H. r. manager melissa says: we must become more flexible if we are to meet our personnel needs and maximize efficiency. in the past, we simply hired as many full-time employees as we thought we needed. but, this focus has caused us to lose many valuable employees. we should offer flextime and job sharing options to us keep and attract talented employees. if true, would strengthen melissa's argument?

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?

Colter steel has $5,550,000 in assets. temporary current assets $ 3,100,000 permanent current assets 1,605,000 fixed assets 845,000 total assets $ 5,550,000 assume the term structure of interest rates becomes inverted, with short-term rates going to 10 percent and long-term rates 2 percentage points lower than short-term rates. earnings before interest and taxes are $1,170,000. the tax rate is 40 percent earnings after taxes = ?

Western electric has 32,000 shares of common stock outstanding at a price per share of $79 and a rate of return of 13.00 percent. the firm has 7,300 shares of 7.80 percent preferred stock outstanding at a price of $95.00 per share. the preferred stock has a par value of $100. the outstanding debt has a total face value of $404,000 and currently sells for 111 percent of face. the yield to maturity on the debt is 8.08 percent. what is the firm's weighted average cost of capital if the tax rate is 39 percent?