As the fed chases inflation, critics shout, 'faster! ' "for weeks, the fed has broadcast its intention to raise interest rates glacially." the fed was moving slowly, according to an economist because " declining price of oil, economic fundamentals, including productivity and global competition, will keep inflation in check." the fed, recognizing that the economy was improving stated it planned to "respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to fulfill its obligation to maintain price stability." other economists disagree with the fed's restrained policy as a "mistake."by increasing the federal funds target, the fed will reserves and the quantity of money.
a) decrease; decrease
b) increase; increase
c) increase; decrease
d) decrease; increase

Symantec corp., located in cupertino, california, is one of the world's largest producers of security and systems management software. the company's consolidated balance sheets for the 2009 and 2008 fiscal years included the following ($ in thousands): current assets: receivables, less allowances of $21,766 in 2009 and $24,089 in 2008 $ 838,010 $ 758,700 a disclosure note accompanying the financial statements reported the following ($ in thousands): year ended 2009 2008 (in thousands) trade accounts receivable, net: receivables $ 859,776 $ 782,789 less: allowance for doubtful accounts (8,938) (8,990) less: reserve for product returns (12,828) (15,099) trade accounts receivable, net: $ 838,010 $ 758,700 assume that the company reported bad debt expense in 2009 of $2,000 and had products returned for credit totaling $3,230 (sales price). net sales for 2009 were $6,174,800 (all numbers in thousands).required: what is the amount of accounts receivable due from customers at the end of 2009 and 2008? what amount of accounts receivable did symentec write off during 2009? what is the amount of symentec’s gross sales for the 2009 fiscal year? assuming that all sales are made on a credit basis, what is the amount of cash symentec collected from customers during the 2009 fiscal year?

Last week paul, ceo of quality furniture in south carolina, traveled to europe to visit customers. while overseas, paul checked his e-mail daily and showed his company's website to customers, explaining how the website will them place orders and receive merchandise more quickly. after visiting the last customer friday morning, paul was able to return to the corporate office in south carolina to meet with his board of directors that night. is the "shrinking" of time and space with air travel and electronic media.

Stock a has a beta of 1.2 and a standard deviation of 20%. stock b has a beta of 0.8 and a standard deviation of 25%. portfolio p has $200,000 consisting of $100,000 invested in stock a and $100,000 in stock b. which of the following statements is correct? (assume that the stocks are in equilibrium.) (a) stock b has a higher required rate of return than stock a. (b) portfolio p has a standard deviation of 22.5%. (c) portfolio p has a beta equal to 1.0. (d) more information is needed to determine the portfolio's beta. (e) stock a's returns are less highly correlated with the returns on most other stocks than are b's returns.