Business Commons^™

The Difficulties Faced By The U.S. Army’S Fund Balance With Treasury Account Reconciliation System, Danielle Lelio

Honors College

The U.S. Army’s financial management system has been struggling with material weaknesses and problematic internal control failures for the past ten years. Within the Army General Fund, there have been 20 material weaknesses uncovered via audit. These weaknesses indicate that there are financial management problems within these areas and there are problems within the Army’s internal financial control and reporting systems. In order to navigate these problems, a series of plans were created to improve controls in the areas most prone to weakness in preparation for the fiscal year 2018 full Department of Defense audit.

One of the areas in …

The Keys To Disney’S Magic And Success, Jordan M. K. Daley

Honors College

This research was conducted in order to compare the inner business practices of the Walt Disney Company, specifically their theme park known as the Walt Disney World Resort, to the concepts set forth by Michael Porter and his Productivity Frontier. This research was compiled with information gathered from firsthand experience as a Disney cast member, in depth explanations about Disney’s technological advancements for data collection, as well as data gathered from Walt Disney Company financial statements. After analyzing the way in which the company runs it’s extremely large service organization, it can be concluded that the Walt Disney World Resort …

Pay For Performance: Do Higher Expense Ratios Of Levered And Inverse Etfs Lead To Lower Tracking Error?, Grant Carrier

Honors College

Levered and inverse Exchange Traded Funds (LETFs) are a recent and controversial innovation in financial engineering. These ETFs set out to achieve daily returns that are a multiple (2x, 3x) or negative multiple (-1x, -2x, -3x) of an underlying index. Since their inception in 2006, research has overwhelmingly concluded that these ETFs fail to meet their stated objectives over long holding periods. However, there has been debate over the causes of this error, and the holding period at which the tracking begins to break down.

This thesis sets out to analyze the relationship between the expense ratios of LETFs and …

Fy 18 Preliminary University Of Maine System Unified Budget Presentation, University Of Maine System

General University of Maine Publications

Slides from a presentation regarding the 2018 fiscal year preliminary budget for the University of Maine.

Fy 17 Preliminary Education & General Budget Continuing The Discussion Presentation Slides, Jeffrey E. Heckler, Susan J. Hunter Dr., Claire Strickland, Ryan Low

General University of Maine Publications

Slides from presentations regarding the University of Maine's education and general budget for the 2017 fiscal year and fiscal planning. The first set of slides are regarding the preliminary budget, the second are of the final budget discussion, the third are of a multi-year financial analysis FY 2017-2021, and the fourth set are of unified budget with proposed recommendations.

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac: What's Next?, Zachary D. Porter

Honors College

The purpose of this research was to explore the mortgage market in the United States and determine an effective plan of action moving forward. The US experienced a major housing crisis in 2007-2008. As a result, the market has been under significant scrutiny. At the heart of this debate are the two major lending institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The crisis has caused many politicians to call for an overhaul of the US mortgage market, a phasing out of the two agencies, and a shift in the market toward the private sector. A bipartisan proposal in March 2014 addressed …

The Impact Of Private Public Utility Tax-Exempt Bond Issuance, Jacob Day

Honors College

This work presents the current status of Maine’s investor-owned electric utilities. In utilizing current financial data, interviewing with individuals from Bangor Hydro Electric, and through research conducted, it was concluded that it should be in society’s economic best interest to allow privately-owned electric utilities to issue tax-exempt securities in specific scenarios.

In the long-term, this assessment may be useful in the determination of the most efficient methods for public utility capital taxation. Infrastructure development is critical to the success and sustainability of a developed nation. Through sensitivity and scenario analysis conducted in MS Excel, I concluded that the issuance of …

The Effects Of Blending Primary And Diluted Eps Data, Ralph Goldsticker, Pankaj Agrrawal

Finance Faculty Scholarship

The paper predicted in 1999 that the growth rates of technology companies was overstated. Once the executives of these companies would exercise their stock options, the blending of primary and diluted EPS would lower the estimated growth rates. Valuations would subsequently get adjusted (downwards) by the market. This happened over the 2000-2003 bear market. A similar adjustment is now used in the Returnfinder Total Returns app algorithm, which provides dual returns for the ticker entered.