Part 1: Forecast of Economic Trends and Interest Rates (40% of the project grade) Based on the course material presented in Week 2 For this project, you will need to investigate global and domestic economic trends. The decision of what type of securities to buy or to sell depends on global and domestic economic trends because the economic situation of the country is a main factor of profitability. A good understanding of the industry and macroeconomic situation is also useful for explaining the past performance and creating a reliable forecast of future sales and profits. You will use your findings in all parts of this written assignment. Select at least three news articles that discuss short-term and long-term economic trends in the United States. Specifically, you will need: the forecast of economic growth, and  data-driven short-term and long-term forecasts of interest rates. At least one news article should be dated within the past month. The article should be from an online newspaper or magazine, or a government website. Materials posted on educational websites like www.thebalance.com and www.khanacademy.org are not considered news articles, even if they are recent and relevant. Your specific assignment is as follows: Compare and contrast the opinions of the authors of the articles regarding the forecast of economic trends. Compare and contrast the opinions of the authors of the articles regarding the forecast of short-term and long-term interest rates. Then, summarize the key points of the articles in one to two pages. For the comparison sections, present the key information, data, and statistics to support your conclusions. Write in your own words with brief quotations from the article(s). For all quotations, statistics, and other information attributable to a specific source, include in-text citations and references formatted in accordance with the current edition of the APA style manual. Part 2: Treasury Yield Curves (40% of the project grade) Based on the course material presented in Weeks 2 and 4 For this part of the project we will be using the U.S. Treasury Department website. It is useful site for obtaining actual Treasury yield data. 1. Create a table with the interest rates data for the Treasury yield curve for the following four dates. You can simply copy-paste the dates. Present the data in your response as a table. a. 30/12/1992  b. 12/02/2008 c. 3/26/2019 d. 2021: the most recent available business day 2. Create the graphs in Excel and include them in your project. 3. Contrast the yield curves data for these four business days. What curve(s) can be considered normal curves? Inverse curves? Flat curves? 4. Compare long-term and short-term interest rates for each curve. What do yield curves say about long-term versus short-term interest rates? 5. The yield curve's shape and level change due to a variety of monetary, economic, and political factors. What factors could account for this difference in shapes of the curves and in level of interest rates? 6. Using the forecast of economic trends and interest rates you found in Part 1 of the project, what shape Treasury yield curve and level of interest rates do you expect to see in the short term and in the long term? Part 3: Reflection (5% of the project grade) Write a paragraph in your own words reflecting on what you learned from the assignment and how you think you could apply what you learned in the workplace or in your everyday life.

Submit a report that discusses the techniques used by malware developers to disguise their code and prevent it from being analyzed.  Give suggestions on how these techniques should be classified and ranked in the disaster recovery documentation.

Question 21-1 Define each of the following terms: a. Interest tax shields; value of tax shield b. Adjusted present value (APV) model c. Compressed adjusted present value (CAPV) model Question 21-2 Modigliani and Miller assumed that firms do not grow. How does positive growth change their conclusions about the value of the levered firm and its cost of capital? Mini Case David Lyons, CEO of Lyons Solar Technologies, is concerned about his firm’s level of debt financing. The company uses short-term debt to finance its temporary working capital needs, but it does not use any permanent (long-term) debt. Other solar technology companies average about 30% debt, and Mr. Lyons wonders why they use so much more debt and how it affects stock prices. To gain some insights into the matter, he poses the following questions to you, his recently hired assistant. a. Who were Modigliani and Miller (MM), and what assumptions are embedded in the MM and Miller models? b. Assume that Firms U and L are in the same risk class and that both have. Firm U uses no debt financing, and its cost of equity is. Firm L has $1 million of debt outstanding at a cost of. There are no taxes. Assume that the MM assumptions hold. 1. Find V, S, , and WACC for Firms U and L. 2. Graph (a) the relationships between capital costs and leverage as measured by D/V and (b) the relationship between V and D. c. Now assume that Firms L and U are both subject to a 40% corporate tax rate. Using the data given in Part b, repeat the analysis called for in b(1) and b(2) using assumptions from the MM model with taxes. d. Suppose that Firms U and L are growing at a constant rate of 7% and that the investment in net operating assets required to support this growth is 10% of EBIT. Use the compressed adjusted present value (APV) model to estimate the value of U and L. Also estimate the levered cost of equity and the weighted average cost of capital. e. Suppose the expected free cash flow for Year 1 is $250,000 but it is expected to grow unevenly over the next 3 years: and, after which it will grow at a constant rate of 7%. The expected interest expense at Year 1 is $80,000, but it is expected to grow over the next couple of years before the capital structure becomes constant: Interest expense at Year 2 will be $95,000, at Year 3 it will be $120,000, and it will grow at 7% thereafter. What is the estimated horizon unlevered value of operations (i.e., the value at Year 3 immediately after the FCF at Year 3)? What is the current unlevered value of operations? What is the horizon value of the tax shield at Year 3? What is the current value of the tax shield? What is the current total value? The tax rate and unlevered cost of equity remain at 40% and 14%, respectively.