A commercial bank recognizes that its net income suffers whenever interest rates increase. Which of the following strategies would protect the bank against rising interest rates? a. Entering into an interest rate swap where the bank receives a fixed payment stream, and in return agrees to make payments that float with market interest rates.
b. Purchase principal only (PO) strips that decline in value whenever interest rates rise.
c. Enter into a short hedge where the bank agrees to sell interest rate futures.
d. Sell some of the bank's floating-rate loans and use the proceeds to make fixed-rate loans.
e. Buying inverse floaters.

At a student café, there are equal numbers of two types of customers with the following values. the café owner cannot distinguish between the two types of students because many students without early classes arrive early anyway (i.e., she cannot price-discriminate). students with early classes students without early classes coffee 70 60 banana 51 101 the marginal cost of coffee is 10 and the marginal cost of a banana is 40. the café owner is considering three pricing strategies: 1. mixed bundling: price bundle of coffee and a banana for 161, or just a coffee for 70. 2. price separately: offer coffee at 60, price a banana at 101. 3. bundle only: coffee and a banana for 121. do not offer goods separately. assume that if the price of an item or bundle is no more than exactly equal to a student's willingness to pay, then the student will purchase the item or bundle. for simplicity, assume there is just one student with an early class, and one student without an early class. price strategy revenue from pricing strategy cost from pricing strategy profit from pricing strategy 1. mixed bundling $ $ $ 2. price separately $ $ $ 3. bundle only $ $ $ pricing strategy yields the highest profit for the café owner.

Suppose the number of equipment sales and service contracts that a store sold during the last six (6) months for treadmills and exercise bikes was as follows: treadmill exercise bike total sold 185 123 service contracts 67 55 the store can only sell a service contract on a new piece of equipment. of the 185 treadmills sold, 67 included a service contract and 118 did not.

Exercise 18-15 sheffield appliance center is an experienced home appliance dealer. sheffield appliance center also offers a number of services for the home appliances that it sells. assume that sheffield appliance center sells ovens on a standalone basis. sheffield appliance center also sells installation services and maintenance services for ovens. however, sheffield appliance center does not offer installation or maintenance services to customers who buy ovens from other vendors. pricing for ovens is as follows. oven only $790 oven with installation service 850 oven with maintenance services 970 oven with installation and maintenance services 990 in each instance in which maintenance services are provided, the maintenance service is separately priced within the arrangement at $180. additionally, the incremental amount charged by sheffield appliance center for installation approximates the amount charged by independent third parties. ovens are sold subject to a general right of return. if a customer purchases an oven with installation and/or maintenance services, in the event sheffield appliance center does not complete the service satisfactorily, the customer is only entitled to a refund of the portion of the fee that exceeds $790. assume that a customer purchases an oven with both installation and maintenance services for $990. (b) indicate the amount of revenue that should be allocated to the oven, the installation, and to the maintenance contract.