According to the invisible hand concept, the best way for a society to encourage the creation of jobs and the production of the products most wanted by consumers would be to:

a. permit government owned industries, such as telecommunications, transportation, and energy, and operate these firms as nonprofit organizations.
b. allow private ownership of businesses, but make use of extensive regulation to force businesses to behave in a socially desirable way.
c. allow entrepreneurs personal freedom to follow their own self-interest.
d. impose high taxes on individuals, and use the revenue to subsidize businesses to encourage them to produce the maximum rate of output.

Suppose your rich uncle gave you $50,000, which you plan to use for graduate school. you will make the investment now, you expect to earn an annual return of 6%, and you will make 4 equal annual withdrawals, beginning 1 year from today. under these conditions, how large would each withdrawal be so there would be no funds remaining in the account after the 4th?

Zachary company produces commercial gardening equipment. since production is highly automated, the company allocates its overhead costs to product lines using activity-based costing. the costs and cost drivers associated with the four overhead activity cost pools follow: activities unit level batch level product level facility level cost $ 64,800 $ 27,730 $ 15,000 $ 154,000 cost driver 2,400 labor hrs. 47 setups percentage of use 11,000 units production of 780 sets of cutting shears, one of the company’s 20 products, took 240 labor hours and 7 setups and consumed 15 percent of the product-sustaining activities. required: (a) had the company used labor hours as a company wide allocation base, how much overhead would it have allocated to the cutting shears? (b) how much overhead is allocated to the cutting shears using activity-based costing? (c) compute the overhead cost per unit for cutting shears first using activity-based costing and then using direct labor hours for allocation if 780 units are produced. if direct product costs are $150 and the product is priced at 30 percent above cost for what price would the product sell under each allocation system? (d) assuming that activity-based costing provides a more accurate estimate of cost, indicate whether the cutting shears would be over- or underpriced if direct labor hours are used as an allocation base. explain how over-or undercosting can affect vaulker's profitability. (e) comment on the validity of using the allocated facility-level cost in the pricing decision. should other costs be considered in a cost- plus pricing decision? if so, which ones? what costs would you include if you were trying to decide whether to accept a special order?

Read the following paragraph, and choose the best revision for one of its sentences. dr. blake is retiring at the end of the month. there will be an unoccupied office upon his departure, and it is big in size. because every other office is occupied, we should convert dr. blake’s office into a lounge. it is absolutely essential that this issue is discussed at the next staff meeting. (a) because every other office is occupied, it’s recommended that we should convert dr. blake’s office into a lounge. (b) because every other office is filled, we should convert dr. blake’s office into a lounge.