What are some of the pitfalls of a company basing a managers or CEOs compensation on the companys earnings?

This week the course designers gave us a whole bunch of questions to answer. This week, fortunately,
they did give us links to websites that might help us answer the question.

For Question
1, pay particular attention to the first website at http://www.ur.umich.edu/0304/Jan19_04/10.shtml,
(you might have to use the Open in New Window command) which contains
an article title CEO Pay, Earnings Manipulations Linked. The article
discusses how CEOs whose pay is based in part on the earnings (net
income) of the companies run will sometimes use
questionable accounting techniques to distort earnings, making net
income look higher than it really is to get more pay.

GAAP
allows us to use one of three inventory cost-flow assumptions for a
merchandising company
like JCPenny: FIFO, LIFO or weighted average. GAAP requires us to
choose one cost-flow assumption and stick with it for a while. GAAP
doesnt have a hard and fast rule about how often you can change
cost-flow assumptions, but you certainly cant change it
every year or even every couple of years. You need a good reason to
change, and then you need to stick with it for years.

Which
cost-flow assumption is best for a merchandising company depends on
whether the economy
has rising prices (inflation) or falling prices (deflation). LIFO puts
the latest inventory costs on the income statement as Cost of Goods
Sold (COGS) and keeps the oldest inventory costs on the balance sheet. Putting
the newest inventory costs on the income statement as COGS gives us the
lowest net income and lowest income tax during times of inflation. Over
the about the past three-quarters of a century, the US economy has had inflation for all but three years (1949,
1955 and 2009). So
the best inventory cost-flow assumption for three-quarters of a century has been LIFO.

Switching
to FIFO after years or decades of LIFO would put very, very old
inventory costs on
the income statement, shrinking COGS and artificially inflating net
income. Artificially inflating net income will not only mislead
investors, but also artificially inflate the companys income tax. A
company switching from LIFO to FIFO, and its investors, would be worse
off by the inflated income tax bill, while the CEO would be better off
with higher compensation. Does
that sound ethical? 🙂

To make sure youve answered each question and that I can quickly see that youve answered
each question, please label (number
and letter) your answers as follows. I recommend that you just
copy the questions and paste them into your answer and use them to make sure youve answered each little piece of this
weeks discussion question:

1a. Is
Jason’s decision to select FIFO appropriate? Is it ethical?

1b. Is
Jason wrong if this will help the company and also benefit him too?

2.
What are some of the pitfalls of a company basing a managers or CEOs compensation on the companys earnings?

3.
Inventory Turnover Ratio = COGS/AVERAGE Inventory.

COGS refers to Cost of Goods Sold.

Average Inventory
= (Beginning Inventory + Ending Inventory)/2.

Remember that last year’s ending inventory = this year’s beginning inventory.

For JCPenny you can find COGS on page 26 of the 2018
(Year Ended February 2, 2019) 10K.
You can find beginning inventory and ending (merchandise) inventory on page 61.

For Macy’s, you can find COGS (Cost of Sales) on page 17 (page
53 of the pdf) of the 2018-2019 Annual Report. You can find beginning inventory and ending inventory (merchandise inventories)
on page F-7
(page 55 of the pdf).

Hint for Question 3 and Question 4:
The number one error that students make on the inventory turnover ratio and the number of days in inventory is that they use ending inventory rather than average inventory.

3a. Determine
the inventory turnover ratio for JCPenney.

3b. Determine
the inventory turnover ratio for Macys.

3.c. What
does this ratio tell you about these companies?

4. Number
of Days in Inventory = Average Inventory/Average
Daily Cost of Goods Sold.

Average Daily Cost of Goods Sold = COGS/365.

4a. Calculate
the number of days in inventory for JCPenney.

4b. Calculate
the number of days in inventory for Macys.

4c. What
does this ratio tell you about these companies?

On Question 3, don’t confuse the inventory turnover ratio with the apple turnover ratio–the
inventory turnover ratio doesn’t have hot fruit filling!

Analyze the Space Race.

Analyze the Space Race.
What did it mean for the US and USSR during the Cold War?
Is the space race still relevant?
Is it worth the cost, considering the growing debt?
How does the space program benefit the US national economy in general?
how does it benefit the world?
Is space exploration the domain of the worlds leading nations?

Explain how Achebe’s life and Ibo culture shaped the story, the book’s point of view, and its style?

This assignment asks you to research the life and work of Chinua Achebe, a major figure in
African literature, and write a formal paper that relates his life and that of his people, the Ibo, to
his most famous novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), written at the very end of the British colonial
period.

1. Explain how Achebe’s life and Ibo culture shaped the story, the book’s point of view, and
its style?
2. What is the book’s historical significance?

Your answer to these questions or the answers to the question you pose about your own topic
will be your paper’s thesis, which you should state in one or two sentences within the first
paragraph of your paper. You will need to investigate and document British imperialism and its
effects in West Africa, especially in Nigeria, from ca. 1890 to 1960. You will also need to
research and document Ibo culture, the educational and cultural system established by the
British, Chinua Achebe’s life and his reactions to British educational and cultural norms. Finally,
you will need to examine how the novel presents Achebe’s (and the Ibo’s) responses to British
imperialism.

Your essay must be the result of independent research on your part. You may consult course
materials for initial ideas but you may not cite any materials used in this course (that is, the
textbook and websites) as direct sources for the ideas and information in your paper. All of the
sources you use and cite must be the result of library research and Internet research on your part.
Cliff Notes and other such study guide pamphlets do not count as serious historical sources, nor
do textbooks.

Here is a hint to get you started: In an interview in the 1994-95 issue of The Paris Review,
Achebe stated that he became a writer so he could tell his story and the story of his people from
an indigenous viewpoint. He explained the problem of having one’s story told only by others by
citing the following proverb: “until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt
will always glorify the hunter.”

Your paper must use at least four (4) separate sources on Chinua Achebe and/or Things Fall
Apart. Of these sources, at least two (2) must be journal articles from the NU Librarys ejournals collections. You can use websites or encyclopedia articles on Achebe and/or Things
Fall Apart as sources for your paper but you may use no more than two altogether (i.e., two
websites or two encyclopedia articles or one website and one encyclopedia article).

here are 3 cititions i would like used
Things Fall Apart [Paperback] [1994] (Author) Chinua Achebe. (1994). Anchor.

Ojaide, T. (2013). Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) [2]. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 50(2), 150151. https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v50i2.10

Gagiano, A. (2014). Illuminating Africa: Commemorating and Reassessing the Work of Chinua Achebe (1930-2013): Legacy: Chinua Achebe. Development and Change, 45(5), 10741092. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12108

Explain the interest groups mission statement or policy of purpose.

Interest Groups and Public Policy
Discussion Overview
Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break
clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
–John Muir
Interest
groups are non-profit, voluntary organizations that seek to affect
public policy. Although there are a number of ways to classify interest
groups, for the sake of simplicity we shall use this model:
Business/Labor/Professional
Interest Groups: organizations that want to affect financial, public
policy that benefits their members.
Examples:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Medical Association, and American
Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
Ideological Interest Groups: organizations that advocate public policy based on a set of beliefs.
Example: American Civil Liberties Union
Public Interest Groups: organizations that want to affect public policy that benefits not just the members but also society.
Example: Sierra Club
Single Issue Interest Groups: organizations that advocates one public policy concern.
Examples: Human Rights Campaign
Many
if not most prominent interest groups form political action committees
(PACs). PACs are interest groups that raise funds in order to contribute
money on a political candidate and/or office holder. PACs are limited
on how much money they can contribute. As of the 2019-2020 election
cycle PACs can give each candidate and/or office holder $5000 (CRP,
2019.)
More information about PACs can be found the Center
for Responsible Politicss website.
An
example of an interest group is Boeing Corporation. Boeing Corporation
is a business interest group. According to the Center for Responsible
Politics,
Boeing regularly lobbies Congress to win military contracts and
increase defense spending. Boeing is a major supporter of free trade,
especially in Asia, where it has focused on selling more planes. The
company also lobbies on environmental rules and transportation
regulations, among other issues. Boeing is also a large recipient of
government loan-guarantees, primarily coming from the Export-Import Bank
of the United States. (CRP, 2019) During the 2017-2018 election cycle
the Boeing interest group contributed $3,189,452
to candidates or office holders. This Center for Responsible
Politicss website lists all the candidates and/or office holders that received contributions from the Boeing interest group. In addition, this Center
for Responsible Politicss website lists all of the congressional bills the Boeing interest group advocated a public policy interest.
Directions:
Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic
research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion
Board Rubric:
Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
Economic policy
An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
Education policy
An example of education policy are the implementation of charter schools.
Environmental policy
An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
Foreign policy
An example of foreign policy is the interplay between civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
Healthcare policy
An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Welfare policy
An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Select an interest group that advocates public policy change within your example.
Explain the interest groups mission statement or policy of purpose.
Explain the funding of the interest group.
Evaluate the interest groups public policy engagement.
Provide an example of how this interest group affected public policy?
Would you join and actively participate within this organization? Why or why not?
References:
Boundless. (n.d.). Boundless Political Science. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-politicalscience/chapter/types-of-interest-groups/
Data on Campaign Finance, Super PACs, Industries, and Lobbying. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.opensecrets.org/

What makes Amazon the Best place to work and why?

Choose one company (other than Google, Facebook, or Verizon) that you
believe would be an ideal company to work for based on working
conditions, salary, opportunity for advancement, and work involved. Use Basic Search: Strayer University Online Library for your research.
Write a 46 page paper in which you:
Evaluate the fundamental driving forces that shape the
organizational environment of the selected company. Be sure to address
competing in a global marketplace, workforce diversity, ethics and
morality, and technological innovation.
Explain and examine the organizations specific practices or policies and the influence of these practices on individual and organizational outcomes.
Determine which practices related to work attitudes in U.S.
organizations are most strongly affected by diversity and how those
effects could be addressed.
Use at least three quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other websites do not quality as academic resources.

Discuss how the Bible addresses good/bad concepts of marketing, Your thoughts on Social Media Marketing just to name a few examples.

Good evening looking forward to working with you. Please read the instructions. ONLY bid if you are familiar with the topic in question. the instructions are below.
To clarify, chose any 3 marketing concepts, that you feel are most important. Please be thoughtful and concise (no more than a paragraph per concept).
This could be about trends on how place/delivery/pickup is more popular now, Discuss pricing concepts you like don’t like; Discuss how the Bible addresses good/bad concepts of marketing, Your thoughts on Social Media Marketing just to name a few examples.
Directions: Discuss any three concepts that you consider most pertinent either in view of their relevance to your desired career/position of choice or because you deem these critical to a marketers success. Does the Holy Bible shed any light on these selected concepts? Discuss.
Reflection of my Journey
Assignment
Directions: Discuss any three concepts that you consider most pertinent either in view of their relevance to your desired career/position of choice or because you deem these critical to a marketers success. Does the Holy Bible shed any light on these selected concepts? Discuss.
Use 1.5 spacing, 11 font size Calibri. All else should be according to APA format.
Length of paper should be between 1 to 1.5 pages.

Discuss how you believe that RAM analysis will be integral in investigations and why.

The digital device is not the only place digital data can be stored as cloud-based solutions are taking over traditional data storage devices. Discuss how you believe that RAM analysis will be integral in investigations and why. Also discuss two things that you believe will be important for the investigator to consider and why and two things that you believe that they will not need to consider and why.