The arguments for restricting trade Suppose there is a policy debate regarding the United States’ imposing trade restrictions on imported ball bearings.
Read the following scenario and answer the question that follows:
A senator from a state with several ball-bearing factories argues that the government should impose a tariff on ball bearings because they are a necessary input into the production of various weapons. Free trade, she contends, would make the United States overly dependent on foreign countries for the supply of ball bearings and thus, in case of war, unable to make enough weapons to defend itself.

Which of the following justifications is the senator using to argue for the trade restriction on ball bearings?

a) Jobs argument
b) National-security argument
c) Using-protection-as-a-bargaining-ch ip argument
d) Infant-industry argument
e) Unfair-competition argument

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600

White truffles are a very prized and rare edible fungus that grow naturally in the countryside near alba, italy. suppose that it costs $200 per day to search for white truffles. on an average day, the total number of white truffles (t) found in alba is t = 20x − x 2 , where x is the number of people searching for white truffles on that day. white truffles can be sold for $100 each. if there is no regulation, how many more people will be searching for white truffles than the socially optimal number?

Suppose your firm is considering investing in a project with the cash flows shown as follows, that the required rate of return on projects of this risk class is 10 percent, and that the maximum allowable payback and discounted payback statistics for the project are three and a half and four and a half years, respectively. use the irr decision to evaluate this project; should it be accepted or rejected