When Sebastian wrote the contract with BP for over two billion dollars, he included targets for performance that had to be met before a payment would be released. Sebastian was trying to avoid bias.

Following is a list of various costs incurred in producing replacement automobile parts. with respect to the production and sale of these auto parts, classify each cost as either variable costs, fixed costs, or mixed costs. 1. oil used in manufacturing equipment 2. plastic 3. property taxes, $165,000 per year on factory building and equipment 4. salary of plant manager 5. cost of labor for hourly workers 6. packaging 7. factory cleaning costs, $6,000 per month 8. metal 9. rent on warehouse, $10,000 per month plus $25 per square foot of storage used 10. property insurance premiums, $3,600 per month plus $0.01 for each dollar of property over $1,200,000 11. straight-line depreciation on the production equipment 12. hourly wages of machine operators 13. electricity costs, $0.20 per kilowatt-hour 14. computer chip (purchased from a vendor) 15. pension cost, $1.00 per employee hour on the job

Insurance companies have internal controls in place to protect assets, monitor the accuracy of accounting records and encourage operational efficiencies and adherence to policies. these internal controls are generally of two types: administrative controls and accounting controls. administrative controls are the policies and procedures that guide the daily actions of employees. accounting controls are the policies and procedures that delineate authorizations of financial transactions that are done, safeguard assets, and provide reports on the company’s financial status in a reliable and timely manner. internal controls should include both preventative and detective controls. the purpose of preventative controls is to stop problems and errors before they occur. detective controls identify problems after they have occurred. preventative controls are usually more effective at reducing problems, but they also tend to be more expensive. internal controls must be flexible to adjust for changes in laws and regulations in addition to adding new products or modifying current ones. companies must also do regular analyses to ensure that the benefits of implementing the controls are worth their costs. when concerned about paying unwarranted insurance claims which type of control would be useful?

Shelby bought her dream car, a 1966 red convertible mustang, with a loan from her credit union. if shelby paid 5.1% and the bank earned a real rate of return of 3.5%, what was the inflation rate over the life of the loan?