Increases in the minimum wage are intended to raise the incomes of low-income workers. Many economists favor a different policy to achieve this goal, a policy that avoids the deadweight losses that result from the minimum wage. What is this policy?

Afirm's before-tax cost of debt, rd, is the interest rate that the firm must pay on debt. because interest is tax deductible, the relevant cost of debt used to calculate a firm's wacc is the cost of debt, rd (1 – t). the cost of debt is used in calculating the wacc because we are interested in maximizing the value of the firm's stock, and the stock price depends on cash flows. it is important to emphasize that the cost of debt is the interest rate on debt, not debt because our primary concern with the cost of capital is its use in capital budgeting decisions. the rate at which the firm has borrowed in the past is because we need to know the cost of capital. for these reasons, the on outstanding debt (which reflects current market conditions) is a better measure of the cost of debt than the . the on the company's -term debt is generally used to calculate the cost of debt because more often than not, the capital is being raised to fund -term projects. quantitative problem: 5 years ago, barton industries issued 25-year noncallable, semiannual bonds with a $1,600 face value and a 8% coupon, semiannual payment ($64 payment every 6 months). the bonds currently sell for $845.87. if the firm's marginal tax rate is 40%, what is the firm's after-tax cost of debt? round your answer to 2 decimal places. do not round intermediate calcu

The green fiddle has declared a $5 per share dividend. suppose capital gains are not taxed, but dividends are taxed at 15 percent. new irs regulations require that taxes be withheld at the time the dividend is paid. green fiddle stock sells for $71.50 per share, and the stock is about to go ex-dividend. what will the ex-dividend price be?

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?