1. Discuss the general investment environment in the U.S. and comment on the need to invest in global securities. 2. Discuss how an investor can account for risk in a portfolio including the need to adjust the risk of a portfolio relative to an investors individual needs.3. Financial theory normally supports coporate use of debt to lower the overall cost of capital. Research an S & P 500 firm with little to no debt and discuss their strategic reasoning for not borrowing and the ramifications associated with their WACC.4. Find the current beta for an S & P 500 company and discuss why you believe the firm has such a Beta and discuss the ovweall riskiness of the firm from a stockholders viewpoint. 5. Present and analyze the effectiveness of the current Federal Reserve monetary policy 6. Discuss the impacts of large negative current account balances for a country. In addition is a negative acount balance always bad for a country’s economy? 7. Discuss why an international firm may or may not have a lower cost of capital than a similar domestic only firm:8. Discuss key points of the recent Dodd-Frank legislation and discuss the important pros and cons of this legislation on major financial institutions
