Your christmas ski vacation was great, but it unfortunately ran a bit over budget. all is not lost: you just received an offer in the mail to transfer your $15,000 balance from your current credit card, which charges an annual rate of 17.5 percent, to a new credit card charging a rate of 8.9 percent.

a. how much faster could you pay the loan off by making your planned monthly payments of $250 with the new card? (do not round intermediate calculations and round your answer to 2 decimal places, e. g., 32.16.)

b. what if there was a fee of 2 percent charged on any balances transferred? (do not round intermediate calculations and round your answer to 2 decimal places, e. g., 32.16.)

Ivan, a russian fishermen, needs a permit so that he can commercially participate in ice fishing for yellow perch and then the consequent sales. garet is an undergraduate student who has to work at mcdonald\'s part time to pay his tuition loans. always looking on the bright side of things, he is that he can\'t make less than what he is earning, $7.25 an hour. d\'artagnan, a poor french noblemen, discovers a large cache of truffles in his backyard. however, the government caps the sale of truffles at $100 a pound, which frustrates d\'artagnan as he knows they are worth more than that. athos is an avid collector of swords, but as they are illegal to purchase, he goes by illicit means to obtain them. to out irish farmers, the government sets the minimum price of potatoes at $26 a bushel. in order to support domestic sales of textiles, the country of germany puts a cap on the amount of foreign textiles it imports.