It is july 2014. a mining company has just discovered a small deposit of gold. it will take six months to construct the mine. the gold will then be extracted on a more or less continuous basis for one year. futures contracts on goldareavailable with delivery months every two months from august 2014 to december 2015. each contract is for the delivery of 100 ounces. discuss how the mining company might use futures markets for hedging.

Upscale hotels in the united states recently cut their prices by 20 percent in an effort to bolster dwindling occupancy rates among business travelers. a survey performed by a major research organization indicated that businesses are wary of current economic conditions and are now resorting to electronic media, such as the internet and the telephone, to transact business. assume a company's budget permits it to spend $5,000 per month on either business travel or electronic media to transact business. graphically illustrate how a 20 percent decline in the price of business travel would impact this company's budget set if the price of business travel was initially $1,000 per trip and the price of electronic media was $500 per hour. suppose that, after the price of business travel drops, the company issues a report indicating that its marginal rate of substitution between electronic media and business travel is 1. is the company allocating resources efficiently? explain.

Kiona co. set up a petty cash fund for payments of small amounts. the following transactions involving the petty cash fund occurred in may (the last month of the company's fiscal year). may 1 prepared a company check for $350 to establish the petty cash fund. 15 prepared a company check to replenish the fund for the following expenditures made since may 1. a. paid $109.20 for janitorial services. b. paid $89.15 for miscellaneous expenses. c. paid postage expenses of $60.90. d. paid $80.01 to the county gazette (the local newspaper) for an advertisement. e. counted $26.84 remaining in the petty cashbox. 16 prepared a company check for $200 to increase the fund to $550. 31 the petty cashier reports that $380.27 cash remains in the fund. a company check is drawn to replenish the fund for the following expenditures made since may 15. f. paid postage expenses of $59.10. g. reimbursed the office manager for business mileage, $47.05. h. paid $48.58 to deliver merchandise to a customer, terms fob destination. 31 the company decides that the may 16 increase in the fund was too large. it reduces the fund by $50, leaving a total of $500.

Laval produces lamps and home lighting fixtures. its most popular product is a brushed aluminum desk lamp. this lamp is made from components shaped in the fabricating department and assembled in the assembly department. information related to the 22,000 desk lamps produced annually follows.direct materials $280,000direct labor fabricating department (8,000 dlh × $24 per dlh) $192,000assembly department (16,600 dlh × $26 per dlh) $431,600machine hours fabricating department $15,200mhassembly department $20,850mhexpected overhead cost and related data for the two production departments follow.fabricating assemblydirect labor hours 150,000dlh 295,000dlhmachine hours 161,000mh 128,000mhoverhead cost $400,000 430,000required1. determine the plantwide overhead rate for laval using direct labor hours as a base.2. determine the total manufacturing cost per unit for the aluminum desk lamp using the plantwide overhead rate.3. compute departmental overhead rates based on machine hours in the fabricating department and direct labor hours in the assembly department.4. use departmental overhead rates from requirement 3 to determine the total manufacturing cost per unit for the aluminum desk lamps.