are their perspectives?
3. What are the major ethical, legal, and security aspects associated with the problem.
4. What are the intended and unintended consequences of existing computing solutions? Consider the consequences on individuals, organizations and society within local and global contexts
5. What recommendations would you propose that will lead to potential solutions.

13. Classifying Costs The following is a list of costs incurred by several businesses: Classify each of the following costs as product costs or period costs. Indicate whether each product cost is a direct materials cost, a direct labor cost, or a factory overhead cost. Indicate whether each period cost is a selling expense or an administrative expense. Costs Classification a. Cost of fabric used by clothing manufacturer b. Maintenance and repair costs for factory equipment c. Rent for a warehouse used to store raw materials and work in process d. Wages of production quality control personnel e. Oil lubricants for factory plant and equipment f. Depreciation of robot used to assemble a product g. Travel costs of marketing executives to annual sales meeting h. Depreciation of copying machines used by the Marketing Department i. Fees charged by collection agency on past-due customer accounts j. Electricity used to operate factory machinery k. Maintenance costs for factory equipment l. Pens, paper, and other supplies used by the Accounting Department in preparing various managerial reports m. Charitable contribution to United Fund n. Depreciation of microcomputers used in the factory to coordinate and monitor the production schedules o. Fees paid to lawn service for office grounds upkeep p. Cost of sewing machine needles used by a shirt manufacturer q. Cost of plastic for a telephone being manufactured r. Telephone charges by president’s office s. Cost of 30-second television commercial t. Surgeon’s fee for heart bypass surgery u. Depreciation of tools used in production v. Wages of a machine operator on the production line w. Salary of the vice president of manufacturing operations x. Factory janitorial supplies

Lindsey was recently hired by Swift Ltd. as a junior budget analyst. She is working for the Venture Capital Division and has been given for capital budgeting projects to evaluate. She must give her analysis and recommendation to the capital budgeting committee.

Lindsey has a B.S. in accounting from CWU (2014) and passed the CPA exam (2017). She has been in public accounting for several years. During that time she earned an MBA from Seattle U. She would like to be the CFO of a company someday--maybe Swift Ltd.-- and this is an opportunity to get onto that career track and to prove her ability.

As Lindsey looks over the financial data collected, she is trying to make sense of it all. She already has the most difficult part of the analysis complete -- the estimation of cash flows. Through some internet research and application of finance theory, she has also determined the firm’s beta.

Here is the information that Lindsey has accumulated so far:

The Capital Budgeting Projects

She must choose one of the four capital budgeting projects listed below:  

Table 1

Table 1 shows the expected after-tax operating cash flows for each project. All projects are expected to have a 4 year life. The projects differ in size (the cost of the initial investment), and their cash flow patterns are different. They also differ in risk as indicated in the above table.

The capital budget is $20 million and the projects are mutually exclusive.

Capital Structures

Swift Ltd. has the following capital structure, which is considered to be optimal:

Cost of Capital

Lindsey knows that in order to evaluate the projects she will have to determine the cost of capital for each of them. She has been given the following data, which he believes will be relevant to her task.

(1)The firm’s tax rate is 35%.

(2) Swift Ltd. has issued a 8% semi-annual coupon bond with 14 years term to maturity. The current trading price is $960.

(3) The firm has issued some preferred stock which pays an annual 8.5% dividend of $50 par value, and the current market price is $52.

(4) The firm’s stock is currently selling for $35 per share. Its last dividend (D₀) was $2.00, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5%. The current risk free return offered by Treasury security is 2.8%, and the market portfolio’s return is 10.80%. Swift Ltd. has a beta of 1.1. For the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a risk premium of 3.5%.

(5) The firm adjusts its project WACC for risk by adding 2.5% to the overall WACC for high-risk projects and subtracting 2.5% for low-risk projects.

Lindsey knows that Swift Ltd. executives have favored IRR in the past for making their capital budgeting decisions. Her professor at Seattle U. said NPV was better than IRR. Her textbook says that MIRR is also better than IRR.   She is the new kid on the block and must be prepared to defend her recommendations.

First, however, Lindsey must finish the analysis and write her report. To help begin, she has formulated the following questions:

1. What is the firm’s cost of debt?

2. What is the cost of preferred stock for Swift Ltd.?

3. Cost of common equity

(1) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the CAPM approach?

(2) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the DCF approach?

(3) What is the estimated cost of common equity using the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach?

(4) What is the final estimate for r_s?

4. What is Swift Ltd.’s overall WACC?

5. Do you think the firm should use the single overall WACC as the hurdle rate for each of its projects? Explain.

6. What is the WACC for each project? Place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

7. Calculate all relevant capital budgeting measures for each project, and place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

Table 2

8. Comment on the commonly used capital budgeting measures. What is the underlying cause of ranking conflicts? Which criterion is the best one, and why?

9. Which of the projects are unacceptable and why?

10. Rank the projects that are acceptable, according to Lindsey’s criterion of choice.

11. Which project should Lindsey recommend and why? Explain why each of the projects not chosen was rejected.

Instructions

1.Your answers should be Word processed, submitted via Canvas.

2.Questions 5, 8, 9, and 11 are discussion questions.

3.Place your numerical solutions in Table 2.

4.Show your steps for calculation questions.

in JAVA

Create a class called “MinMax” that satisfies the following requirements:
a. create an integer array called nums that has 20 cells
b. generate a random number between 5 and 30, and populate the array nums
c. print the minimum and maximum number in the array nums
d. print sum and average of numbers in the array nums

Your output look like this: (Note: numbers shown below will be different in your program due to the random numbers)
minimum number = 6
maximum number = 29
sum = 123
average = 67.23

Your employer has just transferred you to beautiful Winnipeg. Since you anticipate being at the branch here for some time, you have decided to purchase a condo downtown. The condo you want to purchase is being listed at $385,000. The mortgage officer at your financial institution has informed you that the current rate on mortgages is 4.80%, compounded semi‐annually. Fortunately, you are a prudent saver and have managed to amass the 10% down payment in your savings account. You have decided to take the mortgage on an 18‐year amortization period hoping that this will keep the every second week (26 payments/year) payments manageable.

1. What is your bi-weekly (every second week) interest rate for this mortgage? (1 mark)

2. What is the bi‐weekly payment for this mortgage

3. What is the effective per annum interest rate that you are paying on this mortgage? (1 mark)

4. How much of your first payment will be principal?

5. If your employer moves you again in 4 years and you must sell your condo, how much principal do you still owe the bank?

a.NAL?

b.Maximum lease payment?

Porsche is expected to sell approximately 60,000 cars in the U.S. in 2019. I'll let you estimate an average selling price across Porsche models. For this example, let's assume that all the sales happen in December of 2019. Also, assume that Porsche has fully hedges their U.S. dollar exposure (based on predicted sales) using futures or forward contracts at a rate of $1.10 per Euro. What happens in the following situations:

a. the Dollar/Euro exchange rate remains unchanged and sales are as predicted

b. the Euro rises against the Dollar and the exchange rate moves to $1.00 per Euro. Sales are as predicted.

c. the Euro falls against the Dollar and the exchange rate moves to $1.25 per Euro. Sales are as predicted.

d. the Euro rises against the Dollar and the exchange rate moves to $1.00 per Euro. Sales are 20% higher than expected.

e. the Euro rises against the Dollar and the exchange rate moves to $1.00 per Euro. Sales are 20% lower than expected.

Be specific in your answers. Where does Porsche lose money, and how much? Where does Porsche make money and how much? What is the overall effect on Porsche's income in their home currency? FYI, you can make the Euro currency symbol in Word by using CRTL + ALT + E.  

1. A property will generate NOI of $12,000 per year for each of the next 8 years. You purchase this property at a 5% cap rate. If you expect to sell this property in 6 years at a terminal cap rate of 6%, what is you IRR?

While the operating budget process is underway in June, the capital budget process must also begin. Describe what should be happening in the capital budget

1. Fill in the blanks in the table below (show solutions)

Is this a short-run or a long-run production process? Briefly explain.

At what point does diminishing returns set in? Specifically in the context of this problem, why is there DMR?

2. Is it possible that diminishing marginal returns will set in after the very first unit of labor is employed? Illustrate the total product (TP_L), marginal product (MP_L), and average product (AP_L) in this case. Explain the shape of your graphs.
3. If the TP_L curve is a straight line through the origin, what do the AP_L and MP_L curves look like? Illustrate. Would the TP_L curve ever have this shape? Why or why not?
4. Which is more relevant to the firm when making decisions, the average product or the marginal product of a new hire? Explain.