A portable concrete test instrument used in construction for evaluating and profiling concrete surfaces (MACRS-GDS 5-year property class) is under consideration by a construction firm for $24,000. The instrument will be used for 6 years and be worth $2,000 at that time. The annual cost of use and maintenance will be $6,000. Alternatively, a more automated instrument (same property class) available from the manufacturer costs $25,500, with use and maintenance costs of only $9,500 and salvage value after 6 years of $4,000. The marginal tax rate is 25%, and MARR is an after-tax 12%. Required:
Determine which alternative is less costly, based upon comparison of after-tax annual worth.

Suppose that the u.s. dollars-mexican pesos exchange rate is fixed by the u.s. and mexican governments. assume also that labor is mobile between the united states and mexico due to low transportation costs.which of the following situations is likely to happen as a result of a simultaneous increase in the demand for u.s. goods and decrease in the demand for mexican goods? (pick mexican unemployment rate increases, and the country undergoes bad economic times for a sustained u.s. unemployment rate increases, and the country undergoes bad economic times for a sustained mexican unemployment rate rises at first, but it soon drops as unemployed mexicans move to the united states for mexican unemployment rate rises at first, but then it drops as mexican pesos depreciate against u.s. dollars.