Cash Management Paper
Cash is the lifeblood of companies. Cash provides the liquidity needed to meet everyday obligations owed to suppliers and creditors and the flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities that may arise. Managing cash is a delicate issue for many firms. For businesses cash is the key to daily operations, but cash is a non-earning asset. Dollars tied up in cash could be earning higher rates of return if invested in other areas. Large corporations spend considerable time and resources in cash management; dollars are transferred back and forth between marketable securities and cash accounts that earn a higher rate of return. Negotiated credit lines serve to supplement depleted cash during periods of shortage. Short-term financing is a portal that allows firms to operate with a low cash balance. The first part of this paper will explain the various cash management techniques. The second half of the paper will address the types of short-term financing a financial manager of a firm has to choose from.
Between 1999 and 2005, a reported 850 million people were malnourished worldwide (Skoet & Stamoulis, 2006.) The world's population is expected to reach about nine billion by 2050 (Suzuki, 1999), and available farm land is decreasing (Egide L. Nizeyimana, 2002.)This means that global food provisions must increase in order to supply the growing population (UN E&C Council 2008.) Genetic engineering of food crops as a means of yielding higher quantities as well as better quality produce has been suggested as an answer (Coghlan, 2005). However, recent controversies about the reliability of claims made about higher crop yields, in addition to public distrust of government control of GM food, clouds the argument for this solution. Many books and journal articles are questioning if genetically modified (GM) foods can alone solve Third World food shortage, and in comparison, very few support it.
