An improvement in a country's balance of payments means a decrease in its balance of payments deficit, or an increase in its surplus. In fact we know that a surplus in a balance of payments A) is always beneficial. B) is usually beneficial. C) is never harmful. D) is sometimes harmful. E) is always harmful.

On january 1, 2017, fisher corporation purchased 40 percent (90,000 shares) of the common stock of bowden, inc. for $980,000 in cash and began to use the equity method for the investment. the price paid represented a $48,000 payment in excess of the book value of fisher's share of bowden's underlying net assets. fisher was willing to make this extra payment because of a recently developed patent held by bowden with a 15-year remaining life. all other assets were considered appropriately valued on bowden's books. bowden declares and pays a $90,000 cash dividend to its stockholders each year on september 15. bowden reported net income of $400,000 in 2017 and $348,000 in 2018. each income figure was earned evenly throughout its respective year. on july 1, 2018, fisher sold 10 percent (22,500 shares) of bowden's outstanding shares for $338,000 in cash. although it sold this interest, fisher maintained the ability to significantly influence bowden's decision-making process. prepare the journal entries for fisher for the years of 2017 and 2018. (if no entry is required for a transaction/event, select "no journal entry required" in the first account field. do not round intermediate calculations. round your final answers to the nearest whole dollar.)

Oceanside marine company manufactures special metallic materials and decorative fittings for luxury yachts that require highly skilled labor. oceanside uses standard costs to prepare its flexible budget. for the first quarter of the year, direct materials and direct labor standards for one of their popular products were as follows: direct materials: 2 pound per unit; $ 11 per pound direct labor: 2 hours per unit; $ 19 per hour oceanside produced 2 comma 000 units during the quarter. at the end of the quarter, an examination of the direct materials records showed that the company used 7 comma 500 pounds of direct materials and actual total materials costs were $ 98 comma 100. what is the direct materials cost variance? (round any intermediate calculations to the nearest cent, and your final answer to the nearest dollar.)

In december of 2004, the company you own entered into a 20-year contract with a grain supplier for daily deliveries of grain to its hot dog bun manufacturing facility. the contract called for "10,000 pounds of grain" to be delivered to the facility at the price of $100,000 per day. until february 2017, the supplier provided processed grain which could easily be used in your manufacturing process. however, no longer wanting to absorb the cost of having the grain processed, the supplier began delivering whole grain. the supplier is arguing that the contract does not specify the type of grain that would be supplied and that it has not breached the contract. your company is arguing that the supplier has an onsite processing plant and processed grain was implicit to the terms of the contract. over the remaining term of the contract, reshipping and having the grain processed would cost your company approximately $10,000,000, opposed to a cost of around $1,000,000 to the supplier. after speaking with in-house counsel, it was estimated that litigation would cost the company several million dollars and last for years. weighing the costs of litigation, along with possible ambiguity in the contract, what are three options you could take to resolve the dispute? which would be the best option for your business and why?