Imagine that a friend asks you for investment advice. He has $10,000 to invest and he has about 35 years before he will be ready for his financial goal of early retirement. What types of investments would you recommend to your friend? Why? What other investing advice would you give him to help him achieve his financial goals?

Consider how health insurance affects the quantity of health care services performed. suppose that the typical medical procedure has a cost of $160, yet a person with health insurance pays only $40 out of pocket. her insurance company pays the remaining $120. (the insurance company recoups the $120 through premiums, but the premium a person pays does not depend on how many procedures that person chooses to undergo.) consider the following demand curve in the market for medical care. use the black point (plus symbol) to indicate the quantity of procedures demanded if each procedure has a price of $160. then use the grey point (star symbol) to indicate the quantity of procedures demanded if each procedure has a price of $40. q d at p=$160 q d at p=$40 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 price of medical procedures quantity of medical procedures demand if the cost of each procedure to society is truly $160, the quantity that maximizes total surplus is procedures. economists often blame the health insurance system for excessive use of medical care. given your analysis, the use of care might be viewed as excessive because consumers get procedures whose value is than the cost of producing them.

You are chairman of the board of a successful technology firm. there is a nominal federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, yet the effective tax rate of the typical corporation is about 12.6%. your firm has been clever with use of transfer pricing and keeping money abroad and has barely paid any taxes over the last 5 years; during this same time period, profits were $28 billion. one member of the board feels that it is un-american to use various accounting strategies in order to avoid paying taxes. others feel that these are legal loopholes and corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to minimize taxes. one board member quoted what the ceo of exxon once said: “i’m not a u. s. company and i don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the u. s.” what are the alternatives? what are your recommendations? why do you recommend this course of action?

Stock a has a beta of 1.2 and a standard deviation of 20%. stock b has a beta of 0.8 and a standard deviation of 25%. portfolio p has $200,000 consisting of $100,000 invested in stock a and $100,000 in stock b. which of the following statements is correct? (assume that the stocks are in equilibrium.) (a) stock b has a higher required rate of return than stock a. (b) portfolio p has a standard deviation of 22.5%. (c) portfolio p has a beta equal to 1.0. (d) more information is needed to determine the portfolio's beta. (e) stock a's returns are less highly correlated with the returns on most other stocks than are b's returns.