You and other college students are deciding whether to major in music or engineering. you learn that there is a shortage of engineers making it easy for engineering graduates to find employment while there is a glut of musicians for whom finding a job is difficult. as a result, you and many other college students decide to major in engineering. what economic principle does this illustrate?
a. specialization leads to economic efficiency
b. government intervention can improve efficiency when there is a market failure
c. individuals do not normally take into account the decisions of other individuals
d. markets tend to move towards equilibrium as individuals respond to incentives
e. changes in incentives are unlikely to change the decisions people make

Social computing forces companies to deal with customers as opposed to

Pennewell publishing inc. (pp) is a zero growth company. it currently has zero debt and its earnings before interest and taxes (ebit) are $80,000. pp's current cost of equity is 10%, and its tax rate is 40%. the firm has 10,000 shares of common stock outstanding selling at a price per share of $48.00. refer to the data for pennewell publishing inc. (pp). pp is considering changing its capital structure to one with 30% debt and 70% equity, based on market values. the debt would have an interest rate of 8%. the new funds would be used to repurchase stock. it is estimated that the increase in risk resulting from the added leverage would cause the required rate of return on equity to rise to 12%. if this plan were carried out, what would be pp's new value of operations? a. $484,359 b. $521,173 c. $584,653 d. $560,748 e. $487,805

Richardson hired j.c. flood company, a plumbing contractor, to correct a stoppage in the sewer line of her house. the plumbing company's 'snake' device, used to clear the line leading to the main sewer, became caught in the underground line. to release it, the company excavated a portion of the sewer line in richardson's backyard. in the process, the company discovered numerous leaks in a rusty, defective water pipe that ran parallel with the sewer line. to meet public regulations, the water pipe, of a type no longer approved for such service, had to be replaced either then or later, when the yard would have to be excavated again. the plumbing company proceeded to repair the water pipe. though richardson inspected the company's work daily and did not express any objection to the extra work involved in replacing the water pipe, she refused to pay any part of the total bill after the company completed the entire operation. j.c. flood company then sued richardson for the costs of labor and material it had furnished. (c) for what, if anything, should richardson be liable? explain."