The Allied Group is considering two investments. The first investment involves a packaging machine, which can be used to package garments for shipping orders to customers. The second possible investment would be a molding machine that would be used to mold the mannequin parts. The first possible investment is the packaging machine, which will cost $14,000. The second investment, the molding machine, would cost $12,000. The expected cash flows for the two projects are given below and the cost of capital to the firm is 15%. Both machines will be unusable after five years and have no salvage value.
The net cash flows for the two possible projects are given in the following table:
Year Packaging Machine Molding Machine
0 ($14000) ($12,000)
1 4100 3200
2 3300 2800
3 2900 2800
4 2200 2200
5 1200 2200
Address all of the following questions in a brief but thorough manner.
1. Calculate each project's payback period.
2. Calculate the NPV for each project.
3. Calculate the IRR for each project.
4. If the two projects are independent of each other, which projects, if any, should be selected? Explain why or why not.
5. If the two projects are mutually exclusive, which project, if any, should be selected? Explain why.

Evaluate a real situation between two economic actors; it could be any scenario: two competing businesses, two countries in negotiations, two kids trading baseball cards, you and another person involved in an exchange or anything else. use game theory to analyze the situation and the outcome (or potential outcome). be sure to explain the incentives, benefits and risks each face.

Andy purchases only two goods, apples (a) and kumquats (k). he has an income of $125 and can buy apples at $5 per pound and kumquats at $5 per pound. his utility function is u(a, k) = 6a + 2k. what is his marginal utility for apples and his marginal utility for kumquats? andy's marginal utility for apples (mu subscript a) is mu subscript aequals 6 and his marginal utility for kumquats (mu subscript k) is

Imagine us is a startup that offers high definition 3d prenatal ultrasounds for high-end customers. the service process includes four activities that are conducted in the sequence described below. (the time required for each activity is shown in parentheses): activity 1: welcome a patient and explain the procedure. (20 minutes)activity 2: prep the patient (e.g., show them to the room, apply ultrasound gel). (17 minutes) (*your id number represents the amount of time needed to complete this task)activity 3: take images. (5 minutes)activity 4: discuss diagnostic with patient. (20 minutes)at each location there are employees (servers) s1, s2, and s3. the assignment of tasks to servers is the following: s1 does activities 1 and 2.s2 does activity 3.s3 does activity 4.a. what is the capacity of this process (in customers per hour)? b. suppose 3 patients arrive every hour on average. ignoring any “start of day” or “end of day” effects, what are the utilizations of all three servers (%)? c. suppose each activity can be done by any server and any server can do any set of activities. however, each activity is done by only one server. for example, a possible assignment includes: s1 does activity 1, s2 does activity 2, and s3 does activities 3 and 4. of course, the original assignment of servers to activities is also feasible. what is the maximum capacity of the process (in customers per hour)? d. now consider the capacity measures in (c) and (a), what is the percentage change? why can you improve capacity without using additional resources? (there is no free lunch, right? )note: for all hw assignments, show your process of getting the results. only providing the final answers is not acceptable and will get 0%. if necessary, use a separate sheet of paper to show your work.