In a hypothetical country, fifty years ago, the minimum wage was approximately $1.50 per hour. At the same time, a family with two adults and two children could live in that country for about $50 per week for food and necessities. Fifty years later, the minimum wage in that country is about $8.00 per hour and the cost of living has gone up to approximately $500 per week for an equivalent family of four. Discuss the changes that you assume has happened in that county’s economy because of the inflationary pressures experienced over that fifty years.

The balance sheet contains the following major sections: current assets long-term investments property, plant, and equipment intangible assets other assets current liabilities long-term liabilities contributed capital retained earnings accumulated other comprehensive income required: the following is a list of accounts. using the letters a through j, indicate in which section of the balance sheet each of the accounts would be classified. if an account does not belong under one of the sections listed, select "not under any of the choices" from the classification drop down box. for all accounts, indicate if the account is a contra account or an account that would normally be deducted on the balance sheet by selecting "yes" from the second drop down box, otherwise select "no". account classification contra or deducted (yes/no) 1. cash 2. bonds payable (due in 8 years) 3. machinery 4. deficit 5. unexpired insurance 6. franchise (net) 7. fund to retire preferred stock 8. current portion of mortgage payable 9. accumulated depreciation 10. copyrights 11. investment in held-to-maturity bonds 12. allowance for doubtful accounts 13. notes receivable (due in 3 years) 14. property taxes payable 15. deferred taxes payable 16. additional paid-in capital on preferred stock 17. premium on bonds payable (due in 8 years) 18. work in process 19. common stock, $1 par 20. land 21. treasury stock (at cost) 22. unrealized increase in value of available-for-sale securities

Steele bicycle manufacturing company currently produces the handlebars used in manufacturing its bicycles, which are high-quality racing bikes with limited sales. steele produces and sells only 10,000 bikes each year. due to the low volume of activity, steele is unable to obtain the economies of scale that larger producers achieve. for example, steele could buy the handlebars for $31 each: they cost $34 each to make. the following is a detailed breakdown of current production costs: after seeing these figures, steele's president remarked that it would be foolish for the company to continue to produce the handlebars at $34 each when it can buy them for $31 each. calculate the total relevant cost. do you agree with the president's conclusion?

You are an employee of an u. s. firm that produces personal computers in thailand and then exports them to the united states and other countries for sale. the personal computers were originally produced in thailand to take advantage of relatively low labor costs and a skilled workforce. other possible locations considered at that time were malaysia and hong kong. the u. s. government decides to impose punitive 100% ad valorem tariffs on imports of computers from thailand to punish the country for administrative trade barriers that restrict u. s. exports to thailand. how do you think your firm should respond? what does this tell you about the use of targeted trade barriers?