2. Using the information obtained in the library or on the internet, answer the following questions about Peter Manning’s investment suggestions.

a. What does the rating for the Dollar General bond mean?

b. What is the current yield for a Dollar General bond?

c. What does the rating for the Berkshire Hathaway bond mean?

d. What is the current yield for a Berkshire Hathaway bond?

Back in 2008, Mary Goldberg, a 34-year-old widow, got a telephone call from a Wall Street account executive who said that one of his other clients had given him her name. Then he told her his brokerage firm was selling a new corporate bond issue in New World Explorations, a company heavily engaged in oil exploration in the western United States. The bonds in this issue paid investors 11.2 percent a year.
He then said that the minimum investment was $10,000 and that if she wanted to take advantage of this “once in a lifetime” opportunity, she had to move fast. To Mary, it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up, and she bit hook, line, and sinker. She sent the account executive a check—and never heard from him again. A few days later (and after her check was paid by her bank), she went to the library to research her bond investment. Unfortunately, she found there was no such company as New World Explorations, and she had lost $10,000. Right then and there, she vowed she would never invest in bonds again. From now on, she would put her money in the bank, where it was guaranteed.
Over the years, she continued to save and deposit money in the bank and accumulated more than $42,000. Things seemed to be pretty much on track until one of her certificates of deposit matured.
When she went to renew the CD, the bank officer told her interest rates had fallen and current CD interest rates ranged between 0.50 and 1.5 percent.