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E-commerce has created several tax-related issues for corporations conducting business across states without a physical footprint. This blog will discuss the sales tax implications for online businesses. What is Sales tax? Sales tax is collected by businesses from customers at the point of purchase. The tax is later collected by the government from the business. Sales tax rates vary in each state. What is “Tax Nexus” or “Economic Nexus” for Sales Tax? A business must be connected to a state in order for that business to collect sales taxes. For businesses that have a physical presence in the state, the connection is called “sales tax nexus.” Each state’s definition of “physical presence” for sales tax nexus differs slightly, but some common examples would be having an office, having a warehouse, or having employees in that state. Economic nexus is sales tax nexus, but for online businesses. Online businesses need a different standard because they are not physically present in the state. The standard for economic nexus is that if a company makes a certain amount of sales in a state, it must collect sales tax from buyers in that state. The threshold of “amount of sales” may be a certain number of transactions or a dollar amount depending on the state. Almost every state has adopted economic nexus laws. As of the end of 2019, Florida is one of few states that has not adopted an economic nexus law. Pending proposed legislation, the Florida Department of Revenue has found alternates ways to enforce economic nexus principles and collect sales tax from online businesses. What Does Economic Nexus Mean for Online Sellers? If an online retailer reaches the economic nexus threshold of a certain state, that state can pursue sales tax from the online businesses. Although the threshold varies by state, the most common threshold is $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions. However, because Florida does not have a statute, the threshold is unclear.

Education externalities are social or public benefits from the education of each individual that benefit others in the society in both current and future generations. Titled Social and External Benefits of Education, chapter 6 of the publication, International Handbook on the Economics of Education, explores the non-market private or the non- market externality benefits of education that are taken into account by individuals when they make their decisions about how far to go in school. The paper defines the theoretical basis for the identification and estimation of education externalities, including distinguishing market from non- market impacts, as well as a static shorter-term view from a dynamic longer- term view of the neoclassical model. It also presents a taxonomy of education’s public good externalities and reviews estimates in the literature of the overall size and value of these externalities. It considers estimates of the non-market impacts of education on specific development goals, and identifies the separate private non-monetary returns in order to distinguish them from the public good development outcomes. Finally, it considers the implications for investment criteria, and summarizes the conclusions, qualifications and the needs for further research. This document may be accessible through your organisation or institution. If not, you may have to purchase access. Alternatively, the British Library for Development Studies provides a document delivery service.

Dr. Lundgren experiences in a series of articles. Several social, economic and land use trends have an impact on current and future use of forests and trees in Africa. Deforestation and forest degradation In spite of the growing awareness about the importance of forests (see earlier article), deforestation and forest degradation are still rampant in many parts of Africa, notably in West and East Africa, even if the rate has gone down marginally in the last decade – from c. 4.1 million ha/y (0.56%) in the 1990-2000 period and 3.4 million (0.49%) in the 2000-2010 decade. Although there are many causes for the degradation, the clearing of wooded lands for low-yielding agriculture is still the main reason. Rapid economic development A more positive trend is the rapid economic development in many African countries – there was an average annual growth rate in GDP of 4.8% in the 2001-2010 decade, and the trend continues – Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to have a growth of 5.2% in 2014. Following this is a quick growth in middle income groups (in 2011, 60 million African households earned at least USD 3 000) and in urbanisation (40% of the population live in cities), which have resulted in a very significant rise in demand for wood- and fibre-based products, from charcoal, via construction wood, paper products and standard furniture and interior design features (flooring, doors, window frames, etc.), to more luxury items such as exclusive furniture. A large part of these increased needs are still imported but more and more investors, both local and international, see the potential in the forest sector in Africa. The globalisation of trade and markets, Africa’s strategic geographical position and its apparent potential for exporting wood-based products (and not only logs as today) further underline this trend. Countries like China, India and Brazil have vastly increased their investments on the continent, so far mainly in the energy (oil, gas and hydropower), mineral, construction and infrastructure, mechanical industry and agricultural sectors, but increasingly also in the forest sector. Search for available land The latter point leads us to a more controversial trend affecting the future of forestry in Africa, viz. that of increasing search for available land for expanding food, fibre and fuel production. Africa is a continent which certainly has vast expanses of land with sparse population and extensive current land use – e.g. the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa and the rain forest regions of Central Africa – suitable for large scale production of food and energy crops and timber plantations. The scramble for such land, both by local and foreign investors, has exploded in the last 10-15 years. It has led to many conflicts and disagreements between investors, governments and local communities, and the characterisation of such investments as land grabbing and theft is often heard. However, there are an increasing numbers of very good examples where investors, local communities, and local and national governments have come to very satisfactory arrangements with benefits to all concerned. Shift in commercial tree production towards farms and communities Another trend worth highlighting, partly addressing similar problems and potentials as that of land availability, but mainly operating in more densely populated areas, is that of a shift in commercial tree production towards farms and communities. As a result of increased demands for timber, but also of improved land tenure conditions and declining real prices of agricultural cash crops, famers in many areas in Africa have realised the potential of investing in tree growing for sale – as timber to local sawmills, scaffolding poles to building companies, charcoal for urban people, etc. – as a source of income comparable to other crops. Sometimes this is done on a contractual basis as out-growers to forest industries, e.g. in South Africa. This trend has also resulted in, and been made possible by, a rapid increase in tree grower associations and cooperatives, e.g. in Eastern and Southern Africa. Forests and their management in relation to climate change On the international policy and development scene, a very strong trend in the last decade has been to increasingly and singularly regard forests and their management in relation to climate change and the ongoing discussions on this topic. This is also of relevance to and affects Africa – no forest-related development and economic undertaking, new policy, research and education programme, conservation effort, etc., can be launched without predominantly justifying it for its impact on climate change mitigation and/or adaptation. While this may be positive in that it puts a new focus on forests and forestry, and attracts previously unheard of amounts of funds for forest-climate initiatives, it also has drawbacks. The most problematic one is that this focus on climate change takes attention away from the enormously important current and potential roles of sustainably managed forests and trees as drivers of economic development and poverty alleviation. Or, from the much more immediately important needs of conserving forests for biodiversity protection and hydrology enhancement. However, there are many positive signs today that funders of various REDD+, carbon credit and climate mitigation programmes realise that without putting economic and conventional conservation effects in the foreground, it will not be realistic to achieve major positive impacts on climate through forest-climate” programmes. Share Dr. Björn Lundgren experiences This is the fourth article in a series of articles were Dr. Björn Lundgren share his experiences from Africa. During the last months several articles have been published about e.g. policy processes, trends, potential roles of forests and trees in Africa to address challenges and potentials. Author: Dr. Björn Lundgren, Editor: Dr. Fredrik Ingemarson Photo. Prof. Godwin Kowero Earlier articles by Dr Lundgren Sun, X., P. Ren and M. van Epp, 2014. Chinese views of African forests: evidence and perception of China-Africa links that impact the governance of forests and livelihoods. Natural Resource Issues No. 29. IIED, London. KSLA, 2012. The global need for food, fiber and fuel. Land use perspectives on constraints and opportunities in meeting future demands. KSLAT 4:2012. Chipeta, M., 2012. Land acquisition for food and fuel and implications for development, food security and forests: a view from African countries with perceived land resources. KSLAT 4:2012. Pp 65-77. Johansson, K-E., C. Nantongo, P. Gondo, A. Roos and D. Kleinschmit, 2013. Community based forest groups in Eastern and Southern Africa – a study of prospects for capacity improvement. International Forestry Review, 15(4):471-488. Chidumayo, E., D. Okali, G. Kowero and M. Larwanou (eds.), 2011. Climate change and African forest and wildlife resources. 249 pp. African Forest Forum, Nairobi. ETFRN, 2014. Linking FLEGT and REDD+ to improve forest governance. European Tropical Forest Research Network. ETFRN News N0. 55. 212 pp.

The CIP Report: Integrating Renewable Power, Securely “The concept of protecting electric system critical infrastructure is longstanding and deeply ingrained in the industry.” The concept of protecting electric system critical infrastructure is longstanding and deeply ingrained in the industry. Almost any utility worker will tell you that her or his primary duty is "keeping the lights on." Threats to electric infrastructure include severe weather, physical and cyber attacks, electromagnetic pulses, geomagnetic disturbances, interdependence with other critical infrastructure, such as telecommunications, fuel and water, pandemics, human error, and uncontrolled (cascading) operational failures on neighbouring systems. Given the lack of storage, the speed of transmission, and the interconnectedness of the system, there are few other types of infrastructure, telecommunications being perhaps the only exception, where the impact of a failure is felt so widely, so quickly. For example, on August 14, 2003, the contact between a tree and a wire in Ohio at 2:02 p.m. set off two hours of increasing instability of the grid in the Cleveland-Akron area, which by 4:05 p.m., could no longer be controlled, resulting in a cascading blackout affecting approximately 50 million people in the north-eastern United States and Canada ("the 2003 Northeast Blackout"). The 2003 Northeast Blackout, like the massive blackout that affected the Northeast in 1965, became a turning point. The 1965 blackout spurred the growth of power pools and increased cooperation among utilities. The 2003 Northeast Blackout resulted in legislation that set the framework to transform the North American Electric Reliability Council, an industry-run organization that relied primarily on voluntary cooperation among utilities, into the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an independently funded reliability organization tasked with developing and administering mandatory reliability standards (Reliability Standards), subject to oversight and enforcement, including civil penalty assessments, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In the area of critical infrastructure protection (narrowly defined), the Reliability Standards include measures for perimeter control of critical assets and reporting of threats; other Reliability Standards specify operational safeguards ranging from training requirements to relay settings. In September 2011, FERC proposed to adopt revised cyber security standards that, among other things, would impose "bright line" criteria for identifying critical assets. Notwithstanding these efforts, grid security is an elusive prey. As recently as September 8, 2011, a blackout originating in Arizona caused a loss of power to southern California, parts of Arizona, and Mexico's Baja peninsula, including every customer of San Diego Gas & Electric Company. Ultimately, protection must include both efforts to prevent problems from occurring, and enhancing the grid's ability to withstand and recover from those stresses that cannot be avoided. This article is provided for your convenience and does not constitute legal advice. It is prepared for the general information of our clients and other interested persons. This article should not be acted upon in any specific situation without appropriate legal advice, and it may include links to websites other than the White & Case website. White & Case LLP has no responsibility for any websites other than its own, and does not endorse the information, content, presentation or accuracy, or make any warranty, express or implied, regarding any other website White and Case LLP is a leading international law firm , founded in New York in 1901, it has 38 offices in 26 countries around the world. With such a global presence the firm provides counsel and representation to a wide range of clients from state governments to multinational businesses and firms from construction companies to investment banks. White and Case are in constant direct contact with the world's most influential antitrust , authorities through the multijurisdictional specialists in our Washington, New York and Brussels offices Author - Aatif Tags - International law firm, Antitrust, Commercial Litigaton Disclaimer - The author of the above article is solely responsible for the content of the above article. DailyOjo is not liable for the content of the above article. Report Spam/Abuse

Thank you to Michael Blackhurst for sharing this with the community. Please see the lab page here: http://www.cmu.edu/gdi/docs Life-cycle assessment was used to evaluate the widespread installation of green roofs in a typical urban mixed-use neighborhood. Market prices of materials, construction, energy conservation, storm-water management, and greenhouse gas GHG emission reductions were used to evaluate private and social costs and benefits. Results suggest green roofs are currently not cost effective on a private cost basis, but multifamily and commercial building green roofs are competitive when social benefits are included. Multifamily and commercial green roofs are also competitive alternatives for reducing greenhouse gases and storm-water runoff. However, green roofs are not the most competitive energy conservation techniques. GHG impacts are dominated by the material production and use phases. Energy impacts are dominated by the use phase, with urban heat island UHI impacts being an order of magnitude higher than direct building impacts. The quantification of private and social costs and benefits should help guide green roof policy. Results should encourage green roof enthusiasts to set appropriate life-cycle assessment boundaries, including construction material impacts and UHI effects. While green roofs have been used for centuries, their introduction into the U.S. urban environment is much more recent, gaining popularity only in the last few decades Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004. A green roof covers a building roof with vegetation and soil, usually above a waterproof membrane, drainage layer, and insulation. While green roofs have higher initial costs than traditional roofing, green roofs have a diverse array of potential benefits Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004, such as 1. Reducing building cooling loads by preventing excess heat from entering buildings; 2. Mitigating the urban heat island at appropriate scales and density by providing a medium that uses excess heat to create water vapor; 3. Reducing storm-water runoff by retaining precipitation; 4. Sequestering carbon dioxide and pollutants in biomass; 5. Improving aesthetic values or providing recreational benefits; 6. Creating wildlife habitat; and 7. Providing noise reduction in buildings. In this paper, we will focus on the first four benefits listed above, considering what valuation of these benefits make green roofs cost-effective. Past green roof research is limited in scale and scope. Studies often focus on a single benefit for a specific building or group of buildings. Stovin 2009 and Bliss et al. 2009 found through experimentation that green roofs signifi- cantly reduce both the peak and volumetric flow of urban stormwater runoff. Saiz et al. 2006 found a 6% reduction in summer cooling load for a multifamily building in Madrid, Spain. Wong et al. 2003b and Sfakianaki et al. 2009 have found similar reductions to building cooling demands resulting from green roofs. Several researchers have considered the impact of green roofs on the urban heat island. Through modeling, Bass et al. 2003 found a 1% reduction in the ambient temperature for 50% green roof coverage in Toronto. Rosenzweig et al. 2006 found a 0.3°F – 0.9°F reduction in New York City neighborhood temperatures depending upon the extent of green roof coverage. Planning officials expect a 1.5°F reduction in Tokyo with a green roof coverage of 1,200 ha Peck 2001. Green roof enthusiasts suggest that green roofs have a longer service life than conventional roofs due to: 1 reduced membrane heat exposure; 2 reductions in water ponding; and 3 stringent waterproofing standards Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004. Coffelt and Hendrickson 2008 found that conventional, commercial roofs have a minimum cost service life of 30 years for a location in Pittsburgh United States. Peck et al. 2003 claimed that a green roof service life is twice that of a conventional roof in Europe but do not provide supporting data. Green roof design standards have become available only recently, and their application in the United States is uncertain. Until recently, the German FLL guidelines were the only standards applied in the United States Roofscapes Inc 2010. However, the FLL standards have only been published in English since the mid-1990s, and it is unclear to what extent these standards have been applied in the United States. ASTM has been introducing American standards only over the past five years ASTM 2010. Carter and Fowler 2008 summarized existing federal, state, and local green roof policies with a particular emphasis on stormwater management. Both Carter and Fowler 2008 and Corburn 2009 suggested a lack of empirical data and uncertain benefits 1 Graduate Student, across public and private agents make green roof policy development challenging. No doubt a lack of design standards contributes to the risk of paying increased costs for green roofs. By expanding both the scale of green roof installations and scope of benefits analyzed, we attempt to clarify the role of green roofs in the urban environment. While green roofs offer environmental benefits over a building’s lifetime, i.e., during the “use” phase, they typically cost more and require more materials for construction the “materials” and “construction” phases. While the added expense of a green roof is a private cost, many of the benefits are public and external to the building owner. Life-Cycle Analysis Method Life-cycle assessment techniques were used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the widespread installation of green roofs on a typical urban building stock. The functional unit for basecase analysis is replacing approximately 6.5 million sq ft of traditional roofing with a green roof in an urban neighborhood. Table 1 summarizes the functional unit, which represents 30% of the roofing in a typical mixed-use urban neighborhood serviced by combined sewers. The building stock characteristics summarized in Table 1 are generally consistent with those defined by the Energy Information Administration 2005, 2008, which suggest commercial floor space is typically about 35% of residential floor space in urban areas. We assumed an annual average rainfall of 40 in per year, which is representative of Pittsburgh. The base case planning horizon is 30 years and the discount rate is 5%. Green roof replacements are evenly distributed over a 10-year period. While green roof studies typically cite a 45-year service life, we conservatively assume 30 years based upon the uncertainty in expected green roof service life discussed above. An annual “background” replacement of traditional roofing of 3% is assumed. In other words, 3% of existing roofs would be replaced annually absent any green roof retrofit program, and we assume these replacements are new green roofs. The costs and impacts of green roofs thus represent incremental changes relative to background traditional roof replacement during the planning horizon. Three life-cycle phases are considered: 1 material production; 2 on-site construction; and 3 use. Three impacts are modeled: 1 energy use; 2 greenhouse gas emissions; and 3 stormwater runoff. For example, the GHG impact is the difference between the emissions resulting from roof material preparation and construction and the emissions mitigated during the use phase. Use phase emissions are mitigated in three ways: 1 direct building cooling demand reductions; 2 indirect building cooling reductions resulting from urban heat island impacts; and 3 the reductions to the energy required to treat storm water in combined collection systems. Economic-input output life-cycle assessment EIO-LCA techniques are used to track impacts for the material production phase Carnegie Mellon University CMU 2009; Hendrickson et al. 2005. The literature was reviewed to develop material profiles and prices specific to each green roof layer Guggemos 2006; Green Roofs for Health Cities 2006; Ngan 2004; Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004; Kosareo and Ries 2007; Chandler 2001. A summary of EIO-LCA inputs can be found in the Supplemental Materials in Table S1. Direct on-site impacts are modeled using an EIO-LCA vector developed for the construction industry Sharrard 2007. Use phase impacts are modeled using literature values of expected storm-water runoff reductions, direct building cooling energy savings, and indirect energy savings resulting from urban heat island reductions. Land Use and Hydrology Traditional roofs divert all precipitation to runoff. Green roofs retain a fraction of precipitation, thus reducing storm-water runoff and associated impacts. Empirical and modeling studies indicate that green roofs reduce approximately 50% of annual storm-water runoff Carter and Rasmussen 2006; Hoffman 2006; DeNardo et al. 2003; VanWoert et al. 2005; Stovin 2009; Bliss et al. 2009. Here, the total storm-water runoff reductions were estimated by multiplying the area of green roof coverage times the annual average rainfall reduction 20 in.= 40 in.50% reduction. Land use changes that result in CO2 sequestration in the green roofs were based on grassland literature values Tilman 2006. However, these amounts are small, ranging from 0.02 to 1.1 lb per square foot of green roof for grassland growth over a 30-year planning horizon Tilman 2006. Storm-Water Treatment In combined sewer service areas, storm water from buildings is typically piped to the collection system. As a result, excess runoff may be conveyed to a treatment plant or overflows into a receiving water body. Here, we assume all excess runoff is treated. The energy required to treat storm-water runoff was assumed to be equal to that required for municipal wastewater Tchobanoglous et al. 2003; Sahely et al. 2006; Lundin and Högskola 1999. Direct Building Energy Historical household energy use estimates were taken from Energy Information Administration EIA 2005, 2008. The literature indicates that a green roof reduces annual household energy consumption by 1% Saiz et al. 2006; Wong et al. 2003b. The Table 1. Functional Unireduction stems from using less electricity for cooling. A literature comparison indicates similar green roof thermal performance in a variety of climates Saiz et al. 2006; Wong et al. 2003a; Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004; Liu 2002; Onmura et al. 2001. In multistory buildings, we account for reductions in only the top floors. The two highest floors are impacted at 100%; floors greater than four stories from the roof are not impacted; and impacts marginally decrease between these floors. This approach is consistent with building energy modeling results from Saiz et al. 2006. We assume similar impacts for commercial buildings. Urban Heat Island Reductions—Indirect Building Energy Green roofs reduce the urban heat island UHI by providing a medium for evapotranspiration and altering the surface albedo. A reduction to the UHI indirectly reduces building cooling demands. The indirect building energy demand reductions were modeled as proportional to the percent of the total service area converted to green roofs based upon values reported in the literature Akbari et al. 2001; Bass et al. 2003; Rosenzweig et al. 2006; Peck 2001; Taha et al. 1999. Table 2 summarizes the base-case impact assessment methods. All base-case model parameters, as well as other model input diagnostics, are shown in the supplemental material in Table S2. Table 3 summarizes national average retail prices of storm-water management Fisher et al. 2008, energy costs Energy Information Administration EIA 2009, and greenhouse gases Capoor and Ambrosi 2008 used to quantify benefits and perform a shadow cost analysis. Environmental benefits were not discounted. We assume all costs are private and borne by building owners. Direct building energy reductions are the only benefit considered to be private. Reductions to the urban heat island, GHG reductions, and storm-water runoff reductions are all considered social benefits. While building energy savings associated with reductions to the UHI would be realized by building owners, we assume these benefits can only be realized through a coordinated extensive green roof construction program such that UHI impacts should be considered public benefits. Results Table 4 shows the estimated capital costs and material and construction phase impacts for the functional unit shown in Table 1. Table 4 indicates that energy use and GHG emissions associated with the material production phase dominate those associated with the construction phase. Tables 5–7 show the environmental impacts and public and private benefits associated with the use phase. Table 5 indicates that the private benefits of reduced electricity use are an order of magnitude lower than the public benefits created by reducing the urban heat island. Table 6 indicates that reductions in GHGs during the building use phase are dominated by reductions in the urban heat island. GHG reductions from using less electricity directly are an order of magnitude lower. Table 7 indicates that storm-water runoff reductions are on the order of 20 million gal per year around 600 million gal over a 30-year period. A traditional cost effectiveness analysis is complicated by the fact that a single cost results in multiple benefits. As an alternative to cost effectiveness, we use shadow pricing to estimate the implied value of the each benefit. If the market value of all but one Table 2 of the benefits is subtracted from the total cost, the remaining cost is the “shadow cost” of the remaining benefit. For example, the total cost of green roof replacements for all building types is $17 million Table 4, and the sum of the GHG and storm-water benefits is $2.6 million Tables 6 and 7. This means that the shadow cost of $14.4 million $17 million− $2.6 million was implicitly spent on reducing 110,000 MWh of electricity, at a shadow price of approximately $0.13 per kWh. Table 8 summarizes the shadow price analysis and shows benefit-cost ratios for the public and private sectors. Table 8 indicates that green roofs are not economically competitive on a private benefit-cost basis, with the private benefit-cost ratio being less than 5% for all building types. Results indicate that multifamily and commercial buildings are cost effective on social basis, with the social benefits being nearly equal to the costs. Shadow pricing indicates that green roofs are cost-effective alternatives for GHG mitigation and storm-water reductions for multifamily and nearly so for commercial buildings. None of the building types are cost effective energy reduction strategies. The energy savings shadow costs for multifamily and commercial green roofs are approximately 10 and 5% less than national average market prices, respectively. Table 9 summarizes the relative distribution of costs and impacts for the functional unit. Negative values reflect a cost, emissions generated, or energy used. Positive values reflect a savings. Table 4 indicates that use phase GHG and energy impacts are dominated by reduction to the heat island, with direct energy use, storm water, and sequestration impacts being relatively negligible. Green roof material production accounts for 20–30% of the GHG impacts but contributes negligibly to energy use. Historical national energy use averages Energy Information Administration EIA 2008 suggest multifamily and commercial buildings are less energy efficient per floor space than singlefamily homes. In addition, single-family homes have significantly more roof space per household then multifamily homes. As a result, single-family homes are less cost effective than multifamily and commercial buildings. A one-way sensitivity analysis was performed to quantify regional variation in costs and benefits. Sensitivity results, summarized in Fig. 1, suggest that electricity pricing, the number of building floors, heat island impacts, and the scale of green roof conversions are dominant parameters. The model is less sensitive to material and construction costs, household size, and hydrologic impacts. The model is highly insensitive to assumptions regarding market values of storm-water management and GHGs. The sensitivity results also suggest that many regional factors can cause a “switchover” from cost effective to not cost effective, especially for commercial buildings. Regional grid emissions, local labor rates, and hydrologic factors all cause “switchovers” for multifamily and commercial buildings. These results highlight the need for local policies to be informed by regionally specific technical analysis. Discussion These results suggest that green roofs have a role in achieving more environmentally sustainable cities, but that role may be limited to regionally specific commercial and multifamily buildings. Results suggest green roofs are more effective in regions with higher than average electricity rates, multistory building stock, and climates that readily demonstrate reductions to heat islands with the introduction of green roofs. Note that this model does not adjust material and construction prices based upon the number of building floors, an assumption that may limit the results and conclusions. We promote considering urban sustainability interventions relative to at least three metrics: initial cost, annualized cost effectiveness, and total effectiveness Blackhurst et al. 2009. The annualized cost effectiveness should reflect operating costs or savings generated by the intervention. The total effectiveness should reflect physical limitations. For green roofs, the total effectiveness would be limited by the maximum green roof coverage. For example, the 1,900 multifamily green roof conversions in this study’s scope have an initial cost of $1,400 per household, an annualized cost effectiveness of $8 per MT of GHG mitigated, and a total effectiveness of approximately 6,600 MT mitigated over 30 years 8,700 MT mitigated minus 2,100 MT generated during materials production and construction. Attic floor insulation has an initial cost of $340 per household, an annualized effectiveness of $16 saved per MT of GHG mitigated, and a total effectiveness of 850 MT of GHG mitigated. By comparison, attic floor insulation is less expensive and generates savings while mitigating GHGs. However, attic insulation can only mitigate 5% of the carbon that green roofs can. Shadow cost analysis suggests that green roofs are cost effective strategies for managing storm water and reducing GHGs. These benefits are generally considered social goods, whereas the costs of green roofs are primarily private. Similar recent research has demonstrated that the environmental benefits of green roofs may not exceed their costs. Carter and Keeler 2008 demonstrated that the cost of green roofs installed in a watershed near Atlanta are approximately 10% higher than the environmental benefits of storm-water management, energy reductions, and improvements to air quality over a 40-year period. Carter also found that the social benefits exceed the private benefits. Note that our results pertain to replacing traditional roof in typical urban mixed-use neighborhoods with green roof systems common in the literature. Green roofs may perform very differently under different circumstances, such as applications to “big box” commercial buildings or new construction. Using alternative materials—such as systems that do not use plastic layers—may also limit our results. While not well understood, the impact of green roofs on the urban heat island may be significant. Our approach is to model reductions in building energy use as a linear function of total green roof coverage. While we leverage a limited pool of existing literature to prepare our model, a linear response is likely overly simplistic. However, the limited information available suggests that urban heat island reductions may be the most significant environmental benefit of green roofs. Future research should elucidate these benefits, recognize regional climate variations, and should be useable by local policy makers for incorporation into land use plans and building codes. Material phase life-cycle assessments are uncertain without detailed green roof designs and specifications as well as pricing details. Existing specifications are loosely based upon a description of green roof layers, without reference to specific materials for impact assessments. Life-cycle assessments of green roofs would be greatly improved by standardization. Recent work by Theodosiou 2009 echoes a similar need for standardized material specifications. Green roofs are not as marginally expensive relative to traditional roofs in Europe as they are in the United States. This could be due to limited intellectual capital, limited physical capital, or both. Understanding these differences may lead to cost reductions in green roof installations, which would significantly improve the environmental cost effectiveness of green roofs. Finally, we emphasize that our functional unit, pricing, and environmental impacts reflect national averages. The one-way sensitivity analysis partially captures the impact of regional variations, with the social benefit-cost ratio being highly sensitive to regional factors such as the price of electricity, building size, and labor costs. Regional conditions should be considered by local authorities when designing green roof policy programs. References Akbari, H., Pomerantz, M., and Taha, H. 2001. “Cool surfaces and shade trees to reduce energy use and improve air quality in urban areas.” Sol. Energy, 703, 295–310. ASTM. 2010. “Sustainability subcommittee launches development of proposed green roof guide.” http://www.astm.org/SNEWS/JULY_ 2007/roof_jul07.html Feb. 10, 2010. Bass, B., et al. 2003. “The impact of green roofs on Toronto’s urban heat island.” Proc., Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities, First North American Green Roof Conf., Greens Roofs for Healthy Cities, Toronto, 292–304. Blackhurst, M., Matthews, H., and Venkatesh, A. 2009. Quantifying mitigation potential of climate action plans for American cities, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J. Bliss, D. J., Neufeld, R. D., and Ries, R. J. 2009. “Storm water runoff mitigation using a green roof.” Environ. Eng. Sci., 262, 407–418. Capoor, K., and Ambrosi, P. 2008. State and trends of the carbon market 2008, The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Carnegie Mellon University CMU. 2009. “EIO-LCA Economic input-output life cycle assessment.” http://www.eiolca.net/ May 19, 2009. Carter, T., and Fowler, L. 2008. “Establishing green roof infrastructure through environmental policy instruments.” Environ. Manage., 421, 151–164. Carter, T., and Keeler, A. 2008. “Life-cycle cost-benefit analysis of extensive vegetated roof systems.” J. Environ. Manage., 873, 350– 363. Carter, T. L., and Rasmussen, T. C. 2006. “Hydrologic behavior of vegetated roofs.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 425, 1261–1274. Chandler, H. M. 2001. Heavy construction cost data, 2002, RS Means Company, Kingston, Mass. Coffelt, D. P., and Hendrickson, C. T. 2010. “Life cycle costs of commercial roof systems”, J. Archit. Eng., 161, 29–36. Corburn, J. 2009. “Cities, climate change, and urban heat island mitigation: Localising global environmental science.” Urban Stud., 462, 413–427. DeNardo, J., et al. 2003. “Green roofs: A stormwater BMP.” Proc., 2003 Pennsylvania Stormwater Symp., Villanova Univ., Villanova, Pa. Dunnett, N., and Kingsbury, N. 2004. Planting green roofs and living walls, Timber Press, Portland, Ore. Energy Information Administration EIA. 2005. “Commercial buildings energy consumption survey, 2003, Washington D.C.: U.S. department of energy.” http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/ June 23, 2009. Energy Information Administration EIA. 2008. “Residential energy consumption survey, 2005, Washington D.C.: U.S. department of energy.” http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/ July 1, 2009. Energy Information Administration EIA. 2009. “Electric power monthly–average retail price of electricity to ultimate customers total by end-use sector.” http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/ table5_3.html June 1, 2009. Fisher, D. C., Whitehead, C. D., and Melody, M. 2008. “National and regional water and wastewater rates for use in cost-benefit models and evaluations of water efficiency programs.” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article6371&contextlbnl July 1, 2009. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. 2006. Green roof design 101: Introductory course, 2nd Ed., Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Toronto. Guggemos, A. A. 2006. “Case study of economic and environmental life-cycle assessment of roofing systems.” Proc., 1st Int. Construction Specialty Conf., Canadian American Society of Civil Engineers Calgary, Alta., Canada. Hendrickson, C. T., Lave, L. B., and Matthews, H. S., 2005. Environmental life cycle assessment of goods and services: An input-output approach, Resources for the Future Washington, D.C. Hoffman, L. 2006. “Green roof storm water modeling.” BioCycle, 472, 38–40. Kosareo, L., and Ries, R. 2007. “Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of green roofs.” Build. Environ., 427, 2606–2613. Liu, K. 2002. “Research quantifies benefits of rooftop gardens.” Constr. Innovation, 71, 7. Lundin, M., and Högskola, C. T. 1999. “Assessment of the environmental sustainability of urban water systems.” Technical environmental planning, Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Göteborg Sweden. Ngan, G. 2004. Green roof policies: Tools for encouraging sustainable design, Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation, Ottawa, http:// www.gnla.ca/assets/Policy%20report.pdf June 24, 2009. Onmura, S., Matsumoto, M., and Hokoi, S. 2001. “Study on evaporative cooling effect of roof lawn gardens.” Energy Build., 337, 653–666. Peck, S. 2001. “Tokyo begins to tackle urban heat with green roofs.” Green Roofs Infrastructure Monitor, 32, 4. Peck, S. W., et al. 2003. Design guidelines for green roofs, Ontario Association of Architects, CMHC, Ottawa. 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L. 2007.Stovin, V. 2009. “The potential of green roofs to manage urban stormwater.” Water Environ. J., 243, 192–199. Taha, H., Konopacki, S., and Gabersek, S. 1999. “Impacts of large-scale surface modifications on meteorological conditions and energy use: A 10-region modeling study.” Theor. Appl. Climatol., 623–4, 175– 185. Tchobanoglous, G., Burton, F. L., and Stensel, H. D. 2003. Wastewater engineering: treatment and reuse, McGraw-Hill, New York. Theodosiou, T. 2009. “Green roofs in buildings: Thermal and environmental behaviour.” Advances in Building Energy Research, 3, 271– 288. Tilman, D., Hill, J., and Lehman, C., 2006. “Carbon-negative biofuels from low-input high-diversity grassland biomass.” Science, 3145805, 1598–1600. VanWoert, N. D., et al. 2005. “Green roof stormwater retention: Effects of roof surface, slope, and media depth.” J. Environ. Qual., 343, 1036–1044. Wong, N. H., et al. 2003a. “Investigation of thermal benefits of rooftop garden in the tropical environment.” Build. Environ., 382, 261–270. Wong, N. H., et al. 2003b. “The effects of rooftop garden on energy consumption of a commercial building in Singapore.” Energy Build., 354, 353–364.

The Netherlands is to launch carbon-based packaging tax, the first of its kind in Europe. The tax will be based on the estimated CO2 emissions produced in making particular packaging. The government announced that the introduction of the new tax will be in January in its 2008 ’Tax Plan: Focus on greening and labour participation’. This is based on an agreement between the country’s environment ministry, local authorities and industry. The money from the tax will form a new fund, called the ’waste fund’ (Afvalfonds), which is designed to help reduce waste in the country. The national government will also contribute E115m (£80m) annually to the fund, as well as a tax on household waste. This follows carbon footprint labelling in the UK, which already appears on products such as Walkers crisps and Boots’ products. The Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment said in a statement that much more plastic packaging will also be recycled. This will raise the recycling percentage target for plastic packaging from its present level of 20% to 42% in 2012. The result is an annual saving of approximately 210 kilotons of CO2, equivalent to the electricity use of around 100,000 households. A survey conducted earlier this year by the Dutch Institute for Public Opinion and Market Research (TNS/NIPO), by order of the Dutch government, revealed that 91% of citizens were prepared to participate in the separated collection of plastic packaging, in addition to paper and glass.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends that shape advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world. It is drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research. A CHP system at the University of Arizona. For roughly a century, CHP systems have been reliable, cost-effective sources of power and thermal energy in both industrial and commercial building applications. Representing as much as 8% of U.S. electricity generation, CHP systems are used widely in manufacturing, hospitals, district heating, commercial buildings, and even residential applications. Producing power and heat (separately) typically results in a combined efficiency of 45%. By contrast, CHP systems (also known as cogeneration) generate electricity and thermal energy in a single system, resulting in a combined efficiency as high as 80%. Gas turbines make up the largest share of CHP systems, often exporting power to the electrical grid, but it is not the only way for CHP to work. Following five years of growth, from $20.8 billion in 2011 to $30 billion in 2015, global industrial CHP revenue slipped 3% in 2016, but still represented a $29.1 billion market (Figure 1). With more than 80 GW installed to date in the U.S alone – equal to the cumulative base of wind and nearly double that of solar PV – U.S. industrial CHP revenue continued its upward trajectory, increasing 5% to $3.5 billion in 2016, up steadily from $1 billion in 2011 (Figure 2). In the U.S. many projects were hurriedly completed before the CHP investment tax credit (ITC) expired on December 31, 2016. This credit, worth up to 10% of the system cost, has been an important driver of installations so ongoing efforts in Congress to reestablish the credit for 2017 are an important pivot point for the industry. The lower natural gas prices afforded by the shale gas boom are an important driver of CHP installations, though the relationship is complex. Natural gas prices in North America approached historic lows in 2012-2016, which improved the spark spread, or the difference in cost per MWh of natural gas and electricity. This typically is good for natural gas, though caveats exist. First, grid electricity has gotten cheaper as more centralized natural gas generation comes online in response to low gas prices, eroding some of the business case for CHP. Paradoxically, the high efficiency of CHP can also be a hindrance with cheap natural gas: if CHP utilizes twice the energy per unit natural gas, the value of that efficiency is directly proportional to gas prices. Finally, volatility in natural gas prices can introduce financial risks that some facility owners don’t want to undertake. Still, many industrial customers see the value in CHP over the longer term and are willing to invest. For example, while US industrial customers saw electricity prices steadily rise by 49% from 2000 to 2015, natural gas prices were down by 12% (albeit with more volatility). Customers that can realize multiple value streams from CHP are thus willing to invest. A growing business model in CHP is that of utility-owned deployments. While the legal issues vary by jurisdiction, many utilities see CHP as a way to cooperatively use customer facilities to meet their responsibilities related to capacity, energy efficiency, or flexible power generation. For example, in an effort to stabilize rising electricity prices, Florida Public Utilities Co. (FPU) worked with its industrial customer Rayonier to install a 20MW CHP turbine system in 2016. The system, called Eight Flags, is projected to produce electricity at $84.30/MWh, or 12% below the average local cost of wholesale energy. In addition, the combustion turbine will be equipped with inlet air cooling to increase electric output during summer months – adding flexibility that will become ever more important for utilities and grid operators with the growth of intermittent renewables like solar PV. Other utilities are incentivizing CHP toward meeting their energy efficiency goals, which is not always the cheapest option, but can be attractive as low-hanging fruit like lighting and HVAC upgrades become saturated. One such utility is Baltimore Gas and Electric, which anticipates that 19.5% of its total Commercial and Industrial (C&I) electricity savings will come from CHP projects. Industrial facilities account for more than 80% of existing CHP capacity in the United States – with more than 1,200 installations. Industrial sites are a strong match for CHP systems (of 20 MW in nameplate capacity) due to the presence of both high thermal and electric loads. There is also some potential in CHP using biomass, particularly in rural areas, where natural gas is too costly or not available, and in paper mills, where waste stock provides a source of fuel. While large turbines over 20 MW dominate CHP in the U.S. (accounting for 90% capacity), there are three technologies that each are well suited as prime movers in CHP applications on a smaller scale: - Natural Gas generator sets are the most mature of the three and are seeing renewed interest, thanks to in part to growing interest in energy resiliency in smaller sites including commercial sites. Compared to turbines, reciprocating engines ramp to full power faster and are readily available in much smaller sizes, including below 100 kW. For these reasons generator sets represent more than half of all installed CHP capacity under 5 MW, for a total of 1.5 GW. - Microturbines are emerging as a low maintenance solution for a range of applications, including oil & gas (O&G) fields, where fuel would be otherwise wasted. Gas that has traditionally been flared, often of poor quality, is being piped into flexible microturbines and generates heat and power for production processes. Microturbines represent just 0.1% of installed CHP capacity, though that share is growing thanks to growing demand for low-maintenance flexible generation. - Stationary fuel cells are being adopted at four times the rate of transportation fuel cells (by annual capacity additions) and will continue to lead fuel cell deployment. Fuel cells account for just 0.1% of installed CHP capacity, though that share is growing thanks to cost declines and growing demand for ultra-low-emission onsite generation. Gas turbines will continue to make up the majority of large CHP applications, but there is a growing opportunity for stationary fuel cell applications in larger systems. One application is prime power, where the fuel cell is used for electricity or power and heat, ranging from 5 kW to several MW (though usually at a scale of 200 kW and higher). Large CHP fuel cell applications are found mostly in South Korea and the United States. CHP fuel cell units are used in the utility and C&I sectors. Hospitals and universities, with their campus configuration and high thermal demands, install CHP in growing quantities with fuel cells accounting for a growing share. Multi-family residential structures also represent a large opportunity in this segment. For example, Doosan Fuel Cell America is working with the local utility to install a large CHP fuel cell at a multifamily residential development in Busan, South Korea. Sized at more than 30MW, it is projected to be one of the largest fuel cell installations in the world. Using waste heat can result in efficiencies above 85%, potentially opening new markets. GE’s new fuel cell combined-cycle will combine its Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) with its Jenbacher generator set at a megawatt scale, representing a compelling value proposition as costs come down. Navigant Research forecasts fuel cell capacity for CHP will grow fastest in Asia Pacific, with Japan (and to a lesser extent, China and India) joining South Korea as the next most attractive markets. As a relatively mature market, the United States is expected to continue growing at close to historical trends. Learn more about CHP and all the rest of the advanced energy market by downloading the free report at the link below:

A baseball player is offered a 5-year contract which pays him the following amounts: Year 1: $1.2 million Year 2: $1.6 million Year 3: $2.0 million Year 4: $2.4 million Year 5: $2.8 million Under the terms of the agreement all payments are made at the end of each year. Instead of accepting the contract, the baseball player asks his agent to negotiate a contract which has a present value of $1 million more than that which has been offered. Moreover, the player wants to receive his payments in the form of a 5-year annuity due. All cash flows are discounted at 10 percent. If the team were to agree to the player's terms, what would be the player's annual salary (in millions of dollars)?© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com June 3, 2020, 8:01 pm ad1c9bdddf The present value of offered contract Computations done by hand, step by step are examined.

Excess Stock is a term used in inventory management, and is often called a number of different things; overstock, stock surplus, excessive stock, or excess inventory. Source - easystock.com Obsolete inventory is a term that refers to inventory that is at the end of its product life cycle. This inventory has not been sold or used for a long period of time and is not expected to be sold in the future. This type of inventory has to be written down and can cause large losses for a company. Source - investopedia.com

Anybody who has a background in investments and is familiar with how to save money knows the oft-repeated mantra of saving: The first $100,000 is always the hardest to save. You might wonder why that’s a commonly accepted truth; shouldn’t going from $400,000 to $500,000 be just as hard as starting with nothing and going to $100,000? The answer is no, and the reason is simple: The more money you have, the more interest you’ll make. Even if you have two accounts with the same annual percentage yield, a larger account will always bring in more interest than a smaller account. It won’t completely mitigate the difference between the two accounts, but if you want to make more interest on a smaller amount of money, one way is to invest your money in an account with a compound interest rate. A compound interest rate will reinvest your returns — that is, all interest earned goes right back into your account and further interest is accrued from that larger amount. By saving with compound interest, you can make much more money than you would on a simple interest rate. Here’s the formula for calculating compound interest earnings: A = P(1 + r/n)nt Amount accumulated = principal amount x (1 + (interest rate ÷ compoundings per period))ˆ(compoundings per period x number of periods) For example, if you have $1,000 saved in an account with an annual interest rate of 3 percent, compounded quarterly, you can calculate the balance after 10 years as: Amount accumulated = 1000 (1 + (0.03 ÷ 4))(4 x 10) = $1,348.35 You can see that the more money you have, the more money you make. That’s why it’s important to begin saving early and contributing as much as possible. To help you build your savings so that you can take advantage of compounding interest, here are seven strategies for saving up your first $100,000. 1. Start Saving Young It’s never too early to start saving. Ideally, your first deposits should be going in as soon as you leave college and start a career. Using compound interest, saving money each year — even if it’s only a few thousand dollars — can produce larger savings year after year, progressively increasing the amount saved. Getting your first deposits in early will put you that much further along in the deposit cycle. “One of the biggest problems is being unemployed or underemployed,” said Roger Wohlner, a financial advisor and writer who publishes The Chicago Financial Planner. “In both cases, it is important to be diligent in trying to find a job or finding one that provides a salary that allows them to cover the basic expenses and begin a savings program.” 2. Automate Your Savings Staying on track for the long-term goal of saving that first $100,000 is easier when you build in small practices toward that goal. One of the easiest ways to save money is to automate the process so you don’t think about it — and don’t leave yourself a choice of whether to put that money away or spend it. You can start by automating a deduction from every paycheck to be deposited to a savings account via direct deposit or a transfer from your regular checking account. Even if you feel you can’t afford to save much, your consistent contributions, however small, will add up over time. Plus, after continuously and automatically putting away savings for a few months, you probably won’t notice the money missing from your disposable income. “Have money automatically invested from each paycheck to build an emergency fund, dollar-cost average into one or more mutual funds, or to defer money into your employer’s 401k,” Wohlner said. “You won’t miss the money, and you won’t spend the money on something else.” 3. Max Out Your IRA Retirement should be high on your list of priorities no matter how young you are; saving and putting money into your individual retirement account are key financial practices to begin while you’re young. You should take advantage of tax benefits by putting in as much money as you can into your IRA each year. Most workers can put up to $18,000 in an IRA every year. Maximizing your IRA contribution is critical — retirement funds dry up quickly, so putting in as much as you can is highly beneficial. There are several different types of IRAs, each with its own advantages, and choosing the right type of IRA just as important as putting money in it. 4. Choose the Right IRA for You There are two main types of IRAs you can choose as an individual taxpayer: a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. Each type offers upsides, and deciding which one is better for you might hinge on your level of income security. With a traditional IRA, you’ll be able to save your money before taxes are deducted, so you’ll get a tax break. But if you withdraw money early from a traditional IRA, your early withdrawal will be subject to a penalty. If you might need to withdraw money at some point before retirement age, a Roth IRA could be the better choice for you: Qualified distributions from a Roth IRA are tax-free. 5. Prioritize Debt It’s not uncommon to face some sort of debt early on in your career. That debt can seem overwhelming when you face it all at once. That’s why you should have some debts prioritized over others — and the necessities for living, such as food and housing, need to come before anything else. It will be very hard to keep a job and pull yourself out of debt if you can’t feed yourself or don’t have a place to live. After those priorities, you can take care of less important debts, such as utilities, credit card debt and student loans. “In a perfect world, those trying to save their first $100,000 would balance this goal with reducing their debt,” Wohlner said. “In the case of college loans, there is a mandated time frame to begin these payments, and they need to become part of your budget. A good approach, if possible, is to make your savings automatic. A great way to do this is via the payroll deduction for your company’s 401k.” 6. Be as Frugal as Possible If you want to save money, a critical action to take is to stop spending more money than you need to. You need to cut down on your day-to-day expenses, create a budget and accept sacrifice as a part of saving. Stop eating out every night. Buy a used car instead of a new one. Don’t upgrade your phone every year if it’s still in working condition. Being frugal might be a necessity depending on your income. A $5 expense might seem harmless, but when you’re spending it every day, that’s over $1,500 a year that could be going toward retirement. If you want to save money, you’ll likely have to live below your means. 7. Generate Additional Income Another thing you can do to save money is to generate income outside your primary workplace. Take advantage of your hobbies and talents to earn some money in addition to income from your day job. If you’re exceptionally good at a craft, for example, you can set aside an hour a day to make those crafts and sell them online. Or if you’re a great writer, look into freelance work opportunities. If you’re interested in investing, try getting involved in the stock market. Whatever you’re good at, you should take advantage of it. A hobby-turned-side-job can be an easy and enjoyable way to get closer to that $100,000 mark sooner. The Bottom Line The first $100,000 might be the hardest to save, but there are ways to do it. If you live below your means while keeping long-term goals in sight and being smart with your money, you can save $100,000 in a matter of years. The most important thing to do is start putting these seven strategies into action so you can save more earlier on and take advantage of compounding interest to grow your savings.

At some point over the past decade, computers became really cheap to own. Make no mistake, it is still very easy to spend a couple thousand dollars on an iMac or another high-end model that can handle high quality image processing and other heavy duty computing work. However, it’s easier than ever before to obtain a working computer for $200 or even less and a big part of the reason why this happens just had a major anniversary. On April 19th, 1965, an issue of Electronics was published including an article penned by then-director of research and development at Fairchild Semiconductor, Gordon E. Moore. The article, entitled Cramming more components onto integrated circuits, posited that the most cost-effective integrated circuits would increase from 50 components per circuit to 65,000 components per circuit by 1975. The idea that the density of components on a single integrated circuit would double every one to two years is the basis of Moore’s Law, which although not a physical or natural law is an observation on the tech industry which has been practical over time. Today, there are computer chips which hold 8 billion transistors according to NPR. Scientists at Intel, the tech company founded by Gordon Moore, believe that the pace of Moore’s Law is sustainable for another 10 years. It’s amazing to think where that will put us considering the 10 years we’ve just experienced during which the smartphone revolution put a working computer into just about everyone’s pocket. We took some time last November to profile brief histories of both the Android mobile operating system marketed by Google and the iPhone/iPad mobile devices developed by Apple. Hundreds of millions of either of those units have been sold and each generation has more computing power for about the same price as the previous generation. As one educational text on Moore’s Law points out, the original iPod cost $399 and held 1,000 songs but five years later, Apple was selling an iPod that was $50 cheaper and held forty times the number of songs. Computing gets faster and cheaper with time to the delight of consumers everywhere. Back up a little further, compare personal computers from today against their desktop counterparts from the 1980s and the results are truly shocking. The MITS Altair 8800 released in 1975 cost about as much as the 2009 Dell Precision T7400; the Altair’s $495 retail price would increase to $1,987.08 when adjusted for inflation, about $12 less than the Dell Precision’s $1,999 price tag. That’s pretty baffling to consider when you realize that the two computer systems are almost incomparable in terms of random access memory, or RAM (0.256 kilobytes [KB] vs. 4 gigabytes [GB]), processing power (2 megahertz [MHz] vs. 9,320 MHz) and hard drive space (0 megabytes [MB] vs. 80GB). Just a head-on comparison of two Apple products separated by time provides a perfect example of Moore’s Law in action. In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh personal computer at a retail price of $2,495. The Apple iMac released in 2009, just 15 years later, cost a total of $3,849. Technically that’s a price increase, but when we again adjust for inflation, it turns out that the Apple Macintosh would have cost a whopping $5,186.17 per unit in 2009. That makes the iMac 26 percent cheaper than the Macintosh, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Processing power cost much more for the Macintosh ($662.35 per MHz vs. $0.34 per MHz); RAM did as well ($40.52 per KB vs. $0.00025). The cost savings for consumer computing technologies that we’ve seen over the years are almost mind-blowing. We can get another perspective of the progress of Moore’s Law if we take the low-end computing products being marketed today into account. It will be important to remember that even these low priced options will have a computing power which is exponentially greater than the earliest personal computers from the 1980s. For example, the Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-531 comes with a dual-core Intel Celeron N2830 processor which can operate at processing speeds up to 2.41 GHz, more than 300 times greater than the 7.83 MHz processing power of the 1984 Apple Macintosh. In terms of RAM, Acer’s new Chromebook provides 2GB of memory while the Macintosh only supported 128KB, which means that Acer’s product runs about 15,625 times faster than the Macintosh. Comparisons of just about every other computing specification between the two machines are just as difficult to effectively visualize. When adjusting for inflation going back to 1984, the year that Apple’s Macintosh was released, today’s $199 Acer Chromebook would cost $88.09, a total which is only about 3.52 percent of the Macintosh’s 1984 retail price. The Acer Chromebook is a personal computing product which comes with a keyboard and touchpad for inputs and a screen to output a display to a user. This product may be the cheapest one on the market which comes standard with those peripherals but adventurous computing enthusiasts can find PC options which are even cheaper. The development of the HDMI data transmission standard enables the Intel Compute Stick, a $149 processor fitting in the palm of a person’s hand, to turn any HDMI-enabled display screen into a computer running Windows 8.1. Google plans on unveiling a similar stick computer, the Chromebit, with a $100 price tag. Perhaps the cheapest personal computing product available today is Raspberry Pi, a computer shaped like a credit card, albeit thicker, and designed to cost £25, or $38.56 USD. It comes with ports with connections to peripheral equipment like a monitor display, mouse and keyboard and has been developed with an eye towards teaching children about computer programming. It is not incredibly powerful but it can handle an array of basic tasks, from document creation to playing video games. A consumer price index chart published by emerging technology publication Gigaom clearly shows that the price index of personal computing has dropped by greater than 40 percent since 2007; during that time, the average consumer price index rose by about 10 percent. Computer software and wireless telephone technologies have also seen price index reductions. although theirs are much less substantial. Interestingly, the only area of tech related to the digital age where the price index hasn’t fallen in those years is Internet bandwidth provided by Internet service providers. An official from the Technology Policy Institute interviewed for the Gigaom story spoke to the idea that high, fixed prices for broadband could be a result of reduced competition among ISPs. As we’ve noted elsewhere here on IPWatchdog, the net neutrality rules which sent millions of public comments to the Federal Communications Commission effectively slow innovation in the sector and quash any hope that we might enjoy cheaper Internet access any day soon. Broadband might want to be as cheap as computing, if we’ll let it, and that would allow better access to even more people.

It is extremely essential to respect one’s money and to think about savings and investment as soon as one starts to earn. This is one of the biggest problems seen in today’s youth because they have a tendency to not spend a lot of money in a very short span of time, mostly on depreciating assets and then when the time comes to spend on something worthwhile they often find they do not have the resources to do so. Considering that we live in an age which promotes immediate gratification, this is more of a problem and youngsters do not have the farsightedness to understand they might face difficult times ahead. This poses greater problems than not being able to pay for a particular lifestyle- with no savings they might not be able to pay for a medical emergency if it unfortunately happens and they are often also not eligible for loans in the event they do want to settle down and try to accomplish something worthwhile, like a car or a home. Hence, to avoid such financial anomalies in the future, certain steps can be taken. Tips to keep in mind One of the best ways of doing that is to create a budget. One needs to make a budget about the expenses that are mandatorily incurred each month, like the basic expenses for food, clothing and shelter, rent, transportation, and basic medical expenses. Next comes the tricky part- instead of spending for entertainment and leading a lavish lifestyle, and then trying to save whatever is left from it, one should try the opposite. One should make it a point to save a particular amount each month after the compulsory expenses are meant, and then spend from whatever is left for entertainment. There could be certain deviations a couple of times a year of course, but this should be the basic plan. Making it a habit of saving a certain amount each month will help you gather a substantial capital in as less as five years which could then be utilized for any emergency that might crop up or invested further for greater returns in future. It is important to set some financial goals if one is aiming to accumulate a certain sum by a certain age and this can be done with the help of investing in fixed deposits and SIPs. Most FDs cannot be broken before a certain time and this keeps the money safe even though one might feel tempted to spend it. One should also build an emergency fund so that just in case one finds themselves in between jobs, there should be enough in the fund that would take care of at least three months worth of household expenses. What else should you know? It is a responsibility of every earning member to get insurance for himself and his family. However, there are quite a number of insurance providers in the market and all of them charge their own premium rates. Be it car insurance, health or home, thankfully it has become possible to compare the various premium rates. Home Loan Insurance and Income Protection Insurance can serve the dual purpose of covering your family and at the same time, help you save money. For Small Business Financial Planning, you can also contact professionals who can help you set up business at the budget you have. The groceries in the household are another area where a lot of money can be saved. Instead of buying your products from high-end shopping malls which charge extra in terms of the retail price, shop from local stores where the same products are available at discounted rates. Keep your eyes open deals and offers that can help you get more products for less price. Coupons and vouchers when used wisely, can also help in saving a lot of money. Likewise, although this might seem like a very clichéd method, it is a fact that we can save a lot of money by conserving energy. It is not just enough to turn off the lights when not in use, try and use LED bulbs instead of conventional lights on a regular basis. Use your brighter lights when there are guests coming over and on a special occasion. While installing new gadgets, make it a point to check that they are energy savers. In case you do not have a very low income each month, while taking a loan, talk to your creditor so that you can pay over the EMIs as soon as possible because certain creditors charge extra interest if the EMI is paid over a very long period of time. By paying the EMI faster you will also be able to get rid of the loan faster. Credit Card misuse is probably the most common form of financial error. Call it consumerism or the promise of high living that is slowly absorbed by us, we often end up buying commodities that are of little use to us. And because credit cards allow us to buy items even before we have cash with us, we do not even spare much thought. Somehow, the feel of actually, physically, counting dollar bills and paying gives us a sense of spending more because we can see the money parting from us. With credit cards, the virtual money does not make the impact and by the time it does, you have ended up spending thousands more. The idea is to save first, and then start spending, rather than trying to save after much of the money has been spent. With some regulation, it is possible to create a bulk saving amount which will help you realize your financial dreams in the future.

If you have a lot of moolah, you're rich — you have plenty of cash. Moolah is a slang term that means "money." When you don't have enough moolah to buy a car, you may have to work and save for a while before you've got the moolah to buy it. This informal word is similar to bread or dough, or clams, just a few of the many slang words meaning "money." Experts know this word was coined in the United States around 1920, but beyond that its origin is a mystery.

What is the Elliott Wave Principle? Definition of Elliott Wave Principle: This principle is a kind of industrial analysis that is used by most of the investors for forecasting the developments in the fiscal markets. This is done by using pattern acknowledgment. This principle indicates that cooperative investor psychology moves the markets in an ordinary order ranging from hopefulness to distrust and vice versa. These variations make patterns, as displayed by the cost behavior trends in the market. Every change plays an important role and may take place durations ranging from few minutes to decades. A professional accountant, named as Ralph Nelson Elliott, created the concept in 1930. He suggested that the market costs unfold in waves, which is today popularly known as Elliott waves. The analysts of Elliott wave says that every wave has their own characteristics and signature which reflects the psychology of the existing investor. It is very important to understand the personalities before applying the Wave principle. The followers of this theory studies the cost charts and develops trends to differentiate waves and the structure of waves and forecast movements of price in the market. Most of the critics say that the procedure is too subjective and the market has several patterns in the existing price, therefore suggesting that the cost of the theory has enough space.

- Dow theory Dow Theory on stock price movement is a form of technical analysis that includes some aspects of sector rotation. The theory was derived from 255 Wall Street Journal editorials written by Charles H. Dow (1851–1902), journalist, founder and first editor of the Wall Street Journal and co-founder of Dow Jones and Company. Following Dow's death, William Peter Hamilton, Robert Rhea and E. George Schaefer organized and collectively represented "Dow Theory," based on Dow's editorials. Dow himself never used the term "Dow Theory," nor presented it as a trading system. The six basic tenets of Dow Theory as summarized by Hamilton, Rhea, and Schaefer are described below. Six basic tenets of Dow Theory - The market has three movements - (1) The "main movement", primary movement or major trend may last from less than a year to several years. It can be bullish or bearish. (2) The "medium swing", secondary reaction or intermediate reaction may last from ten days to three months and generally retraces from 33% to 66% of the primary price change since the previous medium swing or start of the main movement. (3) The "short swing" or minor movement varies with opinion from hours to a month or more. The three movements may be simultaneous, for instance, a daily minor movement in a bearish secondary reaction in a bullish primary movement. - Market trends have three phases - Dow Theory asserts that major market trends are composed of three phases: an accumulation phase, a public participation phase, and a distribution phase. The accumulation phase (phase 1) is a period when investors "in the know" are actively buying (selling) stock against the general opinion of the market. During this phase, the stock price does not change much because these investors are in the minority demanding (absorbing) stock that the market at large is supplying (releasing). Eventually, the market catches on to these astute investors and a rapid price change occurs (phase 2). This occurs when trend followers and other technically oriented investors participate. This phase continues until rampant speculation occurs. At this point, the astute investors begin to distribute their holdings to the market (phase 3). - The stock market discounts all news - Stock prices quickly incorporate new information as soon as it becomes available. Once news is released, stock prices will change to reflect this new information. On this point, Dow Theory agrees with one of the premises of the efficient market hypothesis. - Stock market averages must confirm each other - In Dow's time, the US was a growing industrial power. The US had population centers but factories were scattered throughout the country. Factories had to ship their goods to market, usually by rail. Dow's first stock averages were an index of industrial (manufacturing) companies and rail companies. To Dow, a bull market in industrials could not occur unless the railway average rallied as well, usually first. According to this logic, if manufacturers' profits are rising, it follows that they are producing more. If they produce more, then they have to ship more goods to consumers. Hence, if an investor is looking for signs of health in manufacturers, he or she should look at the performance of the companies that ship the output of them to market, the railroads. The two averages should be moving in the same direction. When the performance of the averages diverge, it is a warning that change is in the air. - Both Barron's Magazine and the Wall Street Journal still publish the daily performance of the Dow Jones Transportation Index in chart form. The index contains major railroads, shipping companies, and air freight carriers in the US. - Trends are confirmed by volume - Dow believed that volume confirmed price trends. When prices move on low volume, there could be many different explanations why. An overly aggressive seller could be present for example. But when price movements are accompanied by high volume, Dow believed this represented the "true" market view. If many participants are active in a particular security, and the price moves significantly in one direction, Dow maintained that this was the direction in which the market anticipated continued movement. To him, it was a signal that a trend is developing. - Trends exist until definitive signals prove that they have ended - Dow believed that trends existed despite "market noise". Markets might temporarily move in the direction opposite to the trend, but they will soon resume the prior move. The trend should be given the benefit of the doubt during these reversals. Determining whether a reversal is the start of a new trend or a temporary movement in the current trend is not easy. Dow Theorists often disagree in this determination. Technical analysis tools attempt to clarify this but they can be interpreted differently by different investors. There is little academic support for the profitability of the Dow Theory. Alfred Cowles in a study in Econometrica in 1934 showed that trading based upon the editorial advice would have resulted in earning less than a buy-and-hold strategy using a well diversified portfolio. Cowles concluded that a buy-and-hold strategy produced 15.5% annualized returns from 1902-1929 while the Dow Theory strategy produced annualized returns of 12%. After numerous studies supported Cowles over the following years, many academics stopped studying Dow Theory believing Cowles's results were conclusive. In recent years however, Cowles' conclusions have been revisited. William Goetzmann, Stephen Brown, and Alok Kumar believe that Cowles' study was incomplete and that Dow Theory produces excess risk-adjusted returns. Specifically, the return of a buy-and-hold strategy was higher than that of a Dow Theory portfolio by 2%, but the riskiness and volatility of the Dow Theory portfolio was lower, so that the Dow Theory portfolio produced higher risk-adjusted returns according to their study. Nevertheless, adjusting returns for risk is controversial in the context of the Dow Theory. One key problem with any analysis of Dow Theory is that the editorials of Charles Dow did not contain explicitly defined investing "rules" so some assumptions and interpretations are necessary. - Scott Peterson: The Wall Street Journal,Technically, A Challenge for Blue Chips, Vol. 250, No. 122, November 23, 2007. - Goetzmann's Dow Page Includes a link to Dow's editorials and links to numerous articles describing support of Dow Theory. - Alfred Cowle's Yale Page with selected publications - Richard Russell's Dow Theory letters weekly newsletter and charts. - John Hussman discusses Dow Theory - Record of Dow Theory Signals - Dow Theory blog and definition Classic Books by Dow Theorists - Dow Theory for the 21st Century, by Jack Schannep - Dow Theory Today, by Richard Russell - The Dow Theory, by Robert Rhea - The Stock Market Barometer, by William Hamilton - The ABC of Stock Speculation, by S.A. Nelson Concepts Charts PatternsCandlestickSimpleComplex IndicatorsVolumeOther Stock market Types of stocks Participants Exchanges Stock valuation Financial ratios Trading theories and strategiesAlgorithmic trading · Buy and hold · Contrarian investing · Day trading · Efficient-market hypothesis · Fundamental analysis · Market timing · Modern portfolio theory · Momentum investing · Mosaic theory · Pairs trade · Post-modern portfolio theory · Random walk hypothesis · Style investing · Swing trading · Technical analysis · Trend following Related termsBlock trade · Cross listing · Dark liquidity · Dividend · Dual-listed company · DuPont Model · Flight-to-quality · Haircut · IPO · Margin · Market anomaly · Market capitalization · Market depth · Market manipulation · Market trend · Mean reversion · Momentum · Open outcry · Public float · Rally · Reverse stock split · Share capital · Short selling · Slippage · Speculation · Stock dilution · Stock split · Trade · Uptick rule · Volatility · Voting interest · Stock market index - The market has three movements Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Look at other dictionaries: Dow Theory — is a heterodox theory on stock price movements that is used as the basis for technical analysis. The theory was derived from 255 Wall Street Journal editorials written by Charles H. Dow (1851 ndash;1902), journalist, founder and first editor of… … Wikipedia Dow Theory — Used in the context of general equities. Technical theory that a major trend in the stock market must be confirmed by simultaneous movement of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Transportation Average to new highs or lows.… … Financial and business terms dow theory — ˈdau̇ noun also dow s theory ˈdau̇z Usage: usually capitalized D Etymology: after Charles H. Dow died 1902 more at dow jones average : a system of stock market forecasting based on the observed swings of the market itself * * * Dow theory, U.S … Useful english dictionary Dow Theory — A theory which says the market is in an upward trend if one of its averages (industrial or transportation) advances above a previous important high, it is accompanied or followed by a similar advance in the other. The theory also says that when… … Investment dictionary Dow Jones Transportation Average — Stammdaten Staat Vereinigte Staaten Börse New York Stock Exchange ISIN XC0009694214 … Deutsch Wikipedia Dow Jones Transportation Average — The Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA, also called the Dow Jones Transports ) is a U.S. stock market index from Dow Jones Indexes of the transportation sector, and is the most widely recognized gauge of the American transportation sector. It … Wikipedia Dow, Charles Henry — ▪ American journalist born Nov. 6, 1851, Sterling, Conn., U.S. died Dec. 4, 1902, Brooklyn, N.Y. American journalist who cofounded Dow Jones & Company, a financial news service, and The Wall Street Journal. His original contributions include the … Universalium dow's theory — noun see dow theory … Useful english dictionary Dow 36,000 — Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting From the Coming Rise in the Stock Market is a book by James K. Glassman and Kevin A. Hassett. It was published in 1999, shortly before the dot com bubble burst, and predicted that the Dow Jones… … Wikipedia Dow Jones Industrial Average — Recent logarithmic graph of the DJIA from Jan 2000 through Jul 2011 … Wikipedia

Unfortunately, it seems as though natural disasters have become a regular occurence all over the world during this past year. Many people have lost their homes to floods, tornadoes, fires and earthquakes. California is known as one of the most earthquake-prone states, yet statistics show that less than 15 percent of homeowners here have purchased California earthquake insurance. Are Californians in denial about their risk? Even the most optimistic homeowners must know that the San Andreas fault line isn’t going anywhere, and it will always pose a threat to people who have spent their life savings on their home but have not obtained earthquake coverage to protect their investment. The number of earthquakes that occur each year in the U.S. may surprise you. According to the Insurance Information Institute, there are about 5,000 earthquakes of varying magnitude in the country annually. While premiums for California eathquake insurance may cost more than those for coverage on the East Coast, individuals who live in the Pacific Northwest do have the option of raising their deductible, which can lower their monthly premium. However, this means that they will have to pay for a higher percentage of the cost to repair their home if it is destroyed by an earthquake. Individuals who are looking to buy a home in California may want to consider the fact that the structure of the house they choose can affect their earthquake insurance costs. For example, newer homes with wood frames will be less expensive to insure than older ones that are made of brick since they are more likely to withstand and earthquake. Considering the high risk that California residents have for experiencing an earthquake, purchasing insurance for this type of disaster seems like common sense. People who worry that they cannot afford earthquake insurance will likely find that the cost of coverage pales in comparison to that of replacing their home and possessions when an event does occur.

What is the Balance Sheet? The financial statement prepared for the end day of the accounting period to show the financial position of a business concern is called a balance sheet. In other words, The balance sheet is a statement of assets and liabilities including the owner’s equity at a particular date of a business concern. Its main task is to exhibit the financial position of a business concern at a particular date. The statement of “assets” and “liabilities” exhibits the financial position of a business. The balance sheet is prepared with those ledger balances that are left after transferring revenue ledger balances into the income statement. The balance sheet is not an account. It is a financial statement that is prepared with ledger balances. Ledger balances are not transferred to the balance sheet. These ledger balances remain as closing balances which are transferred to the next accounting period as opening ledger balances. The balance sheet includes assets and liabilities & owner’s equity. The total assets are equal to the total liabilities and owner’s equity. So Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity. In brief A= L + OE. The objective of the Balance Sheet The balance sheet is prepared with the following objects: - Knowing the financial position of a business. - Knowing the real value of assets. - Knowing the amount and nature of liabilities. - Verification of debt paying capability of a business. - Knowing the trend of changes in assets and liabilities. - Knowing the trend of profit or loss of business. - Knowing the deduction of depreciation from assets. - Knowing the amount of prepaid and unpaid expenses. 2 Types of Balance Sheet are; - Unclassified balance sheet. - Classified Balance Sheet. Presentation form of the balance sheet is of two types: 1. Unclassified Balance Sheet In an unclassified balance sheet, all assets are shown without making any classification. Similarly, liabilities are also shown without making any classification. But in writing, assets liquidity and durability of assets are taken into consideration as far as possible. Similarly, liabilities are written considering their short term and long term nature. That is, if assets are written giving emphasis on liquidity, the long-term liabilities follow short-term liabilities. 2. Classified Balance Sheet In statement form balance sheet assets are shown first. Assets are shown classifying them into: - Current assets, - Property, plant, and equipment, - Intangible assets. In the later part, liabilities are shown classifying them into current liabilities, long-term liabilities, and owner’s equity. If assets, liabilities and owner’s equity are written accurately it is evident that the total of assets must be equal to the total of liabilities and owner’s equity. Thereby the equation A= L + OE is proved. The balance sheet in which assets are shown classifying them into current and fixed-and liabilities as short term and long term and owner’s equity separately is called a classified balance sheet. In below we discuss the components of the classified balance sheet. Cash or other assets that are convertible into money and exhausted within a short period, one year or less from the date of the balance sheet are called current assets. A service-oriented business concern generally has four types of current assets: - Investment (short term), - Accounts receivable and notes receivable, - Prepaid expenses and accrued income but not received. The current assets are explained below; Cash means cash in hand and cash at the bank which is used for current operating purposes; such as deposits into saving account and current account. Cash as a current asset is shown as a first item in the balance sheet. Cash equivalents are those assets that are readily convertible into money. Such as treasury bills, short-term notes maturing within 90 days, deposit certificates, etc. Generally, marketable securities’ are called short-term investments. For example, shares and bonds of other companies purchased for a short-term period. Accounts receivable and notes receivable Accounts receivable means money is receivable from persons or organizations. Accounts receivable are created when services are rendered or goods are sold on account. For these debts, no documentary evidence is kept excepting signature on invoice or ticket. Accounts receivable are created when services are rendered or goods are sold on account. This account receivable is called the debtor. Debtor prepares a promissory note and signs on it and hands it over to the creditor as documentary evidence of his debts. A promissory note is a promise to pay a certain sum of money within the stipulated time. This note is generally prepared for a short period. After the expiry of the stipulated time money is received. Prepaid expense and accrued income The prepaid expense and accrued income not received within the particular accounting period are termed as current assets. Generally house rent, insurance premium, office supply, etc. are paid in advance. Interest on investment accrued but not received on the date of maturity is shown as current assets at the end of the accounting period. In a trading concern, merchandise inventory is also treated as current assets. It means merchandise remains unsold at the end day of an accounting period. Fixed or long-term assets The assets which are used in business for a long-term period are called fixed or long-term assets. Property, plant, equipment, long-term investment, and intangible assets. A business organization enjoys the utility of fixed assets for more than a year. Property, plant, and equipment Land, building, plant, and equipment last for more than a year in business. A business concern purchases these assets for use in the business, not for sale. Property, plant, and equipment are synonymous with plant assets or fixed assets. In the balance sheet, under fixed assets property is shown first, then plant and the equipment. The land is a space of a business concern where office building, factory building, and store-building are built and business activities are carried out thereon. Buildings are the structures of a business concern where its activities are carried out. The building of a business concern is the plant asset. Plant and machinery Manufacturing concern uses heavy plant and machinery for production purposes. These are the fixed assets of the business. Business concern enjoys the utility of these plant and machinery for a longer period. Equipment means table, chair, cabinet, computer, copier, calculator, fax machine, telephone, computer, etc. used in offices and stores of the business. Long-term investment generally means stocks and bonds of other companies purchased. These are purchased - to hold control over other companies, - for permanent income and - for maintaining good relations with other companies. The assets which are invisible and untouchable are called intangible assets of a business, such as, goodwill, trademark, copyright, preliminary expenses, share discount, brand name, etc. Liabilities payable within a short period of quickly changeable are called current liabilities. The liabilities which are payable within the next year from the date of the balance sheet or within an operating cycle whichever is longer are called current liabilities. Accounts payable, notes payable, expense payable, dividend payable, unearned revenue, bank loan, interest payable etc. The liabilities which are payable after one year from the date of the balance sheet or after an operating cycle whichever is longer are called long-term liabilities. Such as mortgage loan, debenture, long term notes payable, lease, pension, and gratuity fund, etc. Owner’s equity differs as per the nature of the business In a sole-proprietorship business, a single capital account is maintained. In a partnership business, separate capital accounts are maintained for individual partners. In the case of a joint-stock company owner’s equity is divided into share capital and retained earnings. Share capital and retained earning joined together are called shareholder’s equity.

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 38 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 1,589,834 times. It's really important to know how much an item is going to cost before you purchase it. It's not as easy as just looking at the price tag; sales tax must be calculated in order to determine the total cost. Sales tax rates are increasing, which makes the tax impact on a purchase more significant. Use these tips to learn how to calculate sales tax on your retail purchases. Method 1 of 4: Calculating Total Cost 1Multiply the cost of an item or service by the sales tax in order to find out the total cost. The equation looks like this: Item or service cost x sales tax (in decimal form) = total sales tax. Add the total sales tax to the Item or service cost to get your total cost. X Research source Calculating Sales Tax Change the sales tax into decimal form. For instance: 7.5% sales tax becomes .075 in decimal form 3.4% sales tax becomes .034 in decimal form 5% sales tax becomes .05 in decimal form Formula: Item or service cost x sales tax (in decimal form) = total sales tax. Sample calculation: $60 (item cost) x .075 (sales tax) = $4.50 total sales tax 2Once you've calculated sales tax, make sure to add it to the original cost to get the total cost. If the total sales tax is $5 and your original item cost was $100, your total cost will be $105. X Research sourceAdvertisement Method 2 of 4: 1Try this example. You're buying a basketball in the state of Colorado, where sales tax is 2.9%. X Research source The basketball costs $25. How much is the total cost of the basketball, including sales tax? Convert the percentage sales tax into decimal form: 2.9% becomes .029. Multiply it out: $25 x .029 = $.73, or $25.73 total cost 2Try another example. You're buying groceries in the state of Mississippi, where the sales tax is 7%. The grocery bill costs $300. How much is the total cost of the grocery bill, including sales tax? Convert the percentage sales tax into decimal form: 7% becomes .07. Multiply it out: $300 x .07 = $21, or $321 total cost 3Try a third example. You're buying a car in the state of Massachusetts, where sales tax is 6.25%. X Trustworthy Source State of Massachusetts Official website for the State of Massachusetts Go to source The car costs $15,000. How much is the total cost of the car, including sales tax? Convert the percentage sales tax into decimal form: 6.25% becomes .0625. Multiply it out: $15,000 x .0625 = $937.5, or $15,937.5 total costAdvertisement Method 3 of 4: Calculating Sales Tax Rate 1"De-calculate" by working backward if you know the original cost of the item. X Research source You can work backwards to figure out the sales tax rateas long as you know how much the item initially cost. Let's say you bought a computer, listed at $1,200, and the total bill came out to $1,266, meaning that the sales tax was $66. What is the sales tax rate? Take the tax rate and divide it by the original price: $66 ÷ $1,200 = .055 Convert the decimal into a percentage by moving the decimal point two places to the right: .055 becomes 5.5% Your original sales tax rate is 5.5%Advertisement Method 4 of 4: 1Know that some American states do not have sales tax. These states currently include: X Research source - New Hampshire 2Know that states levy different taxes for different goods. A state or district, such as District of Columbia, may have a general sales tax of 6%, but set the tax rate on liquor and prepared food at 10%. X Research source - New Hampshire, for example, has no general sales tax but still taxes restaurants, food services, hotels, room rentals, and motor vehicle rentals at 9%. X Research source - Massachusetts, for example, only starts counting sales tax associated with clothing when the bill exceeds $175. So if you buy under $175 worth of clothing in Massachusetts, the state government won't tax it. X Trustworthy Source State of Massachusetts Official website for the State of Massachusetts Go to source 3Be sure to check with your local state and city when calculating sales tax. We don't often talk of "city sales tax," but it's there. X Research source Most people, however, just lump it in with state sales tax. If you want to know exactly how much money you'll pay in taxes for a certain item,check your local state and city tax lawsfor more informationAdvertisement Every day at wikiHow, we work hard to give you access to instructions and information that will help you live a better life, whether it's keeping you safer, healthier, or improving your well-being. Amid the current public health and economic crises, when the world is shifting dramatically and we are all learning and adapting to changes in daily life, people need wikiHow more than ever. Your support helps wikiHow to create more in-depth illustrated articles and videos and to share our trusted brand of instructional content with millions of people all over the world. Please consider making a contribution to wikiHow today. QuestionHow do I add 6% sales tax to an amount?Community AnswerMultiply the amount x 1.06. This will give you the total amount, including the tax. The "1" is 100% of the item cost, and the ".06" is the tax rate of 6%. For example, you buy a screw driver set for $10.00 and the sales tax rate is 6%. $10.00 x 1.06 = $10.60. This is your total, including tax. QuestionCan 6% be written as 0.0600?Community Answer6% would be 0.06, all you do is move the decimal two spaces to the left. For example 6% sales tax on an item would be calculated by multiplying the total cost by the decimal form of the percentage. Say the total cost was $30.00, it would be calculated as 30 x 0.06 = 1.8 then add the quotient to the original cost. QuestionIf I sell three trees at $85.00 per tree and tell the buyer I included the 6% sales tax in the total price, and $85.00 per tree equals $255.00, when I make out my sales tax form, what do I say the amount of tax was and what was the sale amount?Community AnswerTo calculate the sales tax that is included in receipts from items subject to sales tax, divide the receipts by 1 + the sales tax rate. For example, if the sales tax rate is 6%, divide the total amount of receipts by 1.06. $255 divided by 1.06 (6% sales tax) = 240.57 (rounded up 14.43 = tax amount to report. QuestionHow much is $1070.50 + 6% tax?Community AnswerThe answer is $1134.73. Multiply by 1+ tax rate. So, $1070.50 X 1.06 = $1134.73. QuestionHow can I convert percentages to decimals?Community AnswerYou take the percentage, divide it by 100 (because percentages are out of 100) and that is the decimal equivalent of that percentage. QuestionHow do I add 9 percent to 189?Community AnswerCalculate 1 percent (in this case, 1.89), multiply that by 9, and add it to 189. QuestionIf I have an item to be sold for $46,000 including tax and the tax rate is 7.38%, how do I find the base price for the item?Community AnswerTo find the cost or base price of an item use the total and divide it by the tax rate: $46,000 / 1.0738 = $42,838.52. That is the base price. Now to get the total tax rate you can use $46,000 - $42,838.52 = $3,161.48. So you have total including tax = cost plus total tax. $46,000 = 42,838.52 + 3,161.48. The only tricky part is the tax rate has to be converted to divide to it; you take 7.38 x 100 = 0.0738 and you add 1, so it's 1.0738. QuestionHow can I find the original cost with only the sales tax total and rate? For example: tax rate is 8.6% and collected tax is $15.55.Community AnswerDivide the total tax by the tax rate. In your case, $15.55 / 8.6% = $180.81. The original cost is $180.81, and the total cost with tax included is $180.81 + $15.55 = $196.36. QuestionHow does sales tax impact my paycheck?Top AnswererIt should not impact your paycheck at all. QuestionHow do I know what the sales tax is from a total?Community AnswerUnless the tax rate is explicit you would need to know the cost to get the total sales tax. You can't find it from 1 value alone. What is the sales tax in restaurants in Illinois? When buying a new vehicle, do I pay taxes on the sticker price or the price after any rebates are given? How do I find out the sales tax rate that was used if I only have the total and the sales tax dollar amount? Does shipping get added to the cost before calculating sales tax or is it excluded? How do I find my state's sales tax rate? - When calculating sales tax, round up to the next penny X Research source if you get an amount that has too many decimal places. If your purchase price is $35.50 and your sales tax rate is 7.4 percent, the total when you multiply them is $2.627. Round that up to $2.63 for your amount of sales tax. - ↑ https://www.patriotsoftware.com/accounting/training/blog/how-to-calculate-sales-tax/ - ↑ https://www.taxjar.com/guides/sales-tax-guide-for-consumers/#how-is-sales-tax-calculated - ↑ http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/Revenue/REVX/1178305433490 - ↑ http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-and-resources/tax-guides/salesuse-tax-guide.html - ↑ https://sciencing.com/how-to-calculate-sales-tax-backwards-from-total-13712245.html - ↑ https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/112415/5-states-without-sales-tax.asp - ↑ http://www.taxrates.com/state-rates/washington-dc/ - ↑ https://www.revenue.nh.gov/assistance/tax-overview.htm#meals-rental - ↑ https://www.mass.gov/guides/sales-and-use-tax#apparel-fabric-goods About This Article To calculate sales tax, first convert the sales tax from a percentage to a decimal by moving the decimal 2 places to the left. Then multiply the cost of the item or service by that decimal to get the sales tax. Remember to add the sales tax to the cost of the item or service to get the total amount you will pay for it. For more information on how to calculate sales tax, including some examples, scroll down!

Some of the important factors determining the optimum mode of transportation are as follows: (i) The objective function is to reduce the transportation cost to the minimum (ii) The maximum quantity available at the source (factors) is limited. This is a constraint. (iii) Maximum quantity required at the warehouse is specified. This cannot be exceeded. This is a second constraints. (iv) Maximum quantity available at the source, maximum quantity required at each destination and the cost of transportation, all refer to a single product. (v) Sum of the products available for all sources put together will be equal to sum of products distributed at various destinations. (vi) Transportation techniques are used to help in reduction of transportation cost and help in the following parameters: a) Reduce distribution and transportation cost. b) Improve competitiveness of the product. c) Assist proper location of new factories/plants being planned. d) Reduce cost by closing down uneconomical warehouses. (vii) We have 5 means of transportation at our disposal. Railway, Road, Water, Airplanes, Pipe lines. The choice of transport is governed by a few criteria, such as speed, frequency of service, dependability, availability, safety, operational flexibility and above all the element of cost. The decision on means of transport are closely related to the inventory and on the location of warehouses. We must consider the overall total cost of physical distribution and not merely the cost of transport. Railways offer widest variety and therefore, flexibility in transport. Water transport is the cheapest, but it is very slow. Road transport offers unlimited geographic locations which can be served easily and it also gives flexibility. Pipe lines are excellent for transport of oil or petroleum products which can be delivered on scheduled times. Air transport is the fastest and suitable for costly or perishable goods where speed is very important. Air transport can improve cash flow and profitability of the firm. Bulky products are usually sent by railway transport. Rail transport is suitable for long distance. Road transport is suitable for short distance and costly goods. (i) Railways have pioneered and promoted the use of containerization to facilitate material handling aspect of transport. (ii) All means of transport can co-operate with the help of container services and the entire transport process becomes more efficient, and flexible. Containers can fit on both trucks and open rail wagon. This is called piggyback and when containers can be fitted on trucks, wagon and ships, it is called fishy back. (iii) When goods are transported in containers which can be fitted on trucks and airplanes, it is called birdy back. (iv) Decentralization of warehousing, development of distribution centres (i.e., with service and warehousing facilities) can lead to lower cost of transport and ultimately lower cost of distribution. (v) The total cost approach, the idea of cost trade-offs, the system approach and avoidance of sub-optimisation of costs are the principal supporting concepts of the modern physical distribution system. (a) Machinery used for material handling: The handling of materials influences the efficiency and the distribution cost of materials. The materials handling system should be so designed as to maximise efficiency and minimise cost. Every movement of materials adds to cost and therefore, materials handling strategy should be to eliminate as much handling as possible. The handling of materials takes place at producer’s plant and warehouse and at the warehouses of the distributor and customer in addition to handling during transportation, if necessary. Materials handling equipment should be simple and consistent with the nature of materials and speed of movement. Use of mechanical devices helps to reduce costs of handling materials. But cost savings should be large enough over the cost of owning and maintaining the handling equipment. The following types of handling equipment are generally used at warehouses and for transportation. Belt conveyors, Fork Truck, Bridge Crane, Jib Crane, Gantry Crane, Electric Hoist, Roller Conveyor, Chain Hoist, Industrial Trucks such as Fork Lift Truck, Platform Truck, Pallet Handling Trucks, Trolleys and Loaders etc. (b) Procedure and Documentation for Transportation Logistics: Cost of transportation is on the basis of unit weight (i.e., ton) and kilometer of distance. Water transport being the cheapest mode of transportation is used for large quantities heavy goods such as Cement and Steel and Chemicals/Fertilizers. Companies having manufacturing facilities in the proximity of sea port or river banks use the water transport facilities as maximum as possible. Companies using lorries for road transports attempt to economies the cost of transportation by using the full lorry load and making arrangement such that the lorry on return is able to carry goods useful for the company itself or any of its associates. Rail transport needs good packaging of goods is used for long distance transportation. Air transport is useful for costly items such as fancy and luxury goods and also in emergency cases. Documentation for transportation logistics is made in such a way that following information are obtained for transport of goods from producer to the customer. The information’s are as follows: Batch No., Date of Production, Type of goods, Grade, Quantity, Unit of Transportation, Cost of Transportation, Mode of Transport with details, Costs of handling at various stations and final date of delivery to customers etc.

The Affluence Network Bazaar The physical Internet backbone that carries data between the different nodes of the network is currently the work of a number of companies called Internet service providers (ISPs), which includes companies that provide long distance pipelines, occasionally at the international level, regional local conduit, which ultimately links in homes and businesses. The physical connection to the Internet can only occur through one of these ISPs, players like level 3, Cogent, and IBM AT&T. Each ISP operates its own network. Internet service providers Exchange IXPs, owned or private firms, and occasionally by Governments, make for each of these networks to be interconnected or to transfer messages across the network. Many ISPs have agreements with suppliers of physical Internet backbone providers to offer Internet service over their networks for “last mile”-consumers and businesses who want to get Internet connectivity. Internet protocols, followed by everyone in the network makes it possible for the data to flow without interruption, in the correct spot at the perfect time. While none of these organizations “owns” the Internet together these firms determine how it works, and recognized rules and standards that everyone remains. Contracts and legal framework that underlies all that is happening to ascertain how things work and what happens if something goes wrong. To get a domain name, for instance, one needs permission from a Registrar, which has a contract with ICANN. To connect to the Internet, your ISP must be physical contracts with providers of Internet backbone services, and suppliers have contracts with IXPs from the Internet backbone to attach to and with her. Concern over security problems? A working group is formed to focus on the problem and the solution developed and deployed is in the interest of all parties. If the Internet is down, you might have someone to phone to get it repaired. If the problem is from your ISP, they in turn have contracts in place and service level agreements, which regulate the way in which these issues are solved. The benefit of cryptocurrency is that it uses blockchain technology. The network of nodes the make up the blockchain is not governed by any centered business. No one can tell the miners to update, speed up, slow down, stop or do anything. And that is something that as a committed supporter badge of honor, and is identical to the way the Internet operates. But as you understand now, public Internet governance, normalities and rules that regulate how it works present inherent difficulties to an individual. Blockchain technology has none of that. Many people prefer to use a money deflation, particularly those that desire to save. Despite the criticism and disbelief, a cryptocurrency coin may be better suited for some uses than others. Fiscal solitude, for example, is amazing for political activists, but more debatable as it pertains to political campaign financing. We need a stable cryptocurrency for use in commerce; If you are living pay check to pay check, it’d happen included in your wealth, with the rest reserved for other currencies. For most users of cryptocurrencies it’s not necessary to understand how the procedure works in and of itself, but it’s basically crucial that you understand that there’s a process of mining to create virtual currency. Unlike currencies as we understand them now where Authorities and banks can only choose to print endless quantities (I ‘m not saying they are doing thus, only one point), cryptocurrencies to be managed by users using a mining program, which solves the advanced algorithms to release blocks of currencies that can enter into circulation. The Affluence Network Bazaar as Ethereum. The platform allows creation of a contract without having to go through a third party. The third parties involved can contain bank, credit card Firm, You may run a search on the web. First learn, then models, indicators and most importantly practice looking at old charts and pick out trends. Anytime you learn to keep a trading diary screenshots and your comment/forecast. Precisely what is the best way to get confident with charts IMHO. Oh certainly, and don’t fool yourself into thinking that you acquire the uptrend will never go lower! Always will go down! You will discover that incremental benefits are more reliable and profitable (most times) Entrepreneurs in the cryptocurrency movement may be wise to investigate possibilities for making gigantic ammonts of money with various kinds of internet marketing.There could be a rich reward for anyone daring enough to endure the cryptocurrency marketplaces.Bitcoin design provides an informative example of how one might make lots of money in the cryptocurrency marketplaces. Bitcoin is an incredible intellectual and technical accomplishment, and it’s created an avalanche of editorial coverage and venture capital investment opportunities. But very few people understand that and pass up on very successful business models made accessible as a result of growing use of blockchain technology. It is definitely possible, but it must be able to recognize opportunities regardless of market behavior. The market moves in relation to cost BTC … So even if it’s in a BTC trend down can make money by purchasing the altcoins which are altcoin oversold trading ratios-BTC. Sure, your purchasing power in DOLLARS may be lower, but as long as your purchasing power in BTC is still growing you’ll be alright. When searching on the internet for The Affluence Network bazaar, there are many things to ponder. The Affluence Network Bazaar Click here to visit our home page and learn more about The Affluence Network bazaar. Since among the oldest forms of making money is in money financing, it’s a fact that you could do that with cryptocurrency. Most of the giving websites currently focus on Bitcoin, a few of these websites you happen to be demanded fill in a captcha after a particular time period and are rewarded with a small amount of coins for seeing them. It is possible to visit the www.cryptofunds.co website to find some lists of of these websites to tap into the currency of your choice. Unlike forex, stocks and options, etc., altcoin markets have very different dynamics. New ones are always popping up which means they do not have a lot of market data and historical view for you to backtest against. Most altcoins have fairly inferior liquidity as well and it is hard to develop an acceptable investment strategy. Cryptocurrency is freeing individuals to transact cash and do business on their terms. Each user can send and receive payments in an identical way, but in addition they get involved in more complicated smart contracts. Multiple signatures allow a trade to be supported by the network, but where a specific number of a defined group of folks consent to sign the deal, blockchain technology makes this possible. This allows progressive dispute arbitration services to be developed in the foreseeable future. These services could allow a third party to approve or reject a trade in the event of disagreement between the other parties without checking their cash. Unlike cash and other payment procedures, the blockchain constantly leaves public proof a transaction occurred. This can be possibly used in an appeal against companies with deceptive practices. This mining task validates and records the transactions across the whole network. So if you’re trying to do something illegal, it isn’t wise because everything is recorded in the public register for the rest of the world to see eternally. Bitcoin is the main cryptocurrency of the internet: a digital money standard by which all other coins are compared to. Cryptocurrencies are distributed, world-wide, and decentralized. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, there is no governments, banks, or every other regulatory agencies. As such, it truly is more resistant to outrageous inflation and tainted banks. The benefits of using cryptocurrencies as your method of transacting cash online outweigh the security and privacy risks. Security and privacy can easily be reached by simply being smart, and following some basic guidelines. You wouldn’t set your entire bank ledger online for the word to see, but my nature, your cryptocurrency ledger is publicized. This can be fastened by removing any identity of possession from your wallets and thereby keeping you anonymous. If you are looking for The Affluence Network bazaar, look no further than TAN. The Affluence Network Bazaar Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, LiteCoin, Ether, YOCoin, and many others have already been designed as a non-fiat currency. Put simply, its backers contend that there is “real” value, even through there isn’t any physical representation of that value. The value rises due to computing power, that’s, is the lone way to create new coins distributed by allocating CPU electricity via computer programs called miners. Miners create a block after a time frame that is worth an ever diminishing amount of currency or some type of reward so that you can ensure the deficit. Each coin contains many smaller components. For Bitcoin, each unit is called a satoshi. Operations that take place during mining are just to authenticate other trades, such that both creates and authenticates itself, a simple and elegant solution, which can be one of the appealing aspects of the coin. The blockchain is where the public record of trades dwells. The fact that there is little evidence of any increase in the use of virtual money as a currency may be the reason why there are minimal attempts to regulate it. The reason for this could be simply that the market is too small for cryptocurrencies to warrant any regulatory attempt. It’s also possible that the regulators just don’t comprehend the technology and its consequences, awaiting any developments to act. Mining cryptocurrencies is how new coins are put in circulation. Because there is no government control and crypto coins are digital, they cannot be printed or minted to make more. The mining process is what produces more of the coin. It may be useful to consider the mining as joining a lottery group, the pros and cons are precisely the same. Mining crypto coins means you will really get to keep the total benefits of your efforts, but this reduces your chances of being successful. Instead, joining a pool means that, overall, members will have a greater possibility of solving a block, but the reward will be divided between all members of the pool, depending on the number of “shares” won. If you are thinking of going it alone, it really is worth noting that the software settings for solo mining can be more complicated than with a swimming pool, and beginners would be probably better take the latter path. This option also creates a stable flow of revenue, even if each payment is small compared to fully block the wages. In the case of the fully functioning cryptocurrency, it might perhaps be traded as being a commodity. Supporters of cryptocurrencies say that this type of virtual income is not governed by way of a key bank system and is not therefore subject to the whims of its inflation. Because there are always a restricted amount of items, this money’s value is founded on market forces, permitting homeowners to trade over cryptocurrency exchanges. Here is the trendiest thing about cryptocurrencies; they usually do not physically exist anywhere, not even on a hard drive. When you take a look at a specific address for a wallet containing a cryptocurrency, there is absolutely no digital information held in it, like in the exact same way that a bank could hold dollars in a bank account. It really is simply a representation of value, but there is absolutely no genuine palpable kind of that value. Cryptocurrency wallets may not be confiscated or immobilized or audited by the banks and the law. They would not have spending limits and withdrawal constraints enforced on them. No one but the person who owns the crypto wallet can determine how their riches will be managed. The wonder of the cryptocurrencies is that scam was proved an impossibility: as a result of dynamics of the method where it is transacted. All transactions over a crypto-currency blockchain are permanent. Once youare paid, you get paid. This isn’t anything short-term where your visitors can challenge or need a concessions, or use unethical sleight of hand. In practice, most dealers will be smart to utilize a cost processor, because of the permanent dynamics of crypto-currency orders, you must be sure that safety is challenging. With any type of crypto-currency whether a bitcoin, ether, litecoin, or any of the numerous different altcoins, thieves and hackers might access your private secrets and so grab your cash. Unfortunately, you most likely can never have it back. It’s quite crucial for you yourself to follow some excellent safe and sound routines when working with any cryptocurrency. Doing so will protect you from many of these damaging events.

A senior analyst at independent energy research and consulting firm Rystad said the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) would provide Italy with a natural gas supply security. Italy currently imports natural gas from Russia, Algeria, Qatar, and Norway to diversify energy sources, thereby reducing its dependence on Russian natural gas. In 2018, Italy imported about 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia. By 2019, as Turkey reduces its natural gas imports from Russia, it will become one of the largest buyers after Germany. Therefore, other natural gas sources will help stabilize their demand. The pipeline is inseparable from the bearing, an vital component, such as stainless steel ball bearings. Excellent corrosion resistance: Stainless steel bearings are difficult to rust and have strong corrosion resistance. Washable: Stainless steel bearing can be washed down without having to lubricate to prevent rust penalties. Can run in liquids: Due to the materials used, we can run bearings and housings in fluids. Slower depletion: AISI 316 stainless steel does not require oil or grease corrosion protection. Therefore, if speed and load are low, no lubrication is required. These are precisely what is needed to build the TAP pipeline. The TAP project is worth 4.5 billion euros and is one of the EU’s key energy projects. The project envisages the transfer of natural gas from the second phase of the Shaadniz project in Azerbaijan to EU countries. TAP will connect the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, cross northern Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea, and then land in southern Italy to join the Italian natural gas network. Italy will receive 8.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas through TAP and is expected to supply by the end of 2020. By the end of January, 92% of the TAP project had been completed.

What is blockchain technology? For the past several weeks, you’ve likely heard some of the following terms if you’ve paid attention to the world of finance: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. But what do they mean? And why is cryptocurrency suddenly so hot? First, we’ll explain the blockchain basics. As society become increasingly digital, financial services providers are looking to offer customers the same services to which they’re accustomed, but in a more efficient, secure, and cost effective way. Enter blockchain technology. The origins of blockchain are a bit nebulous. A person or group of people known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomoto invented and released the tech in 2009 as a way to digitally and anonymously send payments between two parties without needing a third party to verify the transaction. It was initially designed to facilitate, authorize, and log the transfer of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. How does blockchain technology work? Blockchain tech is actually rather easy to understand at its core. Essentially, it’s a shared database populated with entries that must be confirmed and encrypted. Think of it as a kind of highly encrypted and verified shared Google Document, in which each entry in the sheet depends on a logical relationship to all its predecessors. Blockchain tech offers a way to securely and efficiently create a tamper-proof log of sensitive activity (anything from international money transfers to shareholder records). Blockchain’s conceptual framework and underlying code is useful for a variety of financial processes because of the potential it has to give companies a secure, digital alternative to banking processes that are typically bureaucratic, time-consuming, paper-heavy, and expensive. Saving the planet, fixing healthcare, replacing conventional currency—there is apparently nothing that the shared-database technology known as blockchains can’t fix. At least, that’s the impression given by the horde of governments, banks, entrepreneurs, and tech companiesworking on the technology. But what is a blockchain and why the excitement? If you’ve got 2 minutes, check out the video above- WIRED can explain. What are cryptocurrencies? Cryptocurrencies are essentially just digital money, digital tools of exchange that use cryptography and the aforementioned blockchain technology to facilitate secure and anonymous transactions. There had been several iterations of cryptocurrency over the years, but Bitcoin truly thrust cryptocurrencies forward in the late 2000s. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies floating out on the market now, but Bitcoin is far and away the most popular. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies don’t just fall out of the sky. Like any other form of money, it takes work to produce them. And that work comes in the form of mining. But let’s take a step back. Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, ensured that there would ever only be 21 million Bitcoins in existence. He (or they) reached that figure by calculating that people would discover, or “mine,” a certain number of blocks of transactions each day. Every four years, the number of Bitcoins released in relation to the previous cycle gets reduced by 50%, along with the reward to miners for discovering new blocks. At the moment, that reward is 12.5 Bitcoins. Therefore, the total number of Bitcoins in circulation will approach 21 million but never actually reach that figure. This means Bitcoin will never experience inflation. The downside here is that a hack or cyberattack could be a disaster because it could erase Bitcoin wallets with little hope of getting the value back. Always store large amounts of your Digital Currency Offline! Anything that is not used for trading on an exchange should be stored in cold storage. We will cover more on this in an upcoming article to help ensure you keep your investment safe. We recommend the Ledger Nano S, the Trezor Wallet and the Ledger Nano Blue (for those with a little more to spend.) Back to “Mining” As for mining Bitcoins, the process requires electrical energy. Miners solve complex mathematical problems, and the reward is more Bitcoins generated and awarded to them. Miners also verify transactions and prevent fraud, so more miners equals faster, more reliable, and more secure transactions. Thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto’s designs, Bitcoin mining becomes more difficult as more miners join the fray. In 2009, a miner could mine 200 Bitcoin in a matter of days. In 2014, it would take approximately 98 years to mine just one, according to 99Bitcoins. Super powerful computers called Application Specific Integrated Circuit, or ASIC, were developed specifically to mine Bitcoins. But because so many miners have joined in the last few years, it remains difficult to mine loads. The solution is mining pools, groups of miners who band together and are paid relative to their share of the work. Current & future uses of blockchain technology & cryptocurrency Since its inception, Bitcoin has been rather volatile. But based on its recent boom — and a forecast by Snapchat’s first investor, Jeremy Liew, that it would hit $500,000 by 2030 — and the prospect of grabbing a slice of the Bitcoin pie becomes far more attractive. Bitcoin users expect 94% of all bitcoins to be released by 2024. As the number moves toward the ceiling of 21 million, many expect the profits miners once made from the creation of new blocks to become so low that they will become negligible. But as more bitcoins enter circulation, transaction fees could rise and offset this. As for blockchain technology itself, it has numerous applications, from banking to the Internet of Things. In the next few years, BI Intelligence expects companies to flesh out their blockchain IoT solutions. Blockchain is a promising tool that will transform parts of the IoT and enable solutions that provide greater insight into assets, operations, and supply chains. It will also transform how health records and connected medical devices store and transmit data. We are in the infancy of a technology that has greater potential for revolutionizing technology and making a bigger impact than the coming of the internet in the 90’s. There is a use case for almost every industry, if we posted all the infographics this would be the longest blog post ever. If you understand and believe in the impact Blockchain Technology could have and the potential for it to revolutionize technology- buying and holding long term is the best strategy for anyone who is not a seasoned trader. For the latest bitcoin & altcoin news Subscribe to Our Blog! CryptoCurrency Clarified is the Only Unbiased Source covering CryptoCurrencies Online. If you’ll notice, every other “news source” is somehow affiliated with a coin desk or service that benefits if you follow their advice.

Logistics is the management of the flow of assets or goods from the point of origin to the endpoint of consumption. The future of logistics and transportation lies in technology and innovation. This has been the issue of most concern. Consumers are eager for significant transformations in the transport industry. With so much heat, the transport sector has to disrupt itself, or else the demand will force consumers to look for options. Here are the challenges facing the transportation industry. Experts in transport are incredibly concerned with the speed at which innovation is evolving. Technology is taking over like a disease. This has seen various logistics businesses struggle to keep up with the levels of developments in technology. As digital disruption and innovation become critical parts of the entire strategy for many businesses, a lot needs to change. The role of supply chain and logistics needs to alter to capitalize on the value of any digital investment an organization establishes. Supply chain integration Trade has globalized. Presently, goods are bought and sold to and from different people across the globe. This has made it critical to overseeing universal trade flows and geopolitics to comprehend the impact of demand and supply. However, the supply chain integration is not all about adhering to the present trade policies. Companies need to integrate in all the significant points within the supply chain to avoid data silos. One of the most significant challenges of the transportation industry is the ability to elevate flexibility when shipping is the subject. But, the new transport administration can enable companies to manage or assist some of the demanding integrations in the supply chain. Altering customer expectations Client expectations are now changing all because of technology. This is a fact. Moreover, as clients become information-enabled, they have expectations that their transport services keep them fully informed throughout the entire process. Similarly, because of the ballooning amount of accessible data, clients want to discover a business that operates with their precise expectations. This implies that the age of catch-all solutions is fast shrinking. It is being replaced with a more prominent, innovation –powered supply chain. With such information at hand, transport experts need to turn to offer the most exceptional value possible to the clients. This implies that they will have to comprehend better the impacts of technology trends in the transport process to allow the clients to witness what is transpiring at each step. Evolving digital requirements Several transport enterprises are still struggling with their approach when it comes to Information Technology systems. Correspondingly, the main challenge with the evolving digital requirements is extensive. They are jumping to the next digital bandwagon before solving the traditional tribulations. With such information at disposal, transport professionals need to act fast. They need to gear up for the right speeds. Failure to this, they will have to face two different ways of conducting business that collide with each other. Digital transformation means reshaping both strategies and models of conducting business to stay fully competitive in the digital age. This includes both large and small businesses. However, one thing is certain; failure to transform the transport processes to match the digital transformation can result in fewer revenue and profits because of few opportunities to do business. But, apart from implementing a new set of policies, the digital revolution also entails altering the mindset that is involved in doing business. Digital transformation goes beyond just installing applications and adding Internet of Things powered GPS tracking systems to your assets. Much is needed, not only expanding on how information can disrupt your business. Core systems transformation Transport firms need to know what their core systems are. They need to be aware of this before going ahead to attempt to disrupt their businesses. If they know, it’s wise they check again because, more often, companies develop with unique architectures. Businesses growing disparately make it challenging for the stakeholders to comprehend the business. However, with the latest technologies emerging in the transportation industry, companies have a chance to rejuvenate their business. They will also be able to modernize their supply chain administration. Transport automation and the Internet of Things partnered robots Order fulfillment and automating warehouses with robots has been challenging for the industry. However, with the pushing demand, various transport organizations are looking forward to utilizing them. They will assist in simplifying the processes. Clients are pushing for more modern transport techniques. With the emergence of e-commerce, transportation providers are required to operate efficiently and faster. They need to process an individual’s orders quickly. This is a sector that has surprised the industry. Many transportation companies are still struggling to adjust. Either way, they have no choice. Labor shortages have handed robotics the platform to reshape the transportation landscape. Companies used to have 80% of the warehouse’s operation conducted manually. With the rising demand, they have to deploy robots to make things more accurate, flexible, and affordable. This is a puzzle that most transport companies will cross the year with attempting to solve. Proactive cyber security With businesses transitioning to the digital age, so too are numerous cybercriminals improving and obtaining new objectives of all sizes and shapes. Transportation companies have been hacked not once but many times. But, most cyber attacks that have been happening come from the inside. Workers providing internal open vulnerabilities cause them. The vulnerabilities are caused by workers who fail to adhere to the designed Cyber Protocol. Transport firms have struggled with this menace for a long time. Until a permanent approach is made to solve this issue, the transport industry will still be battling problems of cyber security in the coming year. The transportation industry is aiming at enhancing the visibility of the supply chain as a means of elevating integrity and product security. However, this will not be met without efforts to solve the challenges facing the industry. The problems pose costly consequences for the sector. To keep the clients intact and trusting the systems, much will have to be done.

Lesson Plan Part II: Estimating Bills This post continues the lesson plan introduced in Part I. Part II: Bills, Bills, Bills After students figure out their rough net pay from Part I of the budgeting assignment, now starts the “not-so-fun” part — figuring out their monthly bills. This part of the assignment prompts heavy sighs and dramatic comments about students realizing how expensive it is “just to live.” (But don’t fear, the fun spending is next!) I divide this section into two parts — the payments all MUST make and the ones that may not apply to their individual situation. Before students get started on the actual “budget” part of their bills, we discuss housing. Since housing is the largest expense for most people, it’s important for students to realize their options. We cover some of the basics about housing — lease agreements, security deposits, pet policies, benefits and drawbacks of having roommates — and I have them find 3 possible options in a city where they want to live as an adult. I recommend students look for options at different price points and with different numbers of roommates while they compile a list of pros and cons of their top three choices. For reference, the average one-bedroom in our city is $815/month and the average two-bedroom is $900. (I encourage students to try to keep housing costs below 30% of monthly net pay, but students are free to make their own decisions about housing while weighing their opportunity costs.) After students select their rent options, it’s on to the bills! Students should always complete this part in pencil 🙂 Bills Part I — The Necessities I have several things students all must factor into their monthly necessary bills: - Taxes (they already calculated their yearly federal taxes in Part I of the budgeting lesson plan) - Retirement Contributions (they already calculated their yearly federal taxes in Part I of the budgeting lesson plan) - Rent (Students choose one of the places from their research) - Utilities (To keep this simple, I have all students use $192 for the unit’s utilities bills since it is my city’s average — if they have roommates they can use division for their portion of the utilities bills) - Renter’s Insurance (Students use the national average of $12. I always emphasize the importance of having renter’s insurance with students.) - Health Insurance (Although the students’ future jobs may offer health insurance, I want them to see this item explicitly in their budget. Students use $196, the price of catastrophic insurance price for healthy 20-somethings my city) - Groceries (Students use $230, the USDA’s “thrifty” plan estimate) - Philanthropy (Students pick a charity they would support and any value $1 or above. My state includes philanthropy on the economic standards for budgeting, but I think it’s great to emphasize giving to a cause they care about in any amount they can afford) Bills Part II — Payments This part of the bills includes payments that most students will have. - Emergency Savings (I recommend at least 10% of net pay for all students — all students must have something going toward their emergency savings account) - Student Loan Payments (Students who go to college/graduate school will calculate the average payment for tuition using online calculators) - Car Payments (Once again students will use online calculators) - Car Insurance (Students can use the average monthly US payment of $77) - Gas/Car Maintenance(Students can use averages of $120 and $50 respectively) - Other Transportation Costs (Bus/Subway passes, bike maintenance, ride sharing, etc.) For bills, students will need to perform some calculations that are unique to their desired situation. I try to keep the math simple and utilize online calculators for things like student loan and car payments. Not all students will have these payments, but I want them to realize how much student loans and cars will really cost them as “adults” — especially if they are not used to paying bills on their own. I feel strongly about students having a concrete idea of how much it will cost to live their desired life. Personally, I had absolutely no concept of the cost of bills after high school, especially when it came to student loans (and I’m still feeling that cost today). I want students to be able to customize this assignment as much as possible, but I make sure students do this in pencil. Many students will erase their numbers when they realize exactly how much is leftover for the “fun” spending in the next part. Some realize they should downsize their apartment or continue to drive their current car into adulthood in order to reduce their bills. Realizing these opportunity costs is important at this age so they can prepare for being a financially independent adult. Although bill calculations are not fun or exciting, hopefully students can look forward to an apartment or car they love. Or maybe it’s the prospect of having money set aside in savings and investment accounts. I want students to come away with knowledge and hopefully they will be excited for some aspect of their living situation. The next part of the assignment — the “fun” part of discretionary spending — allows for students to spend money on the things that bring them joy. Before students proceed to the fun stuff, they should add their spending on the necessities and figure out how much is leftover from their gross pay. I have them use this chart to help keep track: Now on to Part III!

NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY, 2020 – MARKET ANALYSIS from Grégory Pradels Fast fact: in 20 years of cubesat missions, fewer than 30% are considered to have reached their goal. But what lies behind this seemingly stark statistic? The pie chart below, presented at last year’s Cubesat Developer workshop, shows the spread of outcomes over 20 years of cubesat missions (2000-2019). The chart is based exclusively on available data, which represent a nonetheless significant sample of 1,011 satellites. Taking a critical view, we could point to the fact that only 30% of the satellites in this study fully accomplished their mission or that more than 17% were lost at an early stage or dead on arrival. However, it should be stressed that most of these satellites were built by newcomers to the market. The goal for many of them is not to deliver an operational service, but rather to demonstrate the value of their proposition in order to attract talent (universities) or stimulate demand (start-ups). They should therefore be seen as a first step towards validating a concept and scaling up to either more operational cubesats or larger satellites. The best example of this kind of approach is the U.S. firm Planet. Cubesats have therefore found their market with players who have so far shunned space technologies due to their cost and complexity. It is a market with its own codes that transcend the traditional market for operational missions, which is why legacy players have not embraced it. The cubesat form factor has opened the market to new consumers. In economics, such unexplored market territories are termed “blue oceans”. This new market is extensive, notably as a result of the many universities involved around the globe. In some countries like the United States or China, for example, engineering schools are now finding themselves obliged to include a cubesat course in their curriculum or risk losing students.

As we marked the 47th annual Earth Day on April 22nd, we were once again reminded of the need to protect our environment. This heightened awareness is testament to how far Americans have come in both recognizing and curbing the wasteful, destructive behaviors that emerged in the decades following World War II. Those excesses have given rise to conservation and environmentalism, and were heralded by the first Earth Day in 1970. Today’s Wasteful Behavior: Cash Out Leakage While we may be more environmentally-conscious these days, we don’t apply the same principles financially. There is a highly-wasteful and harmful behavior that silently robs millions of the prospect for a comfortable or timely retirement. Every year, millions of Americans will needlessly cash out their retirement savings after changing jobs, converting these savings into wasted consumption and avoidable tax penalties. Newly-compiled statistics by Retirement Clearinghouse paint a grim picture: - In 2017, approximately 14.8 million defined contribution plan participants will change jobs. - Of these job-changing participants, over 31%, or 4.7 million, will cash out their retirement savings in the first year following their separation. - Another 1.4 million will cash out their savings over the next 7 years. - In total, 6.1 million, or 42% of the job-changers from the “class of 2017” will eventually cash out over $68 billion in retirement savings. Digging deeper into the demographics of cash out leakage, the statistics further demonstrate that the participants most-affected by cash out leakage can least afford it, including: - Younger age groups, particularly Millennials - Lower income groups - Minorities, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics For a dramatic, visual representation of the problem of cash out leakage, visit Retirement Clearinghouse’s National Retirement Savings Cashout Clock, which depicts an up-to-the-minute counter of the retirement savings already cashed out in 2017. The numbers are staggering. Solving the Problem of Cash Out Leakage The good news about cash out leakage is that we understand its causes and how to prevent most of it. A 2015 study of America’s Mobile Workforce found that most job-changing plan participants, when faced with the difficulty of “do-it-yourself” portability, simply took the path-of-least-resistance and cashed out their retirement savings, while slightly more than a third of participants who cashed out actually needed the funds for an economic emergency. From a behavioral perspective, if moving retirement savings forward to the next employer’s plan were made as easy as cashing out, then almost two-thirds of the cash out leakage problem could be solved. Consequently, Auto Portability is the first innovation that could spell the end for excessive cashout leakage. Auto Portability is the routine, standardized and automatic movement of an inactive participant’s small balance retirement account (less than $5,000) from a former employer’s retirement plan to an active account at a new employer’s retirement plan, when a participant changes jobs. Auto Portability has gained some influential supporters who believe that reducing cash out leakage could deliver a massive benefit to our economy and is achievable by the private sector. New research from EBRI, presented on March 30th at a forum hosted by the Financial Services Roundtable, has calculated the present value of Auto Portability’s benefits at $2 trillion. This analysis places Auto Portability ahead of auto IRA initiatives and just behind universal defined contribution coverage in terms of the impact on the total retirement savings shortfall. By any definition, this analysis clearly establishes Auto Portability as a leading public policy initiative. At the same event, former Sen. Kent Conrad of the Bipartisan Policy Center expressed his support for a private-sector “retirement security clearinghouse” to help job-changers consolidate their retirement savings. The BPC’s position clearly demonstrates the strong bipartisan support that Auto Portability enjoys, and that it’s benefits could be efficiently delivered without imposing a burden on America’s taxpayers. On Earth Day 2017, we’re seeing encouraging signs that the problem of retirement savings cash out leakage will finally get the attention that it deserves.

Japan's Emergence as an Innovating Economy Japan's emergence in the 1970s and 1980s as a technological and innovative powerhouse impressed and fascinated the world. Many believed that Japan's technological gains stemmed from government-provided subsidies. In this video lecture, Lee Branstetter, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, makes the case that most of Japan's emergence as a technological leader stems from its educational system and its ability to train well-qualified engineers and knowledge workers. The accompanying discussion guide will help students better understand Japan's rapid industrial growth, and in particular, the role of industrial policy in Japan’s emergence as a high tech manufacturing power.

For the organizations that survived the 2008 to 2009 recession, growth now seems to be the dominant theme. Is this a sign that we are past the scarcity introduced by the recession or is it just a form of coping with economic limitations? Most organizations in the U.S. experienced a revenue shrinkage that ranged between 15 percent and 40 percent from 2008 to 2010. This shrinkage translated into stopping most investments, diminishing capabilities due to layoffs, greater amount of work and related stress for remaining employees, wage reductions, and an emphasis on short term strategies. There have been many comparisons between the Great Depression and what is now called the “Great Recession.” The rate of contraction in global trade between 2007 and 2008 was worse than the Great Depression. The proportionate decline in global stock market wealth was rather dramatic. Estimates suggest that household wealth in the U.S. declined 17 percent in during the recession while it declined, by comparison, by a mere three percent in between 1928 and 1929. On the other hand, it would be naïve to argue in terms of the duration of the recession and its impact on jobs and livelihoods that it was anywhere as impactful as the Great Depression. Unemployment reached 25 percent in the U.S. during the 1930s. In both 2008 and 2009, even the worst affected economies did not exhibit unemployment rates in that range. In July 2008, the Associated Press reported that a “depression era” mentality was taking hold of consumers. Author Julie Hall stated that 78 million baby boomers assumed this type of mentality inherited from their parents. Leaders across the world responded to the scarcity of available funds and much lower spending by taking measures not just in their personal lives, but in their organizations too. Scarcity is both a physical reality and a mindset. As a physical reality and stated in economic terms, scarcity means demand is greater than supply. In the case of the “Great Recession,” the demand for spending rapidly outweighed the available supply of funds. As an example, endowments for hospitals dropped by 21 percent in 2008, according to news reports. Endowments account for as much as 40 percent of the overall income for these institutions. As a mindset, scarcity is the perception that there is not enough for everyone. Eldar Shafir of Princeton University and Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard University have been exploring how scarcity produces its own cognitive traits and psychology. These researchers have pointed out that people tend to have a low view of themselves in times of scarcity and actually perform poorly in terms of cognition. Studies conducted by Shafir and Mullainathan show that scarcity makes us operate with a short term mentality and with a greater number of mistakes. Unfortunately, organizations today suffer from both forms of scarcity, which are combined in a reinforcing loop. A third variable which complicates matters for public companies is the pressure to increase earnings per share (or EPS), which normally translates into higher stock prices. The irony is that in our current market, stocks are following the emotions of investors and not necessarily sound company fundamentals. I mentioned growth at the start of this blog. Past the peak of the recession and the compression that most organizations felt, growth became the main theme for most CEOs and their leadership teams. Part of this growth was aimed to recover the lost revenue during 2008 and 2009 but, beyond that, most leadership teams have recognized that managing “limitation” is hard and certainly not enjoyable. How does the current approach to growth differ from what we did to fuel the growth in the 1990s and the mid-2000s? By 1. Doing more work with fewer employees, and offering less funding for tools and other resources; 2. Offering less opportunities for growth and promotion due to a slow increase in hiring and little employee movement; 3. Limiting available investments to revenue generation rather than improving internal conditions; 4. Working to capture immediate revenues at the expense of long-term strategies with potentially higher returns; 5. Fixating on increasing stock prices, which puts pressure on employees to do whatever it takes to meet or exceed the EPS communicated to market analysts; and Today’s growth is marked by the anemic but, nevertheless, increasing GDP and the recovering stock market; however, our behavior inside organizations is tentative and reflective of the recent hard times of the “Great Recession.” There is evidence of the lasting effects of scarcity. This is manifested in the conversations in boardrooms as investments and market performance are discussed, and around water coolers as employees lament the yet again minimal raises and lack of promotion opportunities. Other conversations point to the short sightedness of product and service strategies and the lack of investments to make work easier and more efficient. Scarcity appears to be a force that affects individuals and organizations guiding their narrative and resulting behaviors. It is hard to predict how long the scarcity of the “Great Recession” will affect us and our organizations, after all, it took decades and a World War to make our grandparents and parents snap out of the scarcity of the Great Depression.

Back in the day, most people learned how to manage their money through the school of hard knocks. That’s still true. But today’s young people face much larger, higher-stakes financial decisions at a younger age than their elders. For example, in 2018, the average college graduate faced $29,200 in student loan debt — the highest it’s ever been — according to a new report by the Institute for College Access & Success. And recent data from TransUnion shows that more than half of people ages 18 to 24 who have a credit card are carrying a balance on it. It’s clear teens need help making sound money decisions. One financial literacy program pairs teens with volunteer mentors to create hands-on financial learning. Money Matters: Make It Count was created in collaboration between Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Charles Schwab Foundation and is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Young people have gone through the program a million times since it started. Tamara Johnson served as a former Money Matters ambassador in Santa Fe. Johnson, who earned college scholarships and now practices family law, credits the program for giving her the foundation she needed to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. As a result, she’s debt free! “While I was an ambassador, so many adults told me how they wished they had started as early as I did in getting the money thing right,” said Johnson. “I would tell any teenager if they have the opportunity to take part in Money Matters or any other financial literacy program, take it. You’ll learn simple steps for saving, and your future self will thank you!” To help and inspire other teens to take steps to master financial literacy, Johnson offers her top five tips. - Respect the power of credit: You know how teachers, parents and other adults are always saying a bad decision can haunt you for years? That’s definitely true with credit. Bad money habits, like maxing out your credit card or making late payments, will show on your credit report almost right away. Then, it takes seven years before that disappears from your credit history. That can mean paying higher interest rates, being turned down for a loan, or not getting hired for a job you want. The good news is, being smart with money helps you avoid the credit trap. These remaining tips will show you how. - Be a saver — it’s never too early to start: What’s the best way to avoid using credit cards? Build a savings cushion, so when unexpected costs come up, there will be no need for a credit card. Starting now, any time money comes in — your paycheck, babysitting money, birthday cash from grandma — the very first thing you should do is pay yourself. Tuck some of it away, and watch those dollars add up. Someday, that money will be there for you when it's time to buy a car, go to college or rent an apartment. The pride you'll feel from watching your savings grow is priceless! - Never start the month without a plan: There's no substitute for planning. At the start of the month, sit down and list everything you will need to pay for in the coming weeks. Think about how much you have, what your paycheck will be, and then, do the math to make sure you have enough to cover it. This doesn't have to be complicated, just a simple list you keep on your phone so it’s always with you. Then, check in with your monthly plan once every week or so, and make sure everything’s on track. - Sort out needs vs. wants: Here’s the tough part. Your favorite band is coming to town, and all your friends want to catch the show. But your phone needs a new battery, your car has a flat tire and insurance is due. It's so tempting to cave and raid your savings account so you can do it all. These choices are never fun, and this won’t be the last time it happens. But remember, your spending plan will be meaningless if you don’t stick to it. So yes, there will be times when you’ll need the conviction to say no. That said, make room in your budget for the fun things, so you can feel great about times like these when you want to say yes. - Stretch your dollars: You work hard for your money. Let it work hard for you! Before you buy, shop around. Compare prices online, wait for a sale or download a digital coupon. Or if you’re grabbing lunch, skip the beverage and ask for ice water; then put that money into savings. Smart money moves like these can leave you with a little extra and make it easier to keep it all in balance: your needs, wants and savings. When you stay in control of your spending, it’s that much easier to avoid debt. Creating good financial habits early in life can help you achieve your goals. Follow these tips, and you'll be well on your way. Parents or teens who'd like to learn more about the program should check with their local Boys & Girls Club, or visit the Money Matters page on BGCA.org and take advantage of this resource.

COINage Magazine|June - July 2020 In 1851 and 1852 the mints struck large numbers of trimes (three-cent silver pieces) because of the ongoing coin shortage. STACK’S BOWERS For the more than 200 years that the United States mints have been in operation, there have been good and bad years for coinage. These fluctuations have directly affected those dedicated collectors who avidly seek out coins of this country, especially where the output was low in the difficult years. In the early days of the Philadelphi Mint, especially during the 1790s, coinage was very erratic, as the striking of gold and silver coins depended on bullion brought to the Mint by private depositors. The situation did improve somewhat after 1797 when the Bank of the United States was persuaded to make regular deposits of the precious metals; at first, these were primarily foreign silver coins, especially those of France. In time, however, gold was also sent to the Mint in reasonable amounts. Some of the mintages, such as for the minor silver coins in 1796 and 1797, are very small and costly to modern day collectors wishing to add to their collections. It is sometimes said that these small coinages were the result of not enough bullion coming to the Mint, but this is only partially correct. The lack of bullion, especially silver, meant that Mint Director Elias Boudinot had two choices. The first was to lay off skilled workers until the deposits got better. The second was to create a make-work situation in which small coinages, which required time and effort, were the order of the day; in 1796 and 1797, the make-work answer enabled the director to keep skilled workers on hand until bullion deposits increased. Large numbers of copper-nickel coins were struck beginning in 1965 to replace the silver coins taken from circulation by the public It is also said that the United States Mint at Philadelphia, in its earlier days, was not able to supply sufficient and gold coins for the public to use in the marketplace. This fact is again partly correct in that the entire output of the Philadelphia Mint, even including cents and half cents of copper, did not come close to providing a strong circulating medium for the country. We also find numerous instances of small coinages, such as the 1815 half dollar in which less than 50,000 were struck. The charge of not enough coins coming from the Mint is true, but again not quite the whole story. In reality, the American marketplace was relatively well supplied with silver and copper coins, the latter, of course, coming from the Mint. The bulk of the silver coins in daily use, however, were not made in the United States but were rather Spanish coins coming from mints in the Americas, especially Mexico City, Lima, and Potosi. After 1821 most of the silver came from newly independent Mexico. Some idea of the amount of Spanish and Mexican silver in daily use can be seen in a study done in New York City in the late 1830s. At that time, United States coins made up only about one-sixth of the silver in daily use, the rest being foreign. Not all of the foreign was Spanish as there was a small amount of French silver in everyday use, mostly five-franc pieces. Because of this surplus of foreign silver in the marketplace, there was less pressure on the Philadelphia and New Orleans Mints for heavy coinages of silver. The New Orleans Mint coined both silver and gold after it opened for coinage in 1838. Due to the coin shortage, cents of 1851 were rolled up in bundles of 10,25, or 50 pieces to pass as dimes, quarters or half dollars. GOLDBERG COINS & COLLECTIBLES The generally well-stocked marketplace, in terms of available coinage, came crashing to a halt in the late 1840s, the United States now facing its first real monetary problem. The discovery of gold in California in early 1848 and the large quantities found there led to an abundance of gold in the marketplace. The discovery of gold, in turn, meant that silver would rise in value to the point that a half dollar, for example, now contained about 52 cents worth of silver. You can read up to 3 premium stories before you subscribe to Magzter GOLD Log in, if you are already a subscriber Get unlimited access to thousands of curated premium stories and 5,000+ magazines READ THE ENTIRE ISSUE June - July 2020

MONEY BASICS for architects “If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man.” - J. Paul Getty, American industrialist One of the key factors to measure the success of your architectural practice is the ‘Financial temperature’ of your firm. To maintain normal financial temperature of the firm, it is important to have basic insights of finances so that firm can manage to achieve its goals. The financial strength of your company is based on 5 basic accounting concepts. These concepts are the core of any business finance. They are: Income / Expense Arthur Sullivan describes in his book ‘Economics: Principles in action’ that “assets represent the value of ownership that can be converted into cash”. It is an economic resource. It can also be understood as the “possessions which are tangible or intangible in nature which can be increased.” We can understand assets better when we look at its different forms. Assets are mostly categorized as: Cash: Money that a firm can count in the form of currency. It is the most liquid or handy money available to the firm. Bank deposits: Banks are authorized institutions to manage money. The firm keeps its money in the current account (a/c). Individual’s money is kept in saving a/c. Surplus money can also be invested in fixed deposit a/c to earn more interest.This is a second most liquid form of assets. Stock/Share: Often, surplus money is invested in the shares. By trading these shares, you can generate some immediate cash. But it is important to understand and accept that the trading of stocks/shares is a risky proposition and a business in itself. Thus, sufficient knowledge and understanding of the stock industry is required before you step into this venture. Mutual fund: Mutual fund is also an investment in shares. The difference here is that your shares are managed by recognized financial institutions. You can read about nine basic concepts associate with mutual funds here. Foreign exchange: The practice of currency trading is also commonly referred to as foreign exchange, Forex or FX. Every country has its own set of rules for trading in Forex. This is similar to stock market where return on investment is not guaranteed due to its speculative nature. Movable and immovable assets: Most likely, this is where your major block of assets will be lying. Immovable asset is an asset that cannot be moved without destroying or altering it. For example, an estate or a house is immovable assets. Movable assets are those which can be transferred from one place to the other without any damage or alterations. For example, stocks, cash, furniture, vehicles, office equipment, jewellery, etc. Intangible assets: This is not reflected in the account statement, but you build it significantly if you understand the importance of it. By and large, intangible assets cover goodwill, patent, franchise, copyright, etc. No goodwill can be mentioned in the account statement and can turn into salable assets at the time of settlement. Additionally, assets can also be categorized as: Fixed assets: It is a term applied in accounting for assets that cannot easily be converted into cash. For example, furniture and equipment, property and buildings, vehicles, etc. Current assets: These are assets available to the owner as a prompt source of money. For example, cash on hand, fees receivable, pre-paid expenses, insurance, bank deposits etc. Financial obligation is an obligation or an entity that you owe to others, For example, car loan, bank loans or borrowings from your relatives, etc. This is the amount which you are legally required to pay back in installments or as per agreed terms and conditions. Liabilities come in different varieties. For example: Notes payable (a written promise to pay a specific sum of money), Interest payable, Sales Payable, Salaries payable, Unclaimed dividend, Long/short term loans, etc. On a balance sheet, liabilities may be described in two categories: Current liabilities: these liabilities are short-term (which may be needed to be paid back within a year). They usually include payable such as salaries, bills, taxes, account payables, portions of long-term bonds to be paid this year, short-term obligations (e.g. From purchase of equipment). Long-term liabilities: these liabilities may be expected to be liquidated after one or more years. They usually include long-term bonds, notes payable, long-term leases, pension obligations, long-term product warranties, and so on. On a balance sheet, there are two sides - one of the assets (what you have) and the other for Liabilities (who owns it). Assets are on the left and Liabilities are on right. You can learn more about creating the balance sheet here. Equity is the value of the firm’s assets, generally called ‘Net Worth’. The meaning depends on the context. For an architectural business, it is the amount that owners have contributed + the retained earnings/losses. Equity (net worth) = Assets - Liabilities In general, it can be understood as the sum of all assets after the debts associated with those assets are paid off. You can see more about equity and its relations to the balance sheet here. 4. INCOME & EXPENSE Income is also called Revenue. Gross income is generated from project fees, any other joint venture, dividend, royalties, etc. Here it is important to understand the distinction between receipt and income. “Receipt” means total cash (money) received after the sale of a particular service or asset and is usually a one time in nature. “Income” means total money received against one’s job performance/investment and is recurring in nature. Net income = Gross income - Expenses Expenses are usually categorized largely into two types: Direct expense: for an architectural firm, these are the costs you incur for the production of your projects. For example, travel, printing, salary of project staff members, equipment maintenance, etc. Indirect expenses: These are the costs that a firm incurs but are not directly associated with your projects. For example, insurance, staff training, overheads, accounting and legal services, office rent, etc. Income and expense statement also widely known as profit/loss statement is important because it shows the profitability of a company. The format may vary depending on the size and Profit and loss may also be computed under certain standard rules laid down by the direct tax act. The income/expense statement along with the balance sheet can also be used to monitor several financial ratios. These ratios indicate the financial status of the company in relation to other factors. You can learn more about these financial ratios here. 5. Accounting methods There are two methods of maintaining accounts transaction: Cash basis: a mode of accounting where income and expenditure is recorded when they are actually realized or paid. Most individual and professionals start as cash basis as this method is a lot simpler and easy to use for a start-up firm. However, for management purpose and project wise accounting many firms maintain accounts on accrual basis also. Cash basis is simple method and you pay taxes on actual transactions. But it doesn't give a clear financial picture. Accrual basis: A method of keeping accounting records in which revenue is recognized as having been earned when services are performed and expenses are recognized when incurred, without regard to when cash payments are received or made. It’s also called mercantile basis of system. The accrual method is required if your business’s annual sale is very high and your company is structured as a corporation. More information about different aspects of accounting can be found at www.accountingcoach.com << Back to Financial Planning for Architects

As much as prospective buyers would appreciate living in states with no property tax, there’s simply no way of doing so. There isn’t a single state that doesn’t subject property owners to property taxes. The funds derived from levying property taxes on homeowners are integral to each and every state’s infrastructure. However, not all states coincide with huge property taxes. In fact, some states seem to go out of their way to make living within their borders as easy and economically friendly as possible. As a result, homeowners in a handful of states are awarded fewer costs than their more expensive counterparts. If you are interested in learning which states have the best property tax rates, or simply want to understand what property taxes are, please reference the following. While one of the most misunderstood factors associated with homeownership, it’s absolutely imperative for prospective buyers to understand local property tax rates. In order to truly understand property taxes, however, buyers must first understand why they are paying them in the first place. For better or for worse, property taxes serve as a primary source of state funding. Most states rely on the money they bring in from property taxes to fund their infrastructure. Local municipalities use the money they receive from property taxes to fund a number of projects: education, roads, parks and recreational activities, public transportation, and payroll for municipal employees. Most cities rely on the money brought in from property taxes to pay police, firefighters, and their local public works department. That is an important distinction to make: While most people may not be too fond of the idea of paying property taxes, the money is going to good use. A lot of the money is returned to the community from which it came, which begs the question: How do local municipalities decide how much to charge in property taxes? The tax rate, otherwise known as the millage or mill rate, is entirely dependent on local authorities. Local tax authorities are responsible for determining the rate by which homes in their jurisdiction are taxed. Property tax rates take several factors into consideration, but it’s quite common for tax assessors to reverse engineer a rate they believe to be fair. That said, the powers that be will typically first identify how much they need to cover local services and then proceed to apply the property tax rate accordingly. More specifically, the rate is then applied to the home’s most recent appraised value. [ Do you control your finances or are your finances controlling you? Find out how real estate investing can put you on the path toward financial independence. Register to attend a FREE real estate class, upcoming in your area. ] In the event prospective homeowners are trying to determine the true cost of living in a given neighborhood, property tax rates are far from the only costs that need to be taken into consideration. If for nothing else, property taxes aren’t the only variable; everything is relative. While some states have become synonymous with formidable property tax rates, they have found other ways to ease the burden. Texas, for example, is known for having abnormally high property taxes, but The Lone Star State has compensated for relatively high rates by getting rid of income tax. A great deal of the state’s funding is dependent upon its property taxes, which is why its able to get away with not having an income tax. Therefore, Texas’ high property tax rate isn’t as much of a burden as many people would assume. While the current tax rate appears high, the state has found out ways to make things easier on its residents. Unfortunately, not all states operate the same. Not unlike how some states have gone through great lengths to save people money, others have gone the opposite direction. Both New Jersey and Illinois, for example, impose high taxes across the board. As a result, the cost of living is significantly heightened. When all is said and done, property taxes are an important expense to consider, but they are just one piece of the puzzle. In reality, property taxes are merely relative to every other expense imposed by a state. It’s not until the rates are placed in the same context as the remaining taxes imposed by a respective state that the true impact of property taxes may be felt. Everyone is aware of how property taxes vary dramatically from state to state, but fewer are aware that the differences translate to a county level. Within each state, property taxes will also vary from county to county. Local municipalities are responsible for imposing their own property tax rate on the houses within their jurisdiction. There is, however, one constant: the amount of property tax levied on a homeowner is directly correlated to a percentage of the home’s assessed value. You see, each county will determine their own property tax rate, which is then applied to the home’s assessed value. For example, a $130,500 home in a county with a tax rate of 0.40% will incur approximately $522 in property taxes each year ($130,500 x 0.40). The owner of a $200,000 property in the same county will be responsible for paying about $800 ($200,000 x 0.40). As you can see, the higher the median home value in a given county, the higher the property tax will be. To be perfectly clear, there are no states completely void of property taxes. Every single state across the country subjects homeowners to at least some degree of property taxation; there is no escaping them. It is worth noting, however, that the degree to which property owners are exposed to property taxes varies from state to state. Depending on the location of a respective property, it is entirely possible for the incurred taxes to prove either modest or monumental. Whereas some state property taxes may only serve as an inconvenience, others may rival that of the home’s mortgage payments. As a result, it’s important for prospective homeowners to understand exactly what they are getting into before following through with a purchase. Each state across the United States offers a unique array of benefits in order to increase net migration. As a result, it’s entirely possible to live in a state where income or sales taxes are nonexistent. Property taxes, on the other hand, are unavoidable. No matter where someone chooses to call home, they’ll have to pay property taxes. That said, there’s no reason someone couldn’t choose to live in a state with the lowest property tax possible. If you are looking for the states with the lowest property taxes, look no further. Here’s a list of the states where homeowners pay some of the least in property taxes (relative to the home’s assessed value): Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.529% Median Property Taxes Paid: $1,274 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $236,400 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.619% Median Property Taxes Paid: $721 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $128,400 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.574% Median Property Taxes Paid: $821 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $169,800 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.589% Median Property Taxes Paid: $629 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $98,300 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.278% Median Property Taxes Paid: $1,459 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $616,600 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.479% Median Property Taxes Paid: $750 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $147,200 Average State Property Tax Rate (Relative To Assessed Home Value): 0.435% Median Property Taxes Paid: $550 Median Home Value (according To Zillow): $133,800 While homeowners would certainly appreciate living in states with no property tax, there are simply no options. Every state levies property taxes to one degree or another. That said, it’s entirely possible to live in a state where property taxes aren’t as much of a burden. While some states do, in fact, subject homeowners to lofty property taxes, others are a lot easier to manage. Some states even go out of their way to lower property taxes to make living there more attractive. As a result, prospective homeowners may be able to lower their annual costs by living in the right places.