Consider two projects: project a currently costs $15 million, which is to be paid this year. the returns are $12 million after in one year and $11 million in two years. project b currently costs $13 million, again to be paid this year. the returns are $10 million after in one year and $8 million in two years.

at an interest rate of 6%, the net present value of project a is roughly , while the net present value of project b is roughly .

suppose investing in one project eliminates the opportunity to invest in the other. if the interest rate is 6%, project is preferable.

Arriving and delivering a load of company executives for a business meeting at a destination far from home base requiring an overnight stay, a company’s pilot requested approval from the company finance office to pay to either have the company’s jet brought into the fbo's hangar overnight to protect it from a forecast snowfall or to have it de-iced by the fbo the following morning well-before scheduled departure. the company was under considerable financial pressure at the time, and the pilot’s requests were denied because of the cost. so, early the following morning, the pilot was up on the wing of the jet sweeping off an accumulation of snow and ice with a borrowed push broom in preparation for the scheduled departure with the executives, but slipped and fell to the ground, suffering a broken neck. the business was organized as a limited partnership, owned by 3 limited partners and one general partner. as a cost-saving measure, the company had dropped its workers’ compensation insurance before the accident. analyze the potential liability for the pilot’s injuries of each of the following, showing your reasoning clearly: the company the general partner the limited partners analyze how the outcome would have been different, if the business had been organized as a corporation and observed all of the formalities to legitimize its corporate status. analyze how the outcome would have been different, if the pilot had been covered by workers’ compensation insurance.

Employees of dti, inc. worked 1,600 direct labor hours in january and 1,000 direct labor hours in february. dti expects to use 18,000 direct labor hours during the year, and expects to incur $22,500 of worker’s compensation insurance cost for the year. the cash payment for this cost will be paid in april. how much insurance premium should be allocated to products made in january and february?

Who is better at multi-tasking? in business, employees are often asked to perform a complex task when their atten-tion is divided (i.e., multi-tasking). human factors (may 2014) published a study designed to determine whether video game players are better than non–video game play-ers at multi-tasking. each in a sample of 60 college stu-dents was classified as a video game player or a non-player. participants entered a street crossing simulator and were asked to cross a busy street at an unsigned intersec-tion. the simulator was designed to have cars traveling at various high rates of speed in both directions. during the crossing, the students also performed a memory task as a distraction. two variables were measured for each student: (1) a street crossing performance score (measured out of 100 points) and (2) a memory task score (measured out of 20 points). the researchers found no differences in either the street crossing performance or memory task score of video game players and non-gamers. “these results,” say the researchers, “suggest that action video game players [and non-gamers] are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task”