Which of the following statements is correct? a. suppose a firm has less than its optimal amount of debt. increasing its use of debt to the point where it is at its optimal capital structure will decrease the costs of both debt and equity. b. if a firm's after-tax cost of equity exceeds its after-tax cost of debt, it can always reduce its wacc by increasing its use of debt. c. in general, a firm with low operating leverage also has a small proportion of its total costs in the form of fixed costs. d. a firm with a relatively high business risk is more likely to increase its use of financial leverage than a firm with low business risk, assuming all else equal. e. there is no reason to think that changes in the personal tax rate would affect firms' capital structure decisions.

What is one counter argument to the premise that the wealth gap is a serious problem which needs to be addressed?

Ryan terlecki organized a new internet company, capuniverse, inc. the company specializes in baseball-type caps with logos printed on them. ryan, who is never without a cap, believes that his target market is college and high school students. you have been hired to record the transactions occurring in the first two weeks of operations.

Selected information about income statement accounts for the reed company is presented below (the company's fiscal year ends on december 31): 2018 2017sales $ 4,400,000 $ 3,500,000cost of goods sold 2,860,000 2,000,000administrative expenses 800,000 675,000selling expenses 360,000 312,000interest revenue 150,000 140,000interest expense 200,000 200,000loss on sale of assets of discontinued component 50,000 —on july 1, 2018, the company adopted a plan to discontinue a division that qualifies as a component of an entity as defined by gaap. the assets of the component were sold on september 30, 2018, for $50,000 less than their book value. results of operations for the component (included in the above account balances) were as follows: 1/1/18-9/30/18 2017 sales $ 400,000 $ 500,000 cost of goods sold (290,000 ) (320,000 )administrative expenses (50,000 ) (40,000 )selling expenses (20,000 ) (30,000 )operating income before taxes $ 40,000 $ 110,000 in addition to the account balances above, several events occurred during 2018 that have not yet been reflected in the above accounts: a fire caused $50,000 in uninsured damages to the main office building. the fire was considered to be an infrequent but not unusual event.inventory that had cost $40,000 had become obsolete because a competitor introduced a better product. the inventory was sold as scrap for $5,000.income taxes have not yet been recorded.required: prepare a multiple-step income statement for the reed company for 2018, showing 2017 information in comparative format, including income taxes computed at 40% and eps disclosures assuming 300,000 shares of common stock. (amounts to be deducted should be indicated with a minus sign. round eps answers to 2 decimal places.)