The pluralist view of interest group influence in policy making sees business interests as just one among many influences with nothing particularly special about it insofar as other interests are able to check the influence of business groups. this pluralist perspective is opposed to the perspective of interest group influence in policy making.

Yard tools manufactures lawnmowers, weed-trimmers, and chainsaws. its sales mix and unit contribution margin are as follows. sales mix unit contribution margin lawnmowers 20 % $30 weed-trimmers 50 % $20 chainsaws 30 % $40 yard tools has fixed costs of $4,200,000. compute the number of units of each product that yard tools must sell in order to break even under this product mix.

Recently, verizon wireless ran a pricing trial in order to estimate the elasticity of demand for its services. the manager selected three states that were representative of its entire service area and increased prices by 5 percent to customers in those areas. one week later, the number of customers enrolled in verizon's cellular plans declined 4 percent in those states, while enrollments in states where prices were not increased remained flat. the manager used this information to estimate the own-price elasticity of demand and, based on her findings, immediately increased prices in all market areas by 5 percent in an attempt to boost the company's 2016 annual revenues. one year later, the manager was perplexed because verizon's 2016 annual revenues were 10 percent lower than those in 2015"the price increase apparently led to a reduction in the company's revenues. did the manager make an error? yes - the one-week measures show demand is inelastic, so a price increase will decrease revenues. yes - the one-week measures show demand is elastic, so a price increase will reduce revenues. yes - cell phone elasticity is likely much larger in the long-run than the short-run. no - the cell phone market must have changed between 2011 and 2012 for this price increase to lower revenues.

The following pertains to smoke, inc.’s investment in debt securities: on december 31, year 3, smoke reclassified a security acquired during the year for $70,000. it had a $50,000 fair value when it was reclassified from trading to available-for-sale. an available-for-sale security costing $75,000, written down to $30,000 in year 2 because of an other-than-temporary impairment of fair value, had a $60,000 fair value on december 31, year 3. what is the net effect of the above items on smoke’s net income for the year ended december 31, year 3?