When Uncle Sam died in 2019, he left his estate to his ungrateful cousin, Brian. Sam’s cost basis in his property was $1.5 million, but, due to turbulent political and economic times, it was only worth $0.5 million at his death. Sam had reinvested approximately $250,000 of dividends during his holding period, and his estate paid $500,000 in transfer taxes at his death. What is Brian’s basis in the property?

Suppose the number of firms you compete with has recently increased. you estimated that as a result of the increased competition, the demand elasticity has increased from –2 to –3 (i.e., you face more elastic demand). you are currently charging $10 for your product. what is the price that you should charge if demand elasticity is -3?

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”

Lambert manufacturing has $100,000 to invest in either project a or project b. the following data are available on these projects (ignore income taxes.): project a project b cost of equipment needed now $100,000 $60,000 working capital investment needed now - $40,000 annual cash operating inflows $40,000 $35,000 salvage value of equipment in 6 years $10,000 - both projects will have a useful life of 6 years and the total cost approach to net present value analysis. at the end of 6 years, the working capital investment will be released for use elsewhere. lambert's required rate of return is 14%. the net present value of project b is: