Refer to the most recent financial statements and related disclosure notes of Walmart Stores, Inc. You can find these at the Walmart website, walmartstores.com, or by using Edgar at www.sec.gov. Management's Discussion and Analysis states that Walmart has $12,830,000,000 of “Unrecorded Contractual Obligations: Non-cancelable operating leases.”

Required:

1. What does Walmart's management mean when it says “Unrecorded Contractual Obligations” in this context?

2. See the note on “Commitments” in the disclosure notes. What is Walmart's capital lease liability?

3. If the operating leases were capitalized, approximately how much would that increase the capital lease liability?

4. What effect would that have on the company's debt-equity ratio? (Refer to the balance sheet.)