According to Adam Smith, as long as farmers, laborers, and businesspeople received economic reward for their efforts, they would work hard. As a result of this self-directed desire to gain, the economy would prosper and everyone would become wealthier. Smith called this process:

Overspeculation and a decrease in consumer confidence are both leading factors of: ?

Consider two similar industries, portal crane manufacturing (pcm) and forklift manufacturing (flm). the pcm industry has exactly three incumbents with annual sales of $800 million, $200 million and $100 million, respectively. the flm industry has also exactly three incumbents, with annual sales of $500 million, $450 million and $400 million, respectively. which industry is more likely to experience a higher level of rivalry?

Costco wholesale corporation operates membership warehouses selling food, appliances, consumer electronics, apparel and other household goods at 471 locations across the u.s. as well as in canada, mexico and puerto rico. as of its fiscal year-end 2005, costco had approximately 21.2 million members. selected fiscal-year information from the company's balance sheets follows. ($ millions). selected balance sheet data 2005 2004 merchandise inventories $4,015 $3,644 deferred membership income (liability) 501 454 (a) during fiscal 2005, costco collected $1,120 cash for membership fees. use the financial statement effectstemplate to record the cash collected for membership fees. (b) in 2005, costco recorded $46,347 million in merchandise costs (that is, cost of goods sold). record thistransaction in the financial statement effects template. (c) determine the value of merchandise that costco purchased during fiscal-year 2005. use the financial statementeffects template to record these merchandise purchases. assume all of costco's purchases are on credit.