El eram inc. is automating processes so the company can meet its demand with a smaller workforce. the ceo asks monica, the vice president of human resources, for advice on how to address the resulting labor surplus. monica studies the workforce and observes that many employees are in their 50s and 60s. furthermore, these employees are the highest-paid workers in every job category. based on this information, what should monica suggest as the most effective way of addressing el eram's labor surplus?
a. retrain the older employees in order to make them to work more productively.
b. offer early-retirement incentives to the employees in their 50s and 60s
c. replace the employees with contract workers.
d. provide performance-based pay to increase production output by the employees.
e. the workforce should be downsized, with layoffs focusing on the older employees.

Suppose that jim plans to borrow money for an education at texas a& m university. jim will need to borrow $25,000 at the end of each year for the next five years (total=$125,000). jim wishes his parents could pay for his education but they can’t. at least, he qualifies for government loans with a reduced interest rate while he is in school. he has a special arrangement with aggiebank to lend him the money at a subsidized rate of 1% over five years without having to make a payment until the end of the fifth year. however, at the end of the fifth year, jim agrees to pay off the loan by borrowing from longhorn bank. longhorn bank will lend him the money he needs at an annual interest rate of 6%. jim agrees to pay back the longhorn bank with 20 annual payments and the payments will be uniform (equal annual payments including principal and interest). (i) calculate how much money jim has to borrow at the end of 5 years to pay off the loan with aggiebank. a. $121,336 b. $127,525 c. $125,000 d. $102,020 e. none of the above

Calculate the cost of each capital component—in other words, the after-tax cost of debt, the cost of preferred stock (including flotation costs), and the cost of equity (ignoring flotation costs). use both the capm method and the dividend growth approach to find the cost of equity.calculate the cost of new stock using the dividend growth approach.what is the cost of new common stock based on the capm? (hint: find the difference between re and rs as determined by the dividend growth approach and then add that difference to the capm value for rs.)assuming that gao will not issue new equity and will continue to use the same target capital structure, what is the company’s wacc? e. suppose gao is evaluating three projects with the following characteristics.each project has a cost of $1 million. they will all be financed using the target mix of long-term debt, preferred stock, and common equity. the cost of the common equity for each project should be based on the beta estimated for the project. all equity will come from reinvested earnings.equity invested in project a would have a beta of 0.5 and an expected return of 9.0%.equity invested in project b would have a beta of 1.0 and an expected return of 10.0%.equity invested in project c would have a beta of 2.0 and an expected return of 11.0%.analyze the company’s situation, and explain why each project should be accepted or rejected g

It is estimated that over 100,000 students will apply to the top 30 m.b.a. programs in the united states this year. a. using the concept of net present value and opportunity cost, when is it rational for an individual to pursue an m.b.a. degree. b. what would you expect to happen to the number of applicants if the starting salaries of managers with m.b.a. degrees remained constant but salaries of managers without such degrees decreased by 20 percent