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Facebook, the world's largest social media company, boasted a worldwide reach with over 140 million companies using the Facebook app, 100 billion messages shared every day, and 70 international offices. With such reach and efficient ability to communicate to people instantly, the company had the potential to be used to sabotage the validity of information consumed daily and even threaten American democracy. This case is about the challenging business decisions that Facebook experienced in response to government and organizations' pressure for more regulations. Government pressure to regulate Facebook's political ads grew prevalent after it became public knowledge that foreign governments (particularly Russia's) manipulated social media to influence the 2016 elections. Russian political actors used a comprehensive set of tools to infiltrate public debates, hack confidential emails of campaign staff, and systematically manipulate Facebook and Twitter to spread misinformation to specific demographics of voters. While Russian operatives strategically targeted their false messages, Facebook and Twitter did not have sufficient mechanisms to prevent the impact of fake news. Students will explore the role of social media companies in regulating political speech and the potential for the spread of misinformation.

In April 2020, the world struggled to contain the exponential escalation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dozens of countries had imposed restrictions on travel, work, and social gatherings. A large share of the global population was under lockdowns and unprecedented supply and demand disruptions crippled the economy. In response, central banks announced massive lending programs to avoid a financial meltdown, and governments were launching unprecedented fiscal packages designed to contain the collapse. In a matter of weeks, the pandemic turned into one of the worst global economic crises since the Great Depression. As governments struggled to make policy decisions, uncertainty and tensions were rising. How to balance the public health and economic concerns? What would be the economic and political consequences of the policy response? Was this the end of globalization, or the beginning of a new era of international cooperation? The only certainty was that some of the hardest choices still lay ahead.

The late 20th century saw a dramatic shift in the criminal justice system of the United States. While incarceration rates had remained stable through the 1960s, they quintupled by the 2000s to 707 per 100,000, far exceeding that of all other nations in the world. By 2020, nearly 2.3 million individuals were locked up in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers. Of these, 60% were Black or Latinx. Why the mass incarceration, and why such disparities by race? Were they responses to recent political and economic shifts, or part of a deeper social and cultural history? And what could be done to address what was now widely recognized by policymakers as a crisis of the criminal justice system in the United States?

From the time he transformed the world of online banking, Elon Musk had established himself as a bold innovator eager to challenge the status quo in hopes of, as he put it, advancing human society. After selling X.com to PayPal in 2002, he founded a series of start-ups in pursuit of that dream, starting with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Hoping to "make human life multiplanetary", Musk aimed to establish the first Mars civilization, but was unable to procure rockets that would be cheap or reliable enough to make the journey. Over the course of the next decade, SpaceX would develop a line of revolutionary rockets that transformed the commercial space launch industry. Using reusable rockets to exploit the benefits of economies of scale, SpaceX cut costs to orbit by a factor of 18 and captured a large percentage of the global launch market, once thought to be inaccessible to newcomers in the industry. But after a remarkable decade, Musk's original goal to reach Mars seemed both within reach and impossibly optimistic. SpaceX had proven technologies that would be critical in supporting a crewed mission to Mars, but the cost to get there was estimated to be well above $200 billion dollars in 2014. While revenues from the launch services market were impressive, they were nowhere near the $200 billion needed to develop a Mars civilization. Would there be enough demand for launch services to make Elon Musk's vision a possibility, or would SpaceX have to find other ways to get there?

Since its expulsion from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore had transformed itself from a third world island nation into a vibrant city-state with one of the highest levels of GDP per capita in the world. However, sluggish demand among Singapore's major trade partners began testing the nation's export-driven growth model. It was also becoming clear that the Singaporean government could no longer focus single-mindedly on economic growth. Was Singapore facing a mid-life crisis? If so, how could the government revive optimism in the nation's future?

An innovative collaboration between the central bank, civil prosecutor's office and the police combine to reduce counterfeit currency.

An innovative collaboration between the central bank, civil prosecutor's office and the police combine to reduce counterfeit currency.

For the twenty years following the Zapatista uprising (1994-2013), the federal government had placed a lot of resources and policy attention in an effort to reduce the large income gaps between Chiapas and the rest of Mexico. Public investment in schools, hospitals, and conditional cash transfer programs had been implemented, resulting in a significant improvement that did reduce the gap in terms of educational and health outcomes. Massive infrastructure projects had been undertaken to upgrade Chiapas' roads, ports and airports, boosting the connectivity of the state with markets within the state and elsewhere in Mexico. And yet, twenty years later the income gap between workers in Chiapas and the rest of Mexico had deepened, and Chiapas remains the poorest state in Mexico, with three quarters of its population poor and close to half in extreme poverty. Large productivity gaps - as proxied by wages - are not only observed between states, but have also expanded dramatically within the three sectors employing two-¬thirds of the workers in Chiapas: Agriculture, wholesale and retail, and manufacturing. One year into his term as Finance Minister for the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2013-2018), Luis Videgaray ponders the statistical evidence available and baffles at the puzzle. The case includes a series of videos featuring Luis Videgaray, Mexico's former Secretary of Finance and Public Credit (2012-2016). In the first video, "The Chiapas Puzzle" (7:41 min.), to be viewed by students in preparation for the class, Mr. Videgaray explains the situation in Chiapas and the dilemmas he and the Mexican Government faced early on. The other three videos, "The Case of Yazaki" (3:55 min.), "Infrastructure and Political Economy" (4:19 min.), and "Takeaways" (5:03 min.) can be played as part of the class discussion. A supplemental slide set is also included with this case.

Motorcycles are by far the most popular form of motorized transportation in Indonesia, and are used to provide taxi-like service called ojek as well. In 2014, the two biggest providers of app-based, online booking and payment for conventional (four-wheel) taxis in Indonesia began to offer online booking and payment for motorcycle taxi rides as well. These services proved very popular, cutting sharply into the use and earnings of conventional motorcycle taxis. The Indonesian government was unsure whether and how it should regulate the new mode of transport, which it feared was adding to traffic congestion and accidents. Case number 2164.0

The US-China trade war in 2019 led to major shifts in global trade and supply chains, highlighting the recent trend in deglobalization. This case discusses the patterns of international trade and capital flows across the two countries, determinants of trade imbalances, and the role of national savings, policies, institutions, and exchange rates. The material allows for an examination of several factors, including the broader context of tech competition between China and the United States. The case raises a series of questions around the uncertainty the trade war created, the impact of tariffs on both economies, and diverging views from the two sides on who is winning. The case has been successfully taught in second-year MBA classes and executive training programs on global economies and markets.

In May 2018, Malaysia's 14th General Election saw a change of power that many thought they would never witness in their lifetimes. The political party that had ruled Malaysia for 60 year was kicked out of office by a 92 year-old challenger, Mahathir Mohamed, who had also been its leader and longest serving prime minister. These surprising events seemed to involve a financial scandal of historic proportions. The ousted Prime Minister, known as Najib, was associated with a sovereign wealth fund, 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), that had, with the aid of Goldman Sachs, borrowed 7 billion USD in global capital markets, all of which was squandered and some in remarkable fashion. An unknown young Malaysian of Chinese descent, Jho Low, had siphoned billions into his personal accounts, throwing parties for celebrities from Bangkok to LA. Was the Malaysian experience an idiosyncratic event in the trajectory of global capital markets or were its lessons more generalizable? The case explores illiberal actors in global financial markets and the dynamics of accountability in sovereign borrowing.

Brazilian factions so fiercely opposed one another that for a century and a half they had contested not just state policies but the rules and structure of the state itself. Was this politics, so unlike the Western political ideal, sign of an immature or failing democracy? Or was it a viable approach to governance, given the fact of fierce and unsettled social dispute?

For the past few decades, Australia has dealt with the benefits and costs of repeated mining booms-inflation, a housing bubble, a current account deficit, and growing dependence on China. Between 1996 and 2007, however, Australia had most of these issues under control and grew at impressive rates, becoming one of the richest of developed countries. Yet competitiveness in its non-mining sectors declined. Since the financial crisis, additional challenges associated with climate change, minerals taxes, migration, fiscal deficits, and currency fluctuations have complicated the issues facing both Labor and Liberal administrations, with a very thin majority. Meanwhile, Australia's non-mineral competitiveness continues to recede.

In the early hours of Friday, December 13, 2019, a triumphant Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, stood in front of his supporters and declared, "We did it - we pulled it off, didn't we? We broke the deadlock, [. . .] we smashed the roadblock. [. . .] This election means getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people." To Johnson, this was the culmination of a long process that had started with the shocking results of the 2016 referendum on Britain's exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU). But many long-run economic and political challenges still lay ahead: Would the UK and the EU be able to agree on a mutually-beneficial economic relationship before the end of the transition period? Could the UK negotiate better deals with other countries in a context of rising global protectionism? With renewed calls for Scottish independence and uncertainty about Northern Ireland's future, would the UK itself start to break apart?

This case presents the challenges facing BMW and Toyota in choosing how to address the divergence between the Trump administration and the State of California's standards over U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The case provides relevant information about the two firms and recent developments in the auto industry. The case leads the students to consider the political causes for the higher international pressure on automakers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions relative to the stance of the U.S. government; and the domestic legislative showdown between the state of California and the federal government on vehicular emissions. Students are asked to develop a detailed integrated market and lobbying strategy for BMW and Toyota based on a range of concepts, data, and frameworks germane to courses in business, policy, and society. At the heart of the case study are the constantly evolving challenges facing two global automakers and their operations in the United States. The case begins by presenting the international landscape, particularly in Europe, with respect to climate change. It then provides relevant information about the two firms and recent developments in the auto industry. It also presents the broader political and economic landscape surrounding the auto industry, particularly with the advent of electric vehicles and changing consumer preferences. To do so, the case lays down the current political climate in the United States; the threat of climate change and mounting international pressure on automakers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and the domestic legislative showdown between the state of California and the federal government on vehicular emissions.

Spreadsheet supplement for case P101.

In the fall of 2019, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg are facing increased scrutiny on multiple fronts. Regulators from around the globe are threatening the company with punitive measures. Users are organizing against it. But there is little consensus around what, precisely, Facebook has done wrong, or what strategies Zuckerberg and his team should put in place for the future. "Facebook Faces the Regulators" traces the trajectory of the pioneering social media company up to this critical moment and considers its future, focusing on the core questions of governance that have recently engulfed it. Has Facebook simply become too powerful, the case asks? Has it violated the spirit of many countries' most sacred laws, if not the actual letter? Most fundamentally, what kinds of rules should be imposed on firms that run the world's social media markets? And who should make them?

By 2020, Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, had transformed the small telephone switch manufacturer he founded in 1987 into a $120 billion telecommunications company poised to lead the lucrative rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. However, an emerging U.S.-China tech war has jeopardized Huawei's prospects. The Trump administration is waging a global campaign to blacklist doing business with Huawei due to concerns in Washington about the company's relationship with the Chinese government and the security of its products. As Huawei attempts to answer the litany of questions being asked about its business, the company's corporate communications and government relations strategies are thrust onto center stage. How can a company so successful technologically-it is a global leader in 5G technology-struggle so mightily in telling its story? What would it take for Huawei to repair its relationship with Washington? Can Huawei protect itself from the crossfire of a growing digital cold war between the U.S. and China?