Day: April 26, 2018

The discussion assignment for this week includes a review of the Key Assignment Outline completed by one of your classmates, as well as a substantial response to at least 1 other student. There will also be a normal Discussion Board on the topics being learned in this Phase.

Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Part 1

Primary Task Response: Your first task is to post your own Key Assignment Outline to the discussion area so that other students are able to review your plan. Attach your document to the main discussion post, and include any notes that you feel are appropriate. The purpose of this assignment is to help improve the quality of the Key Assignment Draft that you will complete next week.

Respond to Another Student: Review at least 1 other student’s Key Assignment Outline, and provide meaningful feedback. Refrain from general feedback, such as simply stating “good job.” Your feedback to other students is most helpful if you not only point out weak areas but also offer suggestions for improvement. The best feedback takes a three-stage approach to identify what was done well, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Part 2

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

In this Phase, you will be learning about the concept of the cost of capital, how it is calculated, and why it is essential to be used properly. This concept, along with the time value of money concept, will be employed in addressing the Phase 5 tasks and is related to the tasks that you completed in Phase 1 and 3.

Identify and recommend at least 1 credible Web site that discusses the process of calculating the cost of capital and it components, and address at least 3 of the following topics:

What is the cost of capital, and what role does it play in long-term investment decisions? What are the 3 basic components of the formula, and how is each estimated? Why is the after-tax cost of debt used, and how does this adjustment affect the overall cost of capital? Which component is generally the most expensive, and why? How is the cost of capital calculated, and how are the weights of each component determined? Why is the cost of retained earnings less costly than issuing new equity? What is the difference between the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and the weighted marginal cost of capital (WMCC), and when should the WMCC be used? Be sure to document your posts with in-text citations, credible sources, and properly listed references.

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

After engaging in a dialogue with your colleagues on valuation, you will now be given an opportunity to apply principles that were presented in this phase. Using a Web site that provides current stock and bond pricing and yield information, complete and analyze the tables illustrated below. Your mentor suggests using a Web site similar to this one.

To fill out the first table, you will need to select 3 bonds with maturities between 10 and 20 years with bond ratings of “A to AAA,” “B to BBB” and “C to CCC” (you may want to use bond screener at the Web site linked above). All of these bonds will have these values (future values) of $1,000. You will need to use a coupon rate of the bond times the face value to calculate the annual coupon payment. You should subtract the maturity date from the current year to determine the time to maturity. The Web site should provide you with the yield to maturity and the current quote for the bond. (Be sure to multiply the bond quote by 10 to get the current market value.) You will then need to indicate whether the bond is currently trading at a discount, premium, or par.

Task Name: Phase 3 Discussion Board Deliverable Length: 3–4 paragraphs Details: Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

The third of the primary principles of finance is known as valuation. This principle brings together the two other principles that were studied earlier: the time value of money and risk and return.

In your initial post, identify and recommend at least 1 credible Web site that an investor can visit to find the current market value of stocks and bonds being traded, and address at least 3 of the following:

What is the concept of valuation, and how does it incorporate the time value of money and the risk of return principles? What is a bond, and what are the variables that are required to calculate the current market were present value of a bond? What are the 2 cash flows that are generally associated with bonds, and why is the present value of these cash flows less than the future value of these cash flows? Discuss the conditions where a bond would trade at par, a discount, and at a premium. Describe the various methods of estimating the value of common stock and their weaknesses. Discuss the primary differences between preferred and common stock? Be sure to document your posts with in-text citations, credible sources, and properly listed references. needs 2 credible sources

Word document of 700–1,000 words with attached Exc Details: Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

 

Word document of 700–1,000 words with attached Exc
Details:	Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time. Key Assignment Draft Your next assignment as a financial management intern is to apply the knowledge that you acquired while engaging in the cost of capital discussion that you had with your colleagues. In this task, you will be calculating the weighted cost of capital for a firm using the book value of the components and the concepts presented in this phase. Using the most current annual financial statements from the company you analyzed in Phase 1, determine the percentage of the firm’s assets that are currently be financed with debt (total liabilities), preferred stock, and common stock (common equity). It is very possible that your firm will have very little or no preferred stock, so in this class, the percent would be “zero.” Your ratios should add up to 100%. You will also need to calculate the firm’s average tax rate using the income tax expense divided by the firm’s income before taxes. Use the following tables: Company Total Assets Total Liabilities Total Preferred Stock Total Common Equity Dollar Value % of Assets   Company Income before Tax Income Tax Expense Average Tax Rate (%) The first component to determine is the cost of debt. You mentor suggests using the Web site that you used in the previous Phase to find the pretax yield-to-maturity of a bond with at least 5 years left before maturity. Using the following table, calculate the firm’s after-tax cost of debt: Yield to Maturity 1 – Average Tax Rate After-tax Cost of Debt Now you will need to calculate the cost of preferred stock. You can use the following table: Annual Dividend Current Value of Preferred Stock Cost of Preferred Stock (%) To calculate the cost of common equity, you can use the CAPM model. Using current stock data, the yield on the 5-year treasury bond, and the return on the market calculated in Phase 2, you can calculate the cost of common equity using the following table: 5-year Treasury Bond Yield (risk-free rate) Stock’s Beta Return on the Top 500 Stocks (market return) Cost of Common Equity Now, you can use the cost and ratios from above to calculate the firm’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) using the following table: After-Tax Cost of Debt Cost of Preferred Stock Cost of Common Equity WACC Unweighted Cost Weight of Component Weighted Cost of Component After completing the required calculations, explain your results in a Word document, and attach the spreadsheet showing your work. Be sure to explain the following: How would you expect the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) to differ if you had used market values of equity rather than the book value of equity, and why? What would you expect would happen to the cost of equity if you had to raise it by selling new equity, and why? If the after-tax cost of debt is always less expensive than equity, why don’t firms use more debt and less equity? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of raising capital by using debt? How would “floatation costs” impact the WACC, and how could they have been incorporated in the formula? Note: You can find information about the top 500 stocks at this Web site. Reference S&P 500 index chart. (2014). Retrieved from the Yahoo! Finance Web site: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5egspc+interactive#symbol=^gspc;range=1y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=; Be sure to document your paper with in-text citations, credible sources, and list of references used in proper APA format.

 

The discussion assignment for this week includes a Summative Discussion Board reviewing your experience in the course. There will also be a normal Discussion Board on the topics being learned in this Phase.

Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Part 1

Summative Discussion Board

Review and reflect on the knowledge that you have gained from this course. Based on your review and reflection, write at least 3 paragraphs on the following:

What were the most compelling topics learned in this course? How did participating in discussions help your understanding of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be clarified? What approaches could have yielded additional valuable information? The main post should include at least 1 reference to research sources, and all sources should be cited using APA format.

Part 2

In this final Phase, you will be learning about the concept of the capital budgeting, the different techniques that are commonly employed in making capital budgeting decision, and how each is calculated. This concept, along with the time value of money concept and the cost of capital, will be employed in addressing the Phase 5 tasks and is related to the tasks that you completed in Phases 2 and 3.

In your initial post, identify and recommend at least 1 credible Web site that discusses the process of calculating the models most commonly used to support capital budgeting decisions, and address at least 3 of the following topics:

What is the capital budgeting, and what role does it play in long-term investment decisions? What are the basic capital budgeting models, and which ones are considered the most reliable and why? What is net present value (NPV), how is it calculated, and what is the basic premise of its decision rule? What is the internal rate of return (IRR), how is it calculated, and what is the basic premise of its decision rule? What is the modified internal rate of return (MIRR), how is it calculated, and what is the basic premise of its decision rule? How is the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) employed in capital budgeting decisions, and should it be used for all project regardless of the riskiness of a project? Be sure to document your posts with in-text citations, credible sources, and properly listed references.

Pritchard Soap Co.

Samantha (“Sam”) Calderon is manager of a project that will completely alter the method of adding perfume to Pritchard Soap’s “Queen Elizabeth” gift soap line. The new process will greatly extend the number of available scents and should result in a significant increase in sales. The project had been proceeding reasonably well, but fell several weeks behind when the perfume supplier, the Stephen Marcus Parfumissary, was unable to meet its delivery deadline because of a wildcat strike.

Under normal circumstances this would not have caused problems, but the project had been subject to a particularly long evaluation study and now was in danger of not being ready for the Christmas season. The major scheduling problem concerned Pritchard’s toxicity lab. Kyle Lee, lab manager, had been most cooperative in scheduling the Queen Elizabeth perfumes for toxicity testing. He had gone out of his way to rearrange his own schedule to accommodate Sam’s project. Because of the strike at Marcus, however, Sam cannot have the perfumes ready for test as scheduled, and the new test date Lee has given will not allow her to make the new line available by Christmas. Sam suspects that the project might not have been approved if senior management had known that they would miss this year’s Christmas season.

Questions: What was the source of change in this project and how will it affect the project’s priority? What are Sam’s alternatives? What should she do?

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

Key Assignment

Your final assignment as a financial management intern is to apply the knowledge that you acquired while engaging in the cost of capital and capital budgeting discussion you had with your colleagues. In this task, you will be evaluating a capital project using the weighted cost of capital for a firm using the market value rather than the book value of the components and the capital budgeting techniques presented in this phase.

First, recalculate the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) using the market value of equity to determine a more realistic cost of capital. You will need to visit a Web site to get the current value of the common stock price per share and multiply this value times the most recent number of shares of common stock outstanding. In this exercise, you will be ignoring preferred stock because its weight value will most likely be too low to impact the final result. You may use the following table to complete this portion of the task:

ECON545:Project 1—MicroeconomicAnalysis

 

The Microeconomic Paper tests your ability to apply economic principles to a business decision. Select one situation from the items outlined below: A toD. Complete the paper on the selected situation as specified below. The completed paper is a professional report and is due in Week 3See the grading rubric at the end of this document.Be sure to use the DeVry library for finding data; avoid questionable sources, such as Wikipedia.

 

The following is a list of the specific required information, research, graphs, and math to be included in each answer regardless of the scenario chosen.

 

1. Demand Determinants:
   1. Each individual determinant analyzed for your situation, with examples applicable to your situationand research showing current Demand data or most recent past data, except for the Expectations Determinant in which you need to use data estimating future market conditions.
   2. Price Elasticity of Demand facing you in your scenario, including actual calculation of it using the midpoint formula. If you can’t find data, then determine the Price Elasticity from the Characteristics and make up numbers to use. Be sure to identify this if you use this approach. This will help you in deciding the slope of your Demand curve below.
   3. Graph the Demand facing your situation. Note that this requires information from the Supply Determinant analysis before deciding how to draw the curve(s), as you may need a separate MR curve.
2. Supply Determinants:
   1. Each individual determinant analyzed for your situation, with examples applicable to your situationand research showing current Supply data or most recent past data, except for the Expectations Determinant in which you need to use data estimating future market conditions.
      1. You need to be very specific in the Cost of Production Determinant to identify Fixed, Variable, and Marginal Cost in order to derive your Supply curve for the graphing component. You will need to explain and show how Profit Maximization or Loss Minimization output and price are determined. You will need to do the math using actual figures [cited] or your own estimated figures [identified as such] and explain why you expect Short Run Economic or Normal Profits, Acceptable Loss or temporary Shut Down and how you will know which it is.
      2. The Number of Sellers determinant must contain your analysis of the kind of market structure in which your firm or labor service will be sold.
   2. Price Elasticity of Supply you have based on the Cost of Production changes as output changes, including actual calculation of it using the midpoint formula. If you can’t find data, then determine the Price Elasticity from the Characteristics and make up numbers to use. Be sure to identify this if you use this approach. This will help you in deciding the slope of your Supply curve.
   3. Graph your Supply situation using the numbers from your earlier Cost of Production analysis.
3. Recommendations—what are your recommendations explained by your analysis?
4. Paper presentation—good format, citations, lack of spelling errors, etc.

 

 

Situation A

 

Jenny, your niece, is a smart high-school student who wants to make intelligent choices for her future. Hearing of your course in business economics, she has e-mailed you asking for advice on whether to become a doctor and on the best location to practice it. She recognizes the high costs of tuition and the years of study involved in becoming a doctor. She wants to evaluate if that career choice is an optimal decision for her, so she has asked you for advice.

 

Having read the piece “Fewer Physicians Move, a Sign of Career Caution” on page 20 of the textbook, you recognize the significance of such a career decision for Jenny. You decide to educate yourself about the market for physicians in terms of supply and demand, elasticity, costs of production, pricing, and economic or normal profit or loss. You want to provide Jenny with the most informed advice possible.

 

 

Situation B

 

Your neighbor Cindy wants to start a contracting business for installing solar panels. She has heard of the cost savings that households and businesses can make each year by installing solar panels on their roofs. Cindy has also heard of government incentives for installing solar panels. Being concerned about the environment and wishing to reduce pollution, Cindy thinks installing solar panels also serves a good social purpose. But she does not want to risk her life savings on a venture that might not succeed or become profitable enough. After hearing from you about taking this course in business economics, she decides to ask you for advice.

 

At first you are hesitant to give investment advice. Then you read the piece “US boosts ‘game-changer’ solar technology in bid for global market share” on page 374 of the textbook. You realize there are more pieces to the decision than Cindy is considering. You decide to research the market in terms of supply and demand, elasticity, costs of production, pricing, and economic or normal profit or loss. You want to provide Cindy with the most informed advice possible.

 

 

Situation C

 

Cousin Edgar is always thinking of the next business idea. This time, he plans to invest in buying two gas stations. He reckons American consumers have come to accept the high gasoline prices, and estimates world prices for gasoline to increase even further with high demand from India and China. Besides, Cousin Edgar thinks he will make a good profit on the sale of convenience items at each station. But before buying the gas stations, he decides to ask for your advice because you are taking this course in business economics.

 

You happened to read the piece “$4-a-Gallon Gas Fueling Fears for Recovery” on page 196 of the textbook. Being skeptical of Cousin Edgar’s optimism on the profitability of selling gasoline and convenience items, you decide to research the market in terms of supply and demand, elasticity, costs of production, pricing, and normal or economic profit or loss. You want to provide Cousin Edgar with the most informed advice possible.

 

 

Situation D

 

After hearing of you taking this course in business economics, Uncle Dan has e-mailed you asking for advice on his 100-acre corn farm. He mentioned how, after 30 years of growing corn, he wishes to leave that commodity’s market and enter a more profitable market instead. He is thinking of planting some organic crop. But he is not sure which crop would be most profitable. He already knows that going organic requires changing some of his practices to qualify for the certification. Therefore he wants to know how much it costs to become a certified organic farmer, and which crop would be best suited for him to grow given his current equipment.

 

Luckily before you can find time to answer Uncle Dan’s e-mail, you read the piece on organic farming in the United Kingdom on page 422 of the textbook. Recognizing the costs and risks for Uncle Dan in making the switch, you decide to research the market in terms of supply and demand, elasticity, production costs, pricing, and economic or normal profit or loss. You decide to educate yourself about organic farming so that you can provide Uncle Dan with the most informed advice possible.

 

 

Microeconomic Paper as a Professional Report

Your paper should be organized into five parts as listed below.

 

1. Title Page—Name, course, and date
2. Introduction to situation, but do NOT copy the scenario.Briefly summarize the situation and identify the microeconomic issue(s) to be decided from the perspective of the organization.

 

3. Relevant Economic Principles: Determinants of Demand, Supply, etc. and Relevant Data

Identify the variables that are critical in addressing the issue(s). Gather and present the relevant data on the variables by searching the DeVry Online Library. Ask a librarian for help if needed. Use in-text citation to report the source(s) of the data. Graphs may be included here.

 

4. Recommendations and Economic Justification

Formulate and present your recommendations for addressing the issue(s) based on the relevant data and economic principles identified above. Justify your recommendations in terms of the economic impact on those affected.

 

5. References

List the full references for at least five sources alphabetically in APA format.

 

 

 

 

Me:  I have a project for econ, about micorecons, focusing on supply and demand due next sat (1/24). I haven’t posted it yet, cause wasn’t sure, then I saw you on here, what do you think?(11:30pm)

Statwoman:  You may post it, and specify it is for Statwoman.Thanks(11:32pm)

Me:  K, give me a min.. I will message you when I upload(11:34pm)

Statwoman:  ok.(11:35pm)

Me:  K I posted…”Statwoman project”(11:41pm)

Me:  I’m not sure if I want to, just wondering what you would be

 

Measuring crime can be a difficult process. By its very nature, crime is something that goes undetected. Law enforcement has developed a variety of techniques to track crime, such as police reports and victim reports. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for tracking crime; it reports crime in more than one way. All crime reporting and tracking systems categorize crime and have certain limitations.

Measuring crime involves tracking statistics such as demographic information and moderator variables related to the crimes. Moderator variables are any third variable in a correlation that affects the relationship between the first two variables. For example, we may find that gender is related to violent crime with a higher percentage of males engaging in violent behavior. However, a moderator variable would be age, with the highest percentage of violent offenders being below the age of 30.

Research US crime statistics using the Argosy University online library resources and the Internet. You can also use the following:

US Department of Justice, The Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2009). 2008 crime in the United States: About crime in the U.S. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2008 Select a crime and write a report addressing the following:

Summarize the statistics from the last two reporting years. Be sure to include demographic information such as ethnicity, race, age, gender, marital status, employment status, socioeconomic group, etc., and moderator variables related to the crime. Examine the reliability and validity of these statistics. Are they accurate? Why or why not? Be sure to discuss how age, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic level are related to offending and representation in the criminal justice system. Explain whether certain populations are overrepresented in the statistics. If so, why? Use the textbook and peer-reviewed sources to support your arguments.

Write a 2–3-page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.