A fast-growing form of foreign direct investment is sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). Why do these investments by governments with surplus cash flows worry trade experts?

You are the manager of a large crude-oil refinery. as part of the refining process, a certain heat exchanger (operated at high temperatures and with abrasive material flowing through it) must be replaced every year. the replacement and downtime cost in the first year is $165 comma 000. this cost is expected to increase due to inflation at a rate of 7% per year for six years (i.e. until the eoy 7), at which time this particular heat exchanger will no longer be needed. if the company's cost of capital is 15% per year, how much could you afford to spend for a higher quality heat exchanger so that these annual replacement and downtime costs could be eliminated?

For the year, uptowne furniture had sales of $818,790, costs of $748,330, and interest paid of $24,450. the depreciation expense was $56,100 and the tax rate was 34 percent. at the beginning of the year, the firm had retained earnings of $172,270 and common stock of $260,000. at the end of the year, retained earnings was $158,713 and common stock was $280,000. any tax losses can be used. what is the amount of the dividends paid for the year? a. $6,466 b. $7,566 c. $5,266 d. $6,898 e. $7,066

Risk is the risk of a decline in a bond's value due to an increase in interest rates. this risk is higher on bonds that have long maturities than on bonds that will mature in the near future. risk is the risk that a decline in interest rates will lead to a decline in income from a bond portfolio. this risk is obviously high on callable bonds. it is also high on short-term bonds because the shorter the bond's maturity, the fewer the years before the relatively high old-coupon bonds will be replaced with new low-coupon issues. which type of risk is more relevant to an investor depends on the investor's , which is the period of time an investor plans to hold a particular investment. longer maturity bonds have high risk but low risk, while higher coupon bonds have a higher level of risk and a lower level of risk. to account for the effects related to both a bond's maturity and coupon, many analysts focus on a measure called , which is the weighted average of the time it takes to receive each of the bond's cash flows. conceptual question: which of the following bonds would have the largest duration? a)10year-zero coupon bonds b)10year-7% annual coupon bonds c)10year-3% annual coupon bonds d)5year-3% annual coupon bonds e)3year-7% annual coupon bonds