Alejandro, Inc. received the following information from its pension plan trustee concerning the operation of the company's defined-benefit pension plan for the year ended December 31, 2016. January 1, 2019 December 31, 2019 Fair value of pension plan assets $4,200,000 $4,500,000 Projected benefit obligation 4,800,000 5,160,000 Accumulated benefit obligation 840,000 1,020,000 Accumulated OCI – (Gains / Losses) -0- (90,000) The service cost component of pension expense for 2016 is $450,000 and the amortization of prior service cost due to an increase in benefits is $60,000. The settlement rate is 10% and the expected rate of return is 10%. What is the amount of pension expense for 2016?

Suppose that hubert, an economist from an am talk radio program, and kate, an economist from a nonprofit organization on the west coast, are arguing over government bailouts. the following dialogue shows an excerpt from their debate: kate: to recent financial crises, the concept of bailouts is a hot topic for debate among everyone these days. hubert: indeed, it’s gotten crazy! a government bailout of severely distressed financial firms is unnecessary because free markets will properly price assets. kate: i don’t know about that. without a bailout of severely distressed financial firms, the economy will experience a deep recession. the disagreement between these economists is most likely due todifferences in scientific judgments . despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree? business managers can raise profit more easily by reducing costs than by raising revenue. central banks should focus more on maintaining low unemployment than on maintaining low inflation. employers should not be restricted from outsourcing work to foreign nations