1. Explain the reasons why the net present value criterion is the best way to evaluate proposed investments.
2. Discuss the relevant incremental cash flows for project evaluation.
3. Contrast the differences between a flexible short-term financing policy and a restrictive one. What are the pros and cons of each?
4. A company has sales of €46,200, costs of €23,100, depreciation expense of €2,200, and interest expense of €1,700. The tax rate is 22 percent. What is the operating cash flow (OCF)?
5. Two mutually exclusive projects have an initial cost of €47,500 each. Project A produces cash inflows of €25,300, €37,100, and €22,000 for Years 1 through 3, respectively. Project B produces cash inflows of €43,600, €19,800 and €10,400 for Years 1 through 3, respectively. The required rate of return is 14.7 percent for Project A and 14.9 percent for Project B. Which project(s) should be accepted and why?
6. A project has an initial cost of €7,900 and cash inflows of €2,100, €3,140, €3,800, and €4,500 a year over the next four years, respectively. What is the payback period?
7. A company has beginning inventory of €11,062, accounts payable of €8,010, and accounts receivable of €7,844. The end of year values are €11,362 for inventory, €7,898 for accounts payable, and €8,029 for accounts receivable. Net sales are €109,100 and costs of goods sold are €56,220. How many days are in the cash cycle?
8. As of the beginning of the quarter, a company had a cash balance of €710. During the quarter, the company collected €1,860 from customers and paid suppliers €1,520. The company also paid a loan payment of €320 and a tax payment of €510. What is company’s cash balance at the end of the quarter?
9. A company is considering a new three-year expansion project that requires an initial fixed asset investment of €2,320,000. The fixed asset will be depreciated straight-line to zero over its three-year tax life, after which time it will be worthless. The project is estimated to generate €1,735,000 in annual sales, with costs of €650,000. The tax rate is 21 percent and the required return on the project is 12 percent. What is the project’s NPV?
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
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