The case focuses on the challenges still confronting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the end of 2013, a year after he has been in office. It also gives an overview of Japan's earlier economic performance, focusing primarily on the period after it suffered a stock market and real estate crash in 1989-1992. During his first year in office, Abe introduced three sets of policies designed both to reverse the deflation that had plagued Japan since around 2000 and to increase the Japanese growth rate. The first of this three-pronged approach consisted of appointing a central bank governor who committed himself to raising the inflation rate and who vastly expanded the Bank of Japan's balance sheet in an effort to accomplish this. The second involved a fiscal policy plan whose initial thrust was expansionary, but which also sought to reduce future budget deficits. The last one involved a series of microeconomic reforms aimed at expanding GDP and labor productivity. These included initiatives aimed at increasing female labor force participation to compensate for Japan's aging population, reforms of the electric power sector directed at reducing electricity costs, and efforts designed to promote the "health and longevity sector." The case ends by discussing Abe's foreign policy challenges, including Korea's and China's reactions to visits by Japanese officials to the Yasukuni shrine.
The case assembles texts giving perspectives on the Great Depression by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Anna Schwartz and Ben Bernanke. This should allow for a discussion of the role of fiscal and monetary policies in reaching and escaping outcomes in which the interest rate is close to zero for a long time.
This case starts by reporting various factors that may have contributed to the massive Macondo oil spill, noting that BP, its partners, and the government all made decisions that helped cause the accident. It then discusses the response to this spill by BP and the government. This helps provide some context for the decision by the Obama administration to request $20 billion for a fund from BP and for BP's willingness to go along with this request. The case also depicts BP's safety record before this spill, which may also have contributed to the creation of this fund. After this, the case describes the various ways in which the U.S. government is involved in offshore oil, including the leasing of tracts, the regulation of drilling, and the assessment of fines and damages. To provide contrast with BP's payments, the case depicts the payments made by Exxon after the Exxon Valdez spill. The U.S. regulatory regime is then briefly compared with regimes in other countries. After a brief description of the way the fund set up by BP sought to distribute funds and of the temporary moratorium that followed the spill, the case ends with discussion of possible regulatory responses.
By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many retirees are reluctant to buy them and many agents are reluctant to sell them.
This case focuses on the financial difficulties faced in the US from August to December 2006 as well as their roots in subprime lending. After briefly discussing how mortgages were structured and traded in the pre-1990 period, it describes subprime mortgage lending, as well as other innovative mortgages issued in the 1990s. It also discusses how these mortgages were packaged into securities, and who ultimately came to own these claims and their attendant risk. The case then describes the pain inflicted by raising foreclosures, as well as the financial market ramifications of the rise in mortgage delinquencies. It also chronicles the response of the US and European central banks to the unfolding financial difficulties. Lastly, the case lays policies that have been proposed to deal with either the consequences or the causes of the crisis. These include policies for reforming the supervision of the financial system, changing bankruptcy rules and regulating mortgage finance. Some attention is paid to the role of credit rating agencies in the crisis, and in the financial system as a whole.
Describes the political ramifications in the United States of Dubai-based DP World's acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Because P&O operated some port terminals in the United States, DP World obtained clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States before P&O shareholders approved the deal in February 2006. Nonetheless, a ruckus over port security erupted both in Congress and in the press and this ruckus led DP World to promise that it would relinquish the U.S. terminals of P&O. Also contains a brief description of Dubai and its relationship to the U.S., a discussion of issues related to port security, and a brief history of U.S. security concerns with foreign direct investment. Ends with a depiction of the Bills passed unanimously by the U.S. House and Senate to further regulate foreign investment in the wake of the DP World debacle.
Considers the situation facing Alberto Fujimori as he takes office in 1990. Pays particular attention to Peru's long history of international borrowing, default, and renegotiation. This history suggests that the costs imposed by foreigners on Peru when it failed to meet its contracts with foreign lenders have been relatively mild. Discusses the administration of Alan Garcia, who limited payments on Peru's international debt while also leading his country into an inflationary spiral. Also discusses some of the challenges posed by a bloody insurgency group named Sendero Luminoso.
Focuses on a decision by the European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti about U.S.-based Microsoft Corp. Sun has complained to the commission that Microsoft has installed components in its desktop operating system that only "talk" to Microsoft operating systems for servers. Sun has further complained that Microsoft released information about its operating systems to some partners but not to Sun. The commission has issued a formal complaint, but Monti's decision is still pending at the time of the case. As background for this decision, the case contains information about the U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft, U.S. and European competition laws, and how European lawmakers have dealt with interconnections among IT components in the past.
After highlighting some key developments in the banking history of the United States, the case illustrates the Banking Panic of 1933 and the way in which Franklin D. Roosevelt dealt with it at the beginning of his presidency. Describes the main components of banking reform bills that members of Congress proposed in April 1933. Deposit insurance figured prominently in these bills, and the case summarizes the contemporary debate surrounding this proposed insurance.
Presents a compilation of primary and secondary sources as well as a set of data exhibits on the German hyperinflation of 1923. The hyperinflation represented a defining moment in German history and certainly one of the two or three most important economic events of the 20th century. Memories of it continue to shape economic policy in Germany to this day. Equally important, the story of the world's most spectacular hyperinflation is rich in lessons about the many interconnections between money, prices, production, and politics in a modern capitalist economy.