Hull Consultants, a famous think tank in the Midwest, has provided probability estimates for the four potential economic states for the coming year. The probability of a boom economy is 14%, the probability of a stable growth economy is 17%, the probability of a stagnant economy is 48%, and the probability of a recession is 21%. Estimate the expected returns on the following individual investments for the coming year.

Investment /Forecasted Returns for Boom Economy/ Forecasted Returns for Stable Growth Economy /Forecasted Returns for Stagnant Economy /Forecasted Returns for Recession Economy

Stock /29% /15% /2% /-15%

Corporate bond /9% /7% /5% /4%

Government bond /8% /6% /4% /3%

Activity-based costing (abc) is not truly a cost collection mechanism as much as it is an inventory valuation method. the main purpose for implementing an activity-based cost system is to try to overcome some of the cost distortions that occur in traditional costing from product differences when there are variations in size and complexity. however, one of the disadvantages of utilizing abc is that the additional information gathering necessary to implement costing with that level of detail might be beyond the reach of some companies with resource or financial constraints. with this in mind, what kinds of industries or companies do you think would benefit most from using activity-based costing and why? in designing or modifying an accounting system to capture appropriate costs for abc, what considerations do you think would need to be made?