The competitive market system: a. discourages innovation because it is difficult to acquire additional capital in the form of new machinery and equipment. b. encourages innovation because successful innovators are rewarded with economic profits. c. discourages innovation because firms want to get all the profits possible from existing machinery and equipment. d. encourages innovation because government provides tax breaks and subsidies to those who develop new products or new productive techniques.

Herman is covered by a cafeteria plan by his employer. his adjusted gross income (agi) is $100,000. he paid unreimbursed medical premiums in the amount of $10,500 and he itemizes deductions. what amount will herman be able to deduct for his medical insurance premium expenses?

The price of trade suppose that portugal and sweden both produce rye and wine. portugal's opportunity cost of producing a bottle of wine is 4 bushels of rye while sweden's opportunity cost of producing a bottle of wine is 10 bushels of rye. by comparing the opportunity cost of producing wine in the two countries, you can tell thatportugal/sweden has a comparative advantage in the production of wine.andportugal/sweden has a comparative advantage in the production of rye. suppose that portugal and sweden consider trading wine and rye with each other. portugal can gain from specialization and trade as long as it receives more rye for each bottle of wine it exports to sweden. similarly, sweden can gain from trade as long as it receives more bottles of wine for each bushel of rye it exports to portugal. based on your answer to the last question, which of the following prices of trade (that is, price of wine in terms of rye) would allow both sweden and portugal to gain from trade? a. 1 bushels of rye per bottle of wineb. 8 bushels of rye per bottle of winec. 9 bushels of rye per bottle of wined. 3 bushels of rye per bottle of wine

The treasurer for pittsburgh iron works wishes to use financial futures to hedge her interest rate exposure. she will sell five treasury futures contracts at $139,000 per contract. it is july and the contracts must be closed out in december of this year. long-term interest rates are currently 7.30 percent. if they increase to 9.50 percent, assume the value of the contracts will go down by 20 percent. also if interest rates do increase by 2.2 percent, assume the firm will have additional interest expense on its business loans and other commitments of $149,000. this expense, of course, will be separate from the futures contracts. a. what will be the profit or loss on the futures contract if interest rates increase to 9.50 percent by december when the contract is closed out