Category: Finance

1) Please explain the characteristics of the U.S. financial system.
2) Please explain the advantages and limitations of the credit rating transition matrix.
ppt page 100~ suzuki y japans financial pdf 104~ please answer these two question in class material. thank you. please chexk the ppt pdf and the photo that i took

I uploaded the old assignment that had something missing and I uploaded the checklist, also I uploaded the chat between me and the professor.

Please follow the instructions. USE the PowerPoint to add all the materials taught in the class. COMPANY: TARGET instructions: Based on the financial statements provided in the most recent 10-k (annual report):
Please calculate the financial ratios, showing at least 2 ratios from each of the six ratio areas we reviewed in class (at least 12 in total). you must also include the DuPont model in your work

1) Shawna Vaughan posted May 15, 2024 9:01 AM
Hello everyone,
Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankruptcy lead to closures which stemmed from a combination of factors. Firstly, the company struggled to keep pace with changing consumer preferences, especially with the shift towards online shopping. Secondly, it faced competition from both traditional discount retailers like Walmart and specialty online platforms like Wayfair. Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t keep a clear brand image, so people saw its stores as boring and messy essentially. Its way of pricing, depending on big discounts and coupons, made profits smaller and pushed away customers. Problems inside the company, like changes in leadership and management troubles, made things worse. If they had acted quickly and well, by improving online shopping, organizing stores better, and adjusting prices, they might have avoided closing down. But because they didn’t change fast enough, Bed Bath & Beyond failed and had to shut its doors.
Reference:
CNBC. (2023, April.). Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy protection. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/23/bed-bath-beyond-files-for-bankruptcy-protection.html
2) Patrick Sheffield posted May 14, 2024 9:24 AM
Greetings class, 
For today’s discussion, I am going to cover the well-known Pharmacy Rite Aid and their filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in October.  Not only was the retail industry in major trouble from inflation, supply chain issues, and online competition, but pharmacies were also facing another unique challenge. Like Walgreens and CVS, Rite Aid was forced to settle costly lawsuits coming from accusations of illegally prescribing opioid prescriptions for customers. On top of this, Rite Aid had a sizable debt that it was not able to get under control.  Debt accumulated from losing business to more consumer-friendly competition such as Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Costco. These retailers are nationwide and offer a one-stop shop model that Rite Aid cannot compete with. Lastly, Rite Aid cited losses due to an increase in theft at certain locations. The theft was so bad that some locations had to close. 
Rite Aid is an example of how even a major company, with many locations, is never safe from collapse. A big corporation may be able to stave off bankruptcy when dealing with one major problem, but when the problems start to add up, the end is almost inevitable. 
Patrick
Maruf, R. (2023, December 25). Here are 7 of the well-known companies that went bankrupt in 2023 | CNN Business. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/25/business/here-are-the-companies-that-went-bankrupt-in-2023/index.html

Discuss the central points of Unequal Higher Education by Cantwell and Taylor especially regarding financing issues. The response should include at least a paraphrase or direct quote from the text (include page number and the original sentence if paraphrased on the references) . I attached the specific chapters this prompt is related to in addition to central arguments that should b used to guide the response. Thoroughly discuss the financing issues. DO NOT UTILIZE ETERNAL SOURCES
Central Arguments: 
•Competition for resources and social status creates a system of unequal higher education
•The retreat of direct government funding to institutions has unleashed this competition
•Policy choices and cultural practices have increased inequality
•Growing inequality systematically disadvantages underserved students
•More institutions have become lower status and financially struggling institutions
•Meanwhile the number of super elite and elite institutions have remained the same
The chapter discusses the various groups of institutions such as vulnerable institutions, subsidy reliant institutions, smaller typical universities, larger typical universities 

I have attached my current resume. I need my Chronological resumé to be updated and include information relevant to the position you are applying for, which is Financial inspector/examiner or accountant or financial analysis. It needs to contain core industry keywords for finance specified  job descriptions. 

Instructions
Background
In 2017, the Federal Income Tax and Jobs Act passed reduced the corporate income tax for U.S. operations from 44% to 21% and, for most individuals, reduced the taxes owed in 2018 from the amount owed in the prior year. Beginning in 2017 and continuing in 2018, the rate of quarterly growth in GNP changes from 2% or less in the 3 prior years to more than 3% in 2017 and 2018. Nationally, incomes have been increasing, part of which is perceived to be attributable to the reduction in U.S. corporate income taxes. 
Instructions
For this assignment, create a PowerPoint presentation in which you define each component of the GNP and NI equations, and then explain how each of the variables are influenced by the Federal Income Tax Act of 2017.
Include speaker notes on each slide as if you were actually delivering a presentation. Alternatively, you can record your voice on the PowerPoint or Kaltura Capture.  Be sure to cover the following points in your:
Define the components of each variable in the GNP spending, or demand equation (i.e., C, I, G, & X- M). Explain how each of these variables is estimated. Explain how changes in each of the variables are influenced by changes in governmental income tax policies.
Define the components of each variable in the NI (national income) equation (W, T, and S). Explain how each of these variables is estimated. Explain how governmental changes in the income tax rate influence the value of the other two variables. What does an increase in wages with a resulting decrease in income taxes likely mean for Consumer Spending (C) and Business Investments (I)?
Research and plot on a graph the U.S. private, unemployment rates by quarters for 2016, 2017, and 2018. Explain how the reductions in tax rates introduced by the 2017 Federal Tax Act of 2017 likely contributed to the continued reduction in unemployment for 2018 Quarters.
Research and plot on a graph the corporate profits reported in the U.S. for each of the quarters in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Explain how corporate profits were likely positively influenced in growth by the Federal Tax Act of 2017 during 2018. 
Length: 12-15 slides, not including a title page slide and a reference slide(s) Notes: 200-350 words per slide
References: Include a minimum of 4 scholarly references
Your presentation should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect graduate-level writing and APA standards. 

Assignment Overview
Make sure to thoroughly review the required background readings and work through both the concepts and the computational examples. The videos on computing NPV and IRR using Excel along with the sample spreadsheet should also help. If you are unable to figure out how to make the computations in Excel, then you can get partial credit by computing the answers using a calculator and thoroughly explaining your steps. For conceptual questions, make sure to thoroughly explain the reasoning for your answers and to use references from the required background readings.
Case Assignment
Please download the Case 4 Template. You will type your answers into this document. Save the document with your last name and submit to the dropbox. Note that you will get partial credit if you show your work even if the answers are incorrect.
The table below gives the initial investment (the negative numbers at “Year 0”) for two projects. Compute the payback period, the NPV, and the IRR using Excel. Then rank the two projects based on each of these three criteria, and discuss which projects should be funded based on your computations.
Firm Cost of Capital:
11%
Year
Project A
Project B
0
-100,000
-150,000
1
25,000
30,000
2
2,000
30,000
3
25,000
90,000
4
25,000
20,000
5
25,000
20,000
6
25,000
20,000
The ACME Umbrella Company is deciding between two different umbrella factories. Both factories will cost $500,000 to get started. However, the cash flows for each factory will depend on whether the next five years are rainier than average or sunnier than average. Factory A will have cash flows of $130,000 per year for the next five years if the weather is sunnier than average. But if it is rainier than average the cash flows will be $150,000 per year for the next five years. Factory B will have cash flows of $100,000 per year for the next five years if it is sunnier than average, but if it is rainier than average it will have cash flows of $200,000 per year. ACME has a cost of capital of 9%. Based on this information, calculate the following:
Calculate the NPV for both factories and for both scenarios (rainy versus sunny). What is the range of NPV for each factory based on your scenario analysis?
Based on your answer to a) above, do you think ACME should use the same discount rate of 9% for each factory? Or should they use a risk-adjusted discount rate (RADR)? If so, which factory should have a higher RADR? Explain your answer with references to the background readings.
The Carpet Company’s shareholders require an 11% return on their investment, and stock makes up 50% of the company’s capital structure. The other half of the company’s capital structure consists of debt. The interest rate on this debt is 7%. Assume the corporate tax rate is 21%. What is carpet company’s WACC?
Assume the Carpet Company’s corporate tax rate falls to 0%. The company borrows money to buy back and retire half of its outstanding common stock. What happens to the company’s WACC?
*******REFRENCES******
Chapter 8,12 and 13 is in the files 
https://openstax.org/books/principles-finance/pages/16-2-net-present-value-npv-method
https://openstax.org/books/principles-finance/pages/16-3-internal-rate-of-return-irr-method
https://openstax.org/books/principles-finance/pages/16-6-using-excel-to-make-company-investment-decisions

PLEASE MAKE SURE ANSWERS ARE ACCURATE AND CALCULATED CORRECTLY

Initial Forum Discussions (400-word) must be posted in both the discussion board and via SafeAssign. Note that websites of the “wiki” variety are not considered scholarly resources and should not be used as references. Two references required.
discussion post to the three videos
(1.5 hours) These video lessons allow students to connect the dots between theory and practice by reading short passages, watching videos, and practicing what they’ve learned. The topics include inflation and interest rates (40 min), pure expectations theory (35 min), and real risk-free rate (15 min).
Video 1
Nominal and real interest rates. First off, nominal interest rates. Nominal interest rates are the interest rates that you see in the market. Alright? That’s like how much you’re paid on a bank CD or what the coupon rate on a bond is or something like that. While those are useful, you’ve got to be careful because what you really want to concentrate on are not nominal interest rates, but real interest rates. Real interest rates are the nominal interest rates, but then minus the inflation rate. So the real interest rate gets you to the true kind of rate of return once you adjust for inflation. Alright. So you see why this is important, think about how distortionary inflation could be. Alright. You could have a nominal interest rate on, say, a bank savings account of five percent. You think that you’re doing pretty well. Your money’s growing by five percent. Yeah, but not really. If the inflation rate is at four percent, then what happens is your real interest rate — the real rate of return, again, once it adjusts for inflation — is only one percent. Or think about what happens if that nominal rate is five percent and the inflation rate turns out to be six percent. Then you get a negative real interest rate. What that means is in real terms, when adjusted for inflation, the value of your money is actually falling. Even though you may have a positive nominal interest rate, the real interest rate can actually be negative. So that’s why it’s important to understand the difference between nominal and real interest rates.
Video 2
The pure expectations theory is used to try to explain the yield curve. Here’s the basic idea. The pure expectations theory says that the yield on longer-term bonds is made up of what the market expects the yield to be on shorter-term bonds in the future. All right, to see how this works, think of a very simple example. All right, think about a two-year bond, right? You could buy a two-year bond, hold the thing to maturity. Or what you could do is you could hold a sequence of two one-year bonds. All right? So to make you indifferent between the yield on a two-year bond and the two consecutive one-year bonds, uh-uh — yields have to be the same. So think about holding two consecutive one-year bonds. All right, you’ve got the yield on a one-year bond today, plus then, you have the expectation of what you think the one-year bond is going to pay in the one year from now. So the average of those two things, the average of what the one-year pays today and what you think the one-year is going to pay in one year, the average of those two things has to equal the two-year bond, right, to make you indifferent. So what, then, determines the yield on the two-year bond? Well, it is the yield on the one-year bond plus what you expect the one-year bond to pay in the one year. And that is the idea of the pure expectations theory, that the yield on longer-term bonds is made up in great part by what we expect short-term bonds to pay in the future.
Video 3
You read in The Wall Street Journal that 30-day Treasury bills are currently yielding 5.8%. Your brother-in-law, a broker at Safe and Sound Securities, has given you the following estimates of current interest rate premiums. Inflation premium, 3.25%; liquidity premium, 0.6%; maturity risk premium, 1.85%; default risk premium, 2.15%. On the basis of these data, what is the real risk-free rate of return? The real risk-free rate of return would be the interest rate that would exist on default-free U.S. Treasury securities if no inflation were expected. That is, the real risk-free rate is equal to the nominal risk-free rate minus any expected inflation. We are given the 30-day Treasury bill is yielding 5.8%. We will use the 30-day Treasury bill to approximate the short-term risk-free rate. So the nominal risk-free rate is 5.8%. The inflation premium is given at 3.25%. Therefore, the real risk-free rate is equal to the nominal risk-free rate minus the inflation premium, which gives us a real risk-free rate of 2.55%.
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Assignment 2 is a comprehensive case analysis based on the Allen Family Scenario.When your assignment is complete, you will have prepared a comprehensive financial plan for this family, similar to Griffin Family Financial Plan. (See Assignment 2 page for PDF of the Griffin Family Financial Plan.) The Griffin family scenario is an example, you should write the paper on the Allen family scenario at the bottom of “Assignment 2” file