...How Would You Change Government Arts Funding? The arts are a vital to our society, it helps us understand the past and future, and constantly provides us with a reminder of what we can offer to this world. In an address about the arts for students and the spouses of international leaders, our first lady Michelle Obama stated, “It is through our music, our literature, our art, drama and dance that we tell the story of our past and we express our hopes for the future. Our artists challenge our assumptions in ways that many cannot and do not. They expand our understandings, and push us to view our world in new and very unexpected ways. It's through this constant exchange -- this process of taking and giving, this process of borrowing and creating -- that we learn from each other and we inspire each other.” (Boehm, "Michelle Obama Tells International Audience Why the Arts Matter") It’s easy to see why keeping the arts alive should be a priority of our generation. We must find ways to support creativity, innovation, and artistic talent in any way that we can. The arts in America depends on a mixture of both public and private funding to stay alive. Since 1965, the US federal government has provided funding to the arts through an independent agency called the National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA. The goals of the agency include “the creation of art meeting the highest standards of excellence, engaging the public with diverse and excellent art, and promoting public knowledge...
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...You Decide - Project Paper You Decide - Project Paper Raymond Burke is an economic consultant who believes that the nation’s interest rate should be lowered in order to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, I must disagree with Burke. With a presence of the overabundance of cheap houses and a lack of demand will not enable the nation to recover with better interest rates. The majority of people that are capable of working but are not working are at a serious incline. The average person does not attempt to borrow money that can’t be re-paid. With the unemployment rate projected to increase, I don’t see a line of people ready to borrow money when people are without income to pay it back. My recommendation is to leave the interest rate alone, don’t increase it or decrease it. Kathy Lee’s view on the budget deficit has an emphasis on the government implementing budget cuts instead of raising taxes. The budget deficit is a serious concern; this is why I must agree with Kathy’s view. My recommendation is to agree with Kathy’s view. The reason is that people have already cut back on their spending. The awful result of higher taxes makes an already slow economy turn into a halt. Patricia Lopez is a Federal Reserve consultant makes two excellent points: to leave interest rates alone and furthermore, increasing money supply through voluntary investments (by the sale of bonds), always goes over much better that feeling increased taxes...
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...market economy. I will discuss the rationale for the intervention of government in the market process within the United States. How will the industry faces some threats and how they decide to handle it. I will discuss why mergers face threats and describe the additional complexities that would arise under different circumstances. I will analyze how different forces will come together to create a convergence between interest of stockholders and managers. Also explain the difference between shareholders and managers as principals and agent and last but not least; how do we create increased value for shareholders. In conclusion of this report I will decide on whether or not I would merge my company or not. If I decide to merge I will name the company and the reasons why. Explain why government regulation is needed, citing the major reasons for government involvement in a market economy There was no intention for the government to have a hand in business. The government wanted businesses to act on their own best interests without any involvement from the government. The basic role of government in business would be just to referee only. The following roles of government are: protecting business property and enforcing business contracts, setting and collecting taxes. The government would provide fire, police and military protection under protecting business property. The government would issue trademarks to businesses to protect their products,...
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...You Decide Template Name Victoria Berahmandpour Date 01/23/13 Scenario Summary: Karen works as a consultant at local utility. She was started five years ago for a project. Her job was to develop training materials for an upcoming session on diversity. Her manager, Cynthia, was happy with her work and asks for more projects. Karen was based on salary of $10,000 per month. She has received a 1099 for her wages for last five years. Because she was contractor, she didn’t receive any benefits. After Karen’s husband passed away, she did request for benefits, which was refused because she had contract with the utility. However, she was doing work like other regular employees in human resource department. Karen has had other limited clients over the years. She had one client for an approximately 40-hour project two years ago, and she currently has another client that keeps her on a retainer basis. Your Role/Assignment: Your role is to decide if Karen is an independent contractor or an employee and discuss some of the preventative and ethical situations that are occurring in this case. Questions: 1. Do you feel that Karen is an independent contractor or an employee? What is your rationale for this decision? I think that Karen should be considered an employee of the company. She has been working for the Utility Company for five years and she has been received salary. She was started as a contractor to develop training material for upcoming session...
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...★ Chapter Two ★ Site Location 101: How Companies Decide Where to Expand or Relocate [As a businessman] I never made an investment decision based on the Tax Code . . . [I]f you are giving money away I will take it. If you want to give me inducements for something I am going to do anyway, I will take it. But good business people do not do things because of inducements, they do it because they can see that they are going to be able to earn the cost of capital out of their own intelligence and organization of resources. — Paul O’Neill, former CEO of Alcoa and President George W. Bush’s first Secretary of the Treasury 1 How companies decide where to expand or relocate is not rocket science. Their decision-making process is driven by business basics; subsidies rarely make a difference. The trouble is, the way the system is rigged, companies are getting huge subsidies to go where they would go anyway. Here’s a typical search process. A company of substantial size will usually hire a site location consultant to perform the research on new locations. If the company doesn’t use a consultant, it will assign lead duties to one of its divisions, usually real estate or finance. In either case, a management team will coordinate with the consultant or internal lead, providing input about what the company needs, from operations, sales, and other departments. The company—let’s call it Acme Widget—says to the consultant: to make widgets, we need a location that has plenty of workers who ...
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...in year two, at what price do you value the project? From the venture capitalist perspective, I would use the same valuation as the financial consulting firm of $530,539 at a 70% discount rate. Because this investment is just starting out, it is in the “seed and startup” stage of development, which requires between a 50% and 100% required rate of return in order to account for the vast amount of unknown risk as well as the expertise that the investors will be able to provide for the project. As the developer, Krause is certainly very optimistic about his investment; the higher rate of return I would expect accounts for all of the unknowns regarding the bias of cash flow presented by Krause. 2. How does the option to sell in year two change your analysis? Can you estimate what percentage of the time he will exercise this option? The option to sell in year two lowers the risk of the investment because we will be able to see how successful the project is within the first year, and we might be able to recover some loss if the project is not as successful as initially anticipated. However, I still feel that it would fall within the recommended range of the initial stages of development, but on the lower range of required rate of returns (50%). Using a discount rate of 50%, the project would now be valued at $1,331,678. With this discount rate, the project is only 27% likely to be worth more than Krause’s initial investment after taxes ($1 Million). This suggests that...
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...Mark Miller Dr. Martin Lecker PDA 110 6 December 2010 Green Buffalo When I would hear that Native American Indians didn’t pay taxes on their casinos, I would say, this is unfair, was it out of jealousy, envy, or ignorance, I think it was the latter. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember ever meeting a Native American Indian, nor have I been on a reservation. What I did know about their culture, I learned from television, until this essay. I intend to argue that the American Indians have persevered in the white man’s broken promises, degradation, and dismal outlook on life, until the arrival of casinos. It is estimated that there were 1500 to 100 million Native Americans living in the United States, before the white man came. By the 1900’s the native population was down to 250,000, pursuant to germ, military, and genocidal warfare. Through the mid 1800s, the U.S. military had one mission, the annihilation of the Native American Indian (Schaap). The white man started trading with Native Americans shortly after setting foot on North America. These exchanges were arranged under treaties. Those are agreements between two or more self-governing nations. Following the American Revolution, the government used treaties to acquire land from the Native Americans. The treaties were constructed in a way, to take advantage of the Indians. Under the pretense that the tribes were weaker in negotiations, and that they were signing documents written in unfamiliar words, often...
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...can be subject to. An owner is personally liable for the debts and or actions of the business. • Income Taxes – Because there is no distinction there is no separation of taxes between person and business. The owner is solely responsible for reporting all business income or loss on his / her personal tax return. • Longevity / Continuity – When the business owner (sole-proprietor) becomes deceased the business is stopped. There is no continuity of the business as there was only one owner. • Control – The sole proprietor is the only person in control of the business. This person is fully in control and does not have to answer to anyone. • Profit Retention – Since sole-proprietors are the sole owner of the business they keep 100% of profits. This lets the owner use the money how they see fit. • Location – A sole proprietor can choose to do business anywhere. This also gives them the option to do business in multiple locations. In my state, Florida, there are no forms required to operate a sole proprietorship however, this may not apply when choosing somewhere other than Florida to operate. • Convenience / Burden – The conveniences are there are no annual reports to file and no fees that you have to pay to the state. However, depending on the type of business, as a sole proprietor, you may still need business licenses and permits. Also as a sole proprietor, unless you file a doing business as license the company name would be the personal name of the owner. General Partnership:...
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...What is a federal form of government? What image do you have of when you think of federalism? \Do you think of the federal level of government? State government? Local governments? All three? Layer Cake, Marble Cake....21st Century View: Intergovernmental Relations Do democratic governments need to be organized as federal systems? Great Britain has a Unitary form of government How does this differ from the U.S.? Powerful central government with federal or central government mandates (laws) that are implemented (put into place) throughout the whole country= Unitary govt. Examples: National Health Policy throughout the whole country so that you can go from city to city in Great Britain and use your health card at any hospital. (Portability of health insurance in U.S.: can get care anywhere in our country) Current American example of an issue that is being discussed as a national issue: elections Should we have Congress pass federal rules for identification, times polls are open, voting ahead of time, etc.? Do you personally tend to look to the federal government to solve problems in the U.S. ? (synonyms for federal govt.: national govt. and central govt) OR Do you tend to focus on your state government or on your city or county (local) government? We do not have good political theories of when federal minimum national standards are appropriate...
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...the following: A. Which projects to fund. B. How to minimize taxation. C. What type of capital should be raised. D. All of these. E. Only A and C above. 2. When determining a form of business organization, all of the following are considered EXCEPT: A. Who owns the firm. B. What are the owners' risks. C. What are the tax ramifications. D. The physical location of the business. E. None of the above. 3. The practice generally known as double taxation is due to A. shareholders' dividends being taxed at both the federal and state levels. B. corporate income being taxed at both the federal and state levels. C. both A and B above. D. corporate incomes being taxed at the corporate level, then again at the shareholder level when corporate profits are paid out as dividends. E. None of the above 4. For corporations, maximizing the value of owner's equity can also be stated as A. maximizing retained earnings. B. maximizing earnings per share. C. maximizing net income. D. maximizing revenue E. maximizing the stock price. 5. If a company reports a large amount of net income on its income statement during a year, the firm will have A. positive cash flow. B. negative cash flow. C. zero cash flow. D. any of these scenarios are possible. 6. Income Statement Barnyard, Inc.'s 2008 income statement lists the following income and expenses: EBIT = $500,000, Interest expense = $50,000, and Net income = $315,000. What is the 2008 Taxes reported on the income statement...
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...role. In the event of a death, or a decision to leave the business, you should make sure that at the forming of the business, that everything is in order for all parties involved and the smooth continuation of said business. Running a business can be an exciting endeavor, but I would recommend to anyone before they start, to have everything legally in order for all the different kinds of situations you can find yourself in. Sole Proprietorship- The simplest form of business, a sole proprietorship is the most common form of business in our country. Be it because it can be managed by a single person; or perhaps it’s the lack of agreements and formalities needed for the business to run, sole proprietorships are able to operate on a small scale and responsibilities fall on only one person. In a sole proprietorship, only one person is needed for the capital and credit to start the business, and possibly that’s why we American Dreamers have turned it into the most common form of business used in this great country. What distinguishes this form from the rest, is the unshared responsibility of the owner. Characteristics of a sole proprietorship, to be considered by the owner: Liability, The owner of a sole proprietorship has unlimited personal liability, however the sole proprietor can insure against most risks and operate with near the same level of comfort as the owners of a corporation. Income Taxes, a sole proprietorship has as pass- through taxation, meaning the...
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...personnel. This paper will also compare the laws relating to the use of force by police, corrections, and private security. And the paper will conclude with individual privacy rights and laws relating to policy, practices, and procedures. The United States is a country that is a representative democracy. In other words, the laws reflect the will of the people and the government officials reflect and enforce the laws and rules according to federal, state and local guidelines. (scholastic.com) This also means that we elect our officials and they are sworn to uphold the laws and duties of their respective offices. The citizens of this country pay taxes in order for the government to function and to provide services to help public safety and protecting life and property against those who wish to take them away. There are many types of government officials, from local mayors to state governors and all the way to those who work for the federal government. Each type is given powers in which they perform their duties. Federal government officials are sworn to uphold the United States Constitution. But what exactly does the government and their officials represent? According to the Constitution...
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...the three branches of government describe the constitutional amendment process interpret the intentions of the Preamble of the Constitution. STEP BY STEP 1) ANTICIPATE by asking students where the government gets it’s instructions. How does Congress, the President, or federal judges know what to do? Give students a moment to think, then randomly call on students to share their thoughts. 2) DISTRIBUTE one reading packet to each student. 3) READ through the first two paragraphs on page one with the class. 4) DISPLAY the transparency, Breaking it Down: The Preamble and explain the statement, phrase by phrase. The students should add the annotations to their reading. Also note that people living in the 1700s had different rules about capitalization than we do today. 5) READ the rest of page one, continuing through page three with the class. Explain that you will go into greater detail on the amendment process on the next page. 6) READ the information about the amendment process on page four and take the students through the various paths to the addition of an amendment to the Constitution. 7) DISTRIBUTE the tent foldable activity page and show the class how to fold it correctly. 8) PROJECT the Whose Job Is It ? Active Review Transparency, revealing one at a time. 9) ASK students to show the correct branch on their tent and note the correct answer on the...
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...achieve the desired objective at minimal tax cost. It generally involves extensive tax research. 2. Tax vs. Nontax Factors For each of the following independent situations, identify whether the item would be primarily a tax or a nontax factor in performing tax planning. a. The taxpayer lost a quarter of her net worth when the dot-com bubble burst and does not want to own any investments with risk such as stock. b. The taxpayer hates to pay any federal income taxes and would rather pay an equal amount of money to an accountant or attorney than pay taxes to the federal government. c. The taxpayer has a large capital loss carryforward from last year. Solution: a. This is primarily a nontax factor situation. The taxpayer has specified that he or she is risk averse, a personal choice, due to having experienced prior losses. b. The taxpayer’s dislike of paying taxes is really a nontax factor; this dislike, however, leads him to seek income tax advice to reduce taxes and he is willing to pay significant amounts of money to find ways to avoid taxes. Thus, this really has significant elements of both. c. This situation involves tax factors in tax planning. There are numerous ways in which a taxpayer can arrange transactions to take advantage of loss carryovers before they lose significant value due to the time value of these losses. 3. Marginal Tax Rates Beta...
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...Final Project: New House Decision ECO/212 February 20, 2010 The arrival of a new baby is a major lifestyle change. The decision to buy a house takes into account pros and cons of making a major purchase. A studio apartment is a difficult living arrangement with a new baby, because it is small and without a separate space for a baby. The studio apartment is not in proximity to schools or services, which are needed for childcare. A house offers space for baby, a yard, schools, and services. The pros of home ownership offer many benefits not available with a rental property. Trade-offs The studio apartment although close to downtown night life, is not close to schools, churches, or shopping centers. This location worked well for the past few years, because children were not part of the equation. Some trade-offs are required before making a housing purchase. Proximity to night life is enjoyable; however, caring for a new baby will limit a carefree lifestyle. Purchasing a home will require a down-payment and closing costs. In addition to a monthly mortgage payment, utilities, homeowner dues, repairs, maintenance, lawn care, insurance, and taxes are costs of ownership. When renting the renter does not have homeowner dues, lawn car, property taxes, and most repairs and maintenance costs. Homeowners unlike renters can make home modifications, without ramifications. Equity in a home increases the homeowner’s personal wealth. Homeownership also signifies stability. A renter...
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