Discussion: Is This What We Should Spend Our Money On?

No unread replies.No replies.

The Federal budget is made up of three parts for planning purposes: Mandatory spending, which is enabled by ongoing appropriations, and so does not require new spending authorization; Discretionary spending, which has to be re-authorized each year; and the Interest on the Federal debt. For our purposes, because we are not looking at the legislative process, it is one single large spending pool. Below is overall Federal spending in the USA in 2018

2018 Federal Spending.  (Links to an external site.)View the document or the Interactive Graphic.

So you can see that in 2018 Federal spending added up to $4.1 trillion, or 20% of then US GDP of $20.5 trillion. Obviously this was more than revenues, which at $3.3 trillion left a deficit of (a bit less than) 800 billion dollars, or 3.9% of GDP. We spent 24% of Federal money on Social Security + 14% on Medicare, which = 38% and growing of all US Federal expenditure on retired people. Another 15% of the entire budget in 2018 was spent on the US military. In addition we spent 9.5% on Medicaid, which is medical assistance for poor people. And we spent 15.6% on natural resources and the environment, general science, space & technology, general government, community & regional development, agriculture, administrative costs of Medicare & Social Security, energy & commerce, and housing credit programs. Another 7.9% and growing was spent on servicing the national debt. About four-fifths is spent on retired people, the poor, the military and the Federal debt.

On the Federal level, education spending is allocated to Pell grants, work-study, guarantees of student debt, and Head Start, a program for poor pre-school children. The great majority of spending on education in the US is on the state and local levels, although the Federal government plays a regulatory role.

Similarly, with respect to the environment, the Federal government plays primarily a regulatory role -- in this case, most spending in terms of mitigation is by private industry. The largest exception is the national park system; there are also state and local parks and reserves.

Do you think these are the best priorities for US Federal government spending? Do you propose some other set of priorities? If so, what? Write about three paragraphs. Please use outside academic-level sources to support your position.

link: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55342 ( 2018 Federal Spending)

(a) Suppose that Marks Man is shooting at a target, where the center of the target is at (0, 0) in the
plane. Let fX,Y (x, y) be the joint PDF of his shot. Assume that X and Y are independent random variables,
each distributed as N (0, 1). What is P(X ≥ 0, Y ≥ 0)? (Write your answer as a decimal).

(b) Now suppose Joe Schmo is shooting at the same target, and let fX,Y (x, y) be the joint PDF of his
shot. Assume that X and Y are independent random variables, each distributed as N (−1, 4) (He tends to
miss down and to the left, with a higher variance of his shots.) What is P(X ≥ 1, Y ≥ 0)? (Write your
answer as a decimal).

think of two organizations, activities, clubs, etc. that you are involved in (or very familiar with). This can be a sports team, church group, school club or organization, job, etc.

Write a press release for 2 different organizations/groups based on an actual or hypothesized upcoming/ongoing event. You must choose two different groups/events and have two different press releases. The body of each release must be at least 300 words in length (headings that include your contact information are excluded from the word count). Yes, that means the total of your two submissions is at least 600 words in length!

Examples?

Health center opening or offerings

Emergency Management courses offered

Political candidacy announcement

School club fundraiser/community service event

Winning of sports championship

…..or whatever else real or fictitious you would like to use as your subject matter.

1. Assume that Mr. Shulman owned 100 shares of Exxon Mobile stock and 250 shares of General Electric stock when he died on December 1. The highest selling price for Exxon Mobile on that day was 41.24; the lowest selling price was 40.40. The highest selling price for GE on that day was 39.35; the lowest selling price was 38.95. Calculate the fair market value of all of the stock as of December 1.

2. In December 2003, Mrs. Nichols gave gifts of $20,000 to her son, Bruce; $20,000 to her son and daughter-in-law, David and Cheryl; $15,000 to a favorite nephew; and $10,000 to each of her seven grandchildren. What amount must Mrs. Nichols report to the IRS on her 2003 gift-tax return? Please show your calculations.

1) Consider the following acid ionization constants:

Solutions of each are prepared in which the inital concentration of the acid is 0.1000 M. Which of the four solutions will have the lowest pH?

the answer is HA

Explain why it is HA

2) A certain first order reaction is 30% complete in 115 minutes. what is the half life ( t1/2) of the reaction?

a) 192 min

b) 223 min

c) 268 min

e) 66.2 min

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU CHOSE THE ANSWER

Direct Method, Reciprocal Method, Overhead Rates

Macalister Corporation is developing departmental overhead rates based on direct labor hours for its two production departments—Molding and Assembly. The Molding Department employs 23 people, and the Assembly Department employs 78 people. Each person in these two departments works 2,150 hours per year. The production-related overhead costs for the Molding Department are budgeted at $186,000, and the Assembly Department costs are budgeted at $84,000. Two support departments—Engineering and General Factory—directly support the two production departments and have budgeted costs of $204,000 and $370,000, respectively. The production departments’ overhead rates cannot be determined until the support departments’ costs are properly allocated. The following schedule reflects the use of the Engineering Department’s and General Factory Department’s output by the various departments.

For all requirements, round allocation ratios to four significant digits and round allocated costs to the nearest dollar.

Required:

1. Calculate the overhead rates per direct labor hour for the Molding Department and the Assembly Department using the direct allocation method to charge the production departments for support department costs. Round final answers to the nearest cent.

2. Calculate the overhead rates per direct labor hour for the Molding Department and the Assembly Department using the reciprocal method to charge support department costs to each other and to the production departments. Round final answers to the nearest cent. Round your intermediate calculations to four decimal places.

Discuss the origin of the institutional approach to marketing with references using APA 6th reference format

Explain at least three of the following techniques used to study the brain: EEG, CT scan, MRI, PET scan, fMRI. What is the significance of these brain-imaging techniques?

Complete the following questions after reading the book If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly by William J Bernstein. Number each question answer corresponding to the assignment question. Answer all questions in full complete sentences.

After completing the reading, you will need to go to the AARP Retirement Calculator. (See question #7) Calculate your retirement readiness by including all relevant information about income, retirement savings and expected retirement date. Click the button to estimate your retirement. Assume you are paying into Social Security or you plan to collect Social Security in the future. Assume your income is currently $50,000 if you have no income. Compare your results with and without the 15% savings recommended by W. Bernstein. The Questions you must answer are below.

Essay Questions:

1. What investment strategy does Bernstein recommend for millennials? How does Bernstein recommend that millennials implement this strategy? What does he suggest young people do before starting a retirement account?

2. What types of funds does Bernstein recommend? Why does Bernstein recommend index funds over individual stocks and bonds? (If you don’t know what an index fund is look it up.)

3. Name the five books Bernstein recommends that young people read to learn more about the financial market. Which book are you most likely to read and why?

4. Why does Bernstein say it is difficult for young people to save?

5. What is the easiest way to start saving? What does Bernstein mean when he says “always max out the employer match”?  

6. What does Bernstein mean by expected real return? Explain the difference between real and nominal return. What return does he suggest you use considering the impact of inflation?

7. Why does Bernstein say “beware of monsters”? Who are the monsters and why is it important to stay clear of them?

8. Go to the AARP Retirement Calculator website. See www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/retirement_calculator.html Scroll down the page. Fill in the information assuming income of $50,000 per year if you do not have any income. Calculate your future retirement based on saving zero and saving the recommended amount recommended by Bernstein. What will you receive your first year of retirement under both scenarios? Include your expected Social Security payments if you will be eligible to collect.

9. Discuss the results. How well will you be prepared for your retirement based on saving and not saving?

10. Locate three Retirement funds that you might invest in at a financial investment firm and list the names, current price of the fund, minimum investment for an IRA or Roth IRA. Hint: IRA funds usually have a minimum investment of less than $5000. Be sure you are looking at retirement funds. (Hint: Financial Investment Firms: Vanguard Financial, Fidelity Investments, TD Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwarb, your local bank or Google a retirement investment firm. Why did you select these funds? Do you like risk or are you risk-averse? Explain.

11. Share this information with a peer, a parent, grandparent, a spouse or friend. What did they say about it?  

Show the calculation steps for each of the problems below.

a. Using Nyquist’ theorem, calculate the channel capacity C of a signal that has 18 different levels and a frequency of 50,000 Hz.

b. Using Shannon’s theorem, calculate the data transfer rate given the following information, signal frequency= 25,000 Hz; signal power = 5000 watts; noise power = 320 watts.

c. Using Nyquist’s theorem and given a frequency of 8000 Hz and a data rate of 90,000 bps, how many signal levels (L) will be needed to convey this data?

d. The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNRdB = 28 and the channel bandwidth is 8 GHz, what is the theoretical channel capacity?

David E. Brown is an expert in wildlife conservation. In his book The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of an Endangered Species (University of Arizona Press), he records the following weights of adult grey wolves from two regions in Old Mexico.

Chihuahua region: x₁ variable in pounds

Durango region: x₂ variable in pounds

(a) Use a calculator with mean and standard deviation keys to calculate x₁, s₁, x₂, and s₂. (Use 2 decimal places.)

(b) Let μ₁ be the mean weight of the population of all grey wolves in the Chihuahua region. Let μ₂ be the mean weight of the population of all grey wolves in the Durango region. Find a 99% confidence interval for μ₁ – μ₂. (Use 2 decimal places.)

(c) Examine the confidence interval and explain what it means in the context of this problem. Does the interval consist of numbers that are all positive? all negative? of different signs? At the 99% level of confidence, what can you say about the comparison of the average weight of grey wolves in the Chihuahua region with the average weight of grey wolves in the Durango region?

Because the interval contains only positive numbers, we can say that the mean weight of grey wolves is greater in the Chihuahua region.Because the interval contains only negative numbers, we can say that the mean weight of grey wolves is greater in the Durango region.    Because the interval contains both positive and negative numbers, we can not say that the mean weight of grey wolves is greater in the Chihuahua region.We can not make any conclusions using this confidence interval.

Bill​ (age 42) and Molly Hickok​ (age 39), residents of​ Anchorage, Alaska, recently told you that they have become increasingly worried about their retirement.​ Bill, a public school​ teacher, dreams of retiring at 62 so they can travel and visit family.​ Molly, a​ self-employed travel​ consultant, is unsure that their current retirement plan will achieve that goal. She is concerned that the cost of living in Alaska along with their lifestyle have them spending at a level they could not maintain. Although they have a nice income of more than $100,000 per​ year, they got a late start planning for​ retirement, which is now just 20 years away. Bill has tried to plan for the future by contributing to his​ 403(b) plan, but he is only investing 6 percent of his income when he could be investing 10 percent. Use what they told you along with the information below to help them prepare for a prosperous retirement.

3. Given their projected Social Security and investment​ income, how much will Bill and Molly need to invest annually to make up their income​ shortfall? What is the annual additional funding requirement to reach their income goal? ​(Round to the nearest​ dollar.)

You are provided with the files "Song.java" and "SongList.java". You are required complete the methods in the latter file to implement the sorted circular linked list. The list is sorted according to the title of each song in alphabetical order. You need to write these methods: add(String artist, String title) – This method takes an artist and a title and adds a Song node with these values into the list. The list must still be sorted in ascending order by song title. You do not need to handle duplicates – you can assume that we never insert the same song for more than once. This method takes an artist and a title and remove a Song node that matches the artist and the title from the list. If remove is successful, return true. If no such node exists, return false. buildList(String artist) – This method takes an artist and searches in the list for all the song nodes associated with this artist. It then adds all these nodes into a new sorted circular linked list and returns it as a SongList object. Do not alter the original song list in this method.

public class Song
{
// instance variables
private String m_artist;
private String m_title;
private Song m_link;

// constructor
public Song(String artist, String title)
{
m_artist = artist;
m_title = title;
m_link = null;
}

// getters and setters
public void setArtist(String artist)
{
m_artist = artist;
}

public String getArtist()
{
return m_artist;
}

public void setTitle(String title)
{
m_title = title;
}

public String getTitle()
{
return m_title;
}
  
public void setLink(Song link)
{
m_link = link;
}

public Song getLink()
{
return m_link;
}
}

public class SongList
{
// instance variables
private Song m_last;
private int m_numElements;

// constructor
// Do not make any changes to this method!
public SongList()
{
m_last = null;
m_numElements = 0;
}

// check whether the list is empty
// Do not make any changes to this method!
boolean isEmpty()
{
if (m_last == null)
return true;
else
return false;
}

// return the size of the list (# of Song nodes)
// Do not make any changes to this method!
public int size()
{
return m_numElements;
}

// add a new Song to the circular linked list with the given artist and
// title, keeping the list sorted by *song title*.
public void add(String artist, String title)
{
// TODO: implement this method
}

// remove a Song associated with the given artist and title from the list,
// keeping the list sorted by *song title*.
public boolean remove(String artist, String title)
{
find(artist);
if(found)
{
if (Songlist == Songlist.getLink())
list = null;
else if (previous.getLink() == Songlist)
previous.setLink(m_last.getLink());
numElements--;
}
  
return found;

}
  
  
// build and return a circular linked list that contains all songs from the
// given artist
public SongList buildList(String artist)
{
// TODO: implement this method
}
  
// return a string representation of the list
// Do not make any changes to this method!
public String toString()
{   
String listContent = "";
Song current = m_last;
  
if (m_last != null)
do
{
current = current.getLink();
listContent += " [" + current.getArtist() + " - " + current.getTitle() + "]\n";

} while (current != m_last);

return listContent;
}
}