Suppose you are an economist working for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.

In each of the following cases you are given the task of determining whether the behavior warrants an antitrust investigation for possible illegal acts or is just an example of undesirable, but not illegal, tacit collusion. Explain your reasoning.

a. Two companies dominate the industry for industrial lasers. Several people sit on the boards of directors of both companies.

b. Three banks dominate the market for banking in a given state. Their profits have been going up recently as they add new fees for customer transactions. Advertising among the banks is fierce, and new branches are springing up in many locations.

c. The two oil companies that produce most of the petroleum for the western half of the United States have decided to forgo building their own pipelines and to share a common pipeline, the only means of transporting petroleum products to that market.

d. The two major companies that dominate the market for herbal supplements have each created a subsidiary that sells the same product as the parent company in large quantities but with a generic name.

e. The two largest credit card companies, Passport and OmniCard, have required all banks and retailers who accept their cards to agree to limit their use of rival credit cards.

Peninsula products has just applied for a loan at your bank. when reviewing peninsula's books for the year that just ended, you notice that the firm uses the fair value option for its bonds payable. you also see that the firm recorded a $55,000 debit in its bonds payable account and a $55,000 credit in its unrealized holding gain or loss"income account. over that same period, interest rates decreased by about 0.5 percent. how should this information affect the bank's decision as to whether to grant peninsula a loan? a : the bank should strongly consider giving a loan to peninsula because the changes in firm's bonds payable and unrealized holding gain or loss"income accounts suggest that peninsula has seen an increase in its credit rating over the past year. b : the bank should put little emphasis on the changes in peninsula's bonds payable and unrealized holding gain or loss"income accounts because these changes are likely the result of the rise in interest rates. c : the bank should hesitate before giving a loan to peninsula because the changes in firm's bonds payable and unrealized holding gain or loss"income accounts suggest that peninsula has seen a decline in its credit rating over the past year. d : the bank should put little emphasis on the changes in peninsula's bonds payable and unrealized holding gain or loss"income accounts because these changes are likely unrelated to either interest rates or the firm's credit rating.

wilson's has 10,000 shares of common stock outstanding at a market price of $35 a share. the firm also has a bond issue outstanding with a total face value of $250,000 which is selling for 102 percent of face value. the cost of equity is 11 percent while the preminustax cost of debt is 8 percent. the firm has a beta of 1.1 and a tax rate of 34 percent. what is wilson's weighted average cost of capital?

On june 1, 2017, blossom company was started with an initial investment in the company of $22,360 cash. here are the assets, liabilities, and common stock of the company at june 30, 2017, and the revenues and expenses for the month of june, its first month of operations: cash $4,960 notes payable $12,720 accounts receivable 4,340 accounts payable 840 service revenue 7,860 supplies expense 1,100 supplies 2,300 maintenance and repairs expense 700 advertising expense 400 utilities expense 200 equipment 26,360 salaries and wages expense 1,760 common stock 22,360 in june, the company issued no additional stock but paid dividends of $1,660. prepare an income statement for the month of june.