ECON 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Cash Flow, Procyclical And Countercyclical, Opportunity Cost

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rosebuffalo981

19 Oct 2020

School

Irvine Valley College

Department

Economics

Course

ECON 20

Professor

mitton

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Document Summary

The availability of finance: cash flow and credit crunches. The cost of capital in the previous topic is analogous to the price of investment. This includes the interest rate for loans, the opportunity cost of investing internal funds, and various tax rates. We will now look at availability of investment funds. If a firm uses its own internal funds to finance investment, then the availability of funds is related to cash flow. Cash flow is the difference between a firm"s revenue and its cash expenses. This is money the firm can use without convincing a bank or other "outsider" to make it a loan. Cash flow is very closely related to profits, and variations in profits cause variations in cash flow. When a firm computes profits it deducts certain "non-cash" expenses (the most important of these is depreciation). Thus, the firm really has somewhat more money to use for investment than what its profits alone would suggest.

Related Questions

1-Principal __________________ fall into three categories: depository institutions (banks), contractual savings institutions, and investment intermediaries.

Financial markets security exchanges financial intermediariesâ investment funds

Savings institutions

bitcoin/annuity payments securities/investment advice

2-Deposits that are payable on demand but do not allow their owner to write checks are called _______________.

Restricted deposits savings deposits time sensitive deposits non-checkable deposits demand deposits

3-Deposit with fixed terms to maturity are called ___________.

Relative deposits term deposits fixed deposits restricted deposits time deposits

4-Commercial banks ___________ primarily by issuing checking deposits, savings accounts, and time deposits.

Increase profits decrease cost attract investors raise funds increase assets

5-A type of depository institution that over time has become more like commercial banks and are now more competitive with each other are called ______________ associations and mutual savings banks.

savings and loan contractual savings institutions, investment intermediaries

crowd funding sites deposit and loan

6-Credit unions are typically very small cooperative lending institutions organized around a particular _____________________: members of the same union, employees of a particular firm, and members of the same profession, such as teachers.

Type of investment corporation financial strategy risk avoidance strategy

group that have something in common

7-Insurance companies and pension funds are examples of ________________ institutions.

contractual savings depository institutions (banks), investment intermediaries entrepreneurial at risk

8-Contractual savings institutions (CSIâs) acquire funds at _______________ on a contractual basis.

Estate sales periodic intervals bankruptcy auctions liquidations initial offerings

9-CSIâs do not worry as much as banks about losing funds quickly because they can predict with reasonable accuracy how much they will have to pay out in ___________ in coming years.

Interest payments dividends bank notes benefits IOUâs

10-_______________ is not as important a consideration for CSIâs as it is for banks.

Types of customers adverse selection Liquidity of assets portfolio diversification liabilities

11-CSI investments are typically ____________ such as corporate bonds, stocks, and mortgages.

Short-term securities long-term securities 3-month term securities overnight securities short-term assets

12-Companies that insure people against financial hazards following a death and sell annuities are called ________________________.

Predatory companies over-the-counter companies risky companies life insurance companies depository companies

13-_________________ that people pay to keep their policies in force constitute the funds life insurance companies use to buy corporate bonds and mortgages.

Interest dividends installments late fees Premiums

14-Companies that ___________ their policyholders against loss from theft, fire, and accidents are called fire and casualty insurance companies.

Insure Hold harmless guarantee advise oversee

15-Fire and casualty insurance companies acquire funds through the _________________ for their policies.

Sale of stock liquidation of collection of premiums interest payments dividends

16-Because of the greater possibility of loss of funds if major disasters occur, fire and casualty companies buy more ________________ than life insurance companies do.

Comprehensive insurance liquid assets risky assets corporate insurance bankruptcy insurance

17-Private pension funds and state and local retirement funds provide _______________ in the form of annuities to employees who are covered by a pension plan.

Dividends revenue stock options retirement income loans

18-Pension funds acquire funds from _____________ from employers and employees.

Fees pledges contributions garnishments payroll deductions

19-The largest ______________ of pension funds are corporate bonds and stocks.

Liability holdings asset holdings interest payments dividend payments fees

20-_________________________ include; finance companies, mutual funds and money market mutual funds.

depository institutions (banks), contractual savings institutions, stock markets

bond markets Investment intermediaries

21-Finance companies raise funds by ___________ commercial paper and by ____________ stocks and bonds.

Issuing/selling selling/buying selling/ issuing buying/issuing discounting/shorting

22-Finance companies lend these funds to __________, who make purchases of such items as furniture, automobiles, and home improvements, and to small businesses.

-depository institutions (banks), consumers contractual savings institutions,

investment intermediaries corporations

23-It is common for a finance company to be organized by a parent corporation to help _______________, such as; ford motor credit company.

Diversify its portfolio acquire assets liquidate liabilities sell its product off set profits

24-Selling shares to many individuals and using the proceeds to purchase diversified portfolios of stocks and bonds describes how _______________ acquire funds.

depository institutions (banks), mutual funds contractual savings institutions

stock markets bond markets

25-Shareholders can sell shares at any time but shares are subject to value fluctuations therefore mutual fund investments can be _______.

risky Subject to high returns certain investments interest rate neutral misunderstood

26-Money market funds sell _______ like mutual funds and offer checking accounts like ___________.

Deposits/insurance companies bonds/banks shares/insurance companies

Shares/ banks stock options/crowd sourcing sites

27-Money market funds invest in ________ and very ____________ and interest on these assets is paid out to the shareholders.

High risk/non-liquid junk bonds/risky assets low risk/ liquid assets low risk/junk bonds sub-prime securities/liquid assets

28-Money market funds have experienced extraordinary growth primarily because people like the idea of having a checking account that ____________________.

Has no fees pays them interest offers overdraft protection pays dividends

always has money in it

29-Investment banks help a ______________ issue securities.

Person foreign country stock market corporation bond market

30-Investment banks advises the corporation on which type of ______________ to issue; stocks or bonds.

Insurance loans interest rates dividends products securities

31-Investment banks help sell the corporations securities by purchasing them from the corporation and _______ them in the market.

Discounting re-selling insuring advertising financing

32-Investment banks also act as ___________ and earn enormous fees by helping corporations acquire other companies through mergers or acquisitions.

Depositories money launders deal makers insurance companies entrepreneurs

The Gibson Company is a United States (US) firm that is considering a joint venture with Brasilia, DF, a Brazilian firm that grows and processes coffee beans. Gibson has a patent for a new coffee processing method. This intellectual property is motivating Gibson to expand beyond importing coffee to engaging in a joint venture to process the coffee. Gibson will invest $8 million in the proposed joint venture project, which will help to finance Brasilia 's production using the newly patented process.

The Brazilian government has guaranteed that the after-tax profits (denominated in Reals, the Brazilian currency) can be converted to US dollars at the current exchange rate and sent to the Gibson Company each year. Current exchange rates can be found at http://www.oanda.com.

For each of the first five years, 60 percent of the total profits will be distributed to Brasilia, while the remaining 40 percent will be converted to dollars to be sent to Gibson. The income tax rate for the joint venture will be 10%. However, the Brazilian government is considering raising the income tax rate to 30%. At the present time, the Brazilian government doe not impose a separate income tax on profits sent out of the country. However, the Brazilian government is considering imposing an additional 10 percent income tax on profits distributed to a foreign company. Assume that there are no other forms of tax. After considering the taxes paid in Brazil, assume an additional seven percent tax imposed by the US government on profits received by Gibson Company.

The expected total profits resulting from the joint venture per year are as follows:

Year	Total Profits from Joint Venture (in BRL)
1	40 million
2	60 million
3	70 million
4	90 million
5	120 million

Gibson's average cost of debt is 6 percent before taxes. Its average cost of equity is 9 percent. Assume that Gibsonï¿½s US income tax rate is 10 percent. Gibsonï¿½s capital structure is 70 percent debt and 30 percent equity. Gibson adds between 2 and 5 percentage points to its cost of capital when deriving its required rate of return on international joint ventures. Gibson plans to account for country and other risks within its cash flow estimates.

Gibson is concerned about country risk in the following two forms:

(1) Will the Brazilian government increase the corporate income tax rate from 10 percent to 30 percent (20 percent probability)? If this occurs, Gibson will receive additional tax credits on its US taxes, resulting in no US taxes on the profits from this joint venture.

(2) Will the Brazilian government impose a separate income tax of 10 percent on the profits distributed to foreign companies such as Gibson (20 percent probability)? If this occurs, Gibson will not receive additional tax credits, and the company will still be subject to US tax on the profits from this joint venture.

Assume that the two types of country risk are mutually exclusive. If it does anything, the Brazilian government will only implement one of these changes in its tax policies (i.e., the increase in the basic income tax on the profits of the joint venture or the additional income tax on profits distributed to foreign companies). The Brazilian government may also choose to leave things as they are.

Assignment

5. Under what circumstances might Gibson shift to more equity financing when considering joint ventures like this? What is the minimum required return that would still make this investment worthwhile?

Let's change it up a little. You may have to dig a little for this one. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are two banking giants that have been in news because of their role in the 2008 financial crisis. Due to this many in the government believe that the two companies should be put out of business. On the other hand, there are many who believe the companies should remain as they are. See The Case For Keeping Fannie and Freddie Alive. The argument both ways is in a sales pitch for the two contrary opinions. how would you convince someone either way on the issue of Fannie and Freddie? A reference is required to support your post

On just one major piece of economic policy, President Obama and House Republicans share the same basic opinion: kill off government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This rare bit of consensus might also prove to be a devastating mistake.

Fannie and Freddie which guarantee mortgages were placed under federal conservatorship in 2008 as the housing bust reached its apex. The firms are roughly within $42 billion of repaying the $187.5 billion they received from taxpayers, but Obama and much of Congress plan to wind them down in the belief that another federal bailout will never again be necessary.

We can't leave taxpayers on the hook for irresponsibility or bad decisions by some of these lenders or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, Obama said in a speech this month. We've got to encourage the pursuit of profit, but the era of expecting a bailout after you pursue your profit and you don't manage your risk well, that puts the whole country at risk. And we're ending those days. We're not going to do that anymore.

But the political debate has been lopsided thus far focused on putting Fannie and Freddie into the grave, while largely ignoring what their demise could mean for homebuyers and the economy a sharp jump in interest rates, and a drop in the availability of mortgages.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has objected to plans to end both companies.

These are the government organizations that have made homeownership so easy, Reid recently told Nevada Public Radio. I don't agree with the president. He says he wants to get rid of them. I'm going to look closely at his recommendations because on their face, I don't like them.

Mostly, economists and investors are framing the issue in the same way as Reid.

It boils down to a tradeoff between shifting risk away from the government and taxpayers, versus keeping mortgages inexpensive and widely available, said Jed Kolko, the chief economist at the real estate firm Trulia. When push comes to shove, it's hard to do both.

Their executives received outlandish bonuses during the boom, only to foist the eventual losses caused by years of mismanagement onto the public. It rightfully enables sucker punches from Capitol Hill that voters approve of, even though the rescue kept the entire housing sector alive. Of the $1.75 trillion worth of mortgages originated last year, about 90 percent were made through the federal government.

This point matters because Fannie and Freddie ensure that the housing market does not seize up during a recession, said Ken Fears, an economist for the National Association of Realtors. Even if more private capital is needed in the mortgage industry, having the government participation creates liquidity that keeps the entire sector operating during tough economic times, Fears said.

Lawmakers tend to assume that the markets can transition over five or 10 years to a mortgage industry with a modest government backstop, or no taxpayer support at all. Before retiring at the end of May as a managing director for bond investor PIMCO, Scott Simon said that this amounted to a fantasy.

The private market can make mortgages, but they would trade at much higher yields and the down payments would be much higher because the private market cannot make competitive, fixed-rate mortgages with 20% or less of a down payment on the loans, Simon told National Mortgage News. Most of the people who think we should shut [the GSEs] down have a pure philosophical belief and they don't care what the outcome is. Or they simply don't understand anything about how housing finance works.

Fannie and Freddie help the economy with their guarantees, Simon reasoned but exposed taxpayers to their risks by having their own investment portfolios.

As of now, all profits from both companies go to the Treasury Department, per changes made last year to the terms of the conservatorship. In the original terms, Treasury received a 10 percent dividend from Fannie and Freddie. But Fannie and Freddie are now required to fork over all of their earnings forever to Treasury, a windfall that suddenly reduced the budget deficit.

A group of investors led by the hedge fund Perry Capital challenged this arrangement in a U.S. District Court lawsuit filed last month, claiming that they deserve a share of the proceeds after taxpayers have been repaid.

Because Fannie and Freddie are now generating cash, it would in theory be possible for the government to use these profits to create a capital cushion that prevents the need for a future taxpayer bailout.

By keeping the two companies under government control, taxpayers would benefit from the sale of about $200 billion worth of equity, investors in Fannie, Freddie, and other real estate assets explained in the background. The profits would be enough to create a capital cushion to insulate against a future downturn, without having to seek capital in the private market that could push mortgage interest rates higher.

But this requires Obama and GOP lawmakers to save Fannie and Freddie, precisely what they have vowed not to do. Obama wants a government insurance fund to replace them, while Republican congressmen favor an end to any Washington involvement with guarantees.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) would eliminate almost all federal involvement in the mortgage market. His policy assumes that the rusty tin standard of 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages would soon fade away, as more homebuyers would settle for variable-rate mortgages. Interest rates on a 30-year, fixed mortgage currently average 4.4 percent, a figure that could instead swing violently over time depending on inflation and the Federal Reserve. When the Fed attempted to tamp down inflation between 1980 and 1982, rates soared above 16 percent with the government backstop in place.

Obama would like to preserve the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. He has endorsed adopting a more limited government backstop as outlined in a bipartisan Senate bill co-sponsored by Tennessee Republican Bob Corker and Virginia Democrat Mark Warner.

The Corker-Warner bill would also unwind Fannie and Freddie, bringing their dominance to an end. In their place would be private financial institutions that would pay into a government insurance fund. Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics, estimated that the plan would cause mortgage rates to increase by as much as 1.25 percent in the near-term. This estimate assumes a 20 percent down payment and a credit score of 750, slightly above the current U.S. average.

But of course, lawmakers have not discussed the potential tradeoffs in the early stages of mortgage reform. Unless voters have a clearer picture of the consequences, some say it could produce the same kind of boondoggle caused by Obamacare in 2010.

I don't think there has been much of a sales job to the public on what a new mortgage finance system looks like, said Brian Gardner, senior vice president of Washington research at the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. I don't think you shove this down the throat of the electorate, as we saw with the health care overhaul.

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ECON 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Cash Flow, Procyclical And Countercyclical, Opportunity Cost

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