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Describes the life and times of Alan Greenspan.

In the final years of the 20th century, the world was hit by a plague of epidemic proportions--AIDS, a life-threatening disease that remained stubbornly immune to any cure or vaccine. In the developed nations of the West, AIDS was slowly brought under control through a combination of education, prevention, and cutting-edge medicines. But in the developing world, where health care expenditures were often paltry, AIDS continued to rampage. By the year 2000, 25 million people in Africa alone were infected with the disease. Millions had already died. Nearly all of the medicines that treated AIDS had been developed--at great expense--by the major western pharmaceutical firms. These medicines were expensive to produce and often difficult to administer. They demanded levels of income and structures of distribution that often were sorely lacking in the developing world. Increasingly, activist groups were demanding that the pharmaceutical companies respond to the AIDS epidemic with drastic measures, giving their drugs away for free or abandoning the patent rights that had long protected their intellectual property. The pharmaceutical firms needed to respond to their critics. The question was, how?

Describes the economic stabilization program implemented by the Bolivian government in 1985 to 1986 and its impact on the development process in Bolivia.

The German economy has long been seen as the locomotive of European (and, on occasion, global) growth. Germany appeared to weather the stagflation of the 1970s more successfully than many other economies, and reunification in 1990 appeared to present opportunities for further growth. However, by the time Gerhard Schroeder was elected chancellor in 1998, many saw Germany as the new "sick man of Europe"--a title assigned to Britain during the 1970s. Burdened by the unanticipated high costs of integrating the former East Germany into the Federal Republic and choked by labor market regulations and dormant financial markets, German business was no longer seen as a world-beater. In this context, many argued for fundamental reform of German institutions, although many of these institutions seemed to have served Germany well during most of the post-World War II period.

Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy and its relation to the international capital markets in the period leading up to the Peso crisis of December 1994. Emphasizes the role of "Washington consensus" policies in stimulating the inflows and the inability of the Mexican banking system to intermediate them efficiently.

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the end of 2001 brought promises that foreign financial institutions would be permitted to operate throughout China. In 1998, Citicorp and Travelers Group Inc. had merged to create the new Citigroup Inc. Travelers brought a vast array of financial services that added to Citibank's existing portfolio of consumer and commercial lending. Travelers had developed extensive businesses in investment banking, asset management, life insurance, and property/casualty insurance, as well as consumer lending. Citigroup now had to determine the business prospects for each of its activities in the growing China market. Fears of social and economic dislocation might lead China to impose regulatory restrictions limiting the pace of foreign expansion. Economic growth might be impeded by the existing political structure, and reforms might not occur in the near term. A myriad of other challenges included human resources difficulties, e-commerce limitations, and regional disparities. The pace of privatization of state-owned enterprises and the societal preferences in regard to alternative insurance and investment products added to the uncertainties. Citibank had a record of success in less developed countries, and had developed certain competitive advantages that might be the basis for success in China, but whether and how these could be extended to other Citigroup financial activities remained an important question.

The net is a powerful medium for reaching and servicing customers around the world. However, companies are learning that cross-national differences in infrastructure, regulation, language, buyer demographics and behavior, payment methods, and currencies pose formidable challenges to the simple global model of international operations. The author examines not only the opportunities for global integration but also the needs for local responsiveness, showing how firms operating across borders can use the net effectively as a marketing tool. Books, music, wines, industrial components, information, and financial services serve to illustrate the potential and pitfalls of net-based selling across borders.

Explores the phenomenon of IT-enabled services (ITES) exports from developing countries. Reviews the business and technical drivers of this phenomenon, describes major segments of the industry, discusses key challenges facing these firms, and profiles seven ITES firms.

Reviews the issues managers face when attempting to value projects abroad. These include dealing with multiple currencies, adjusting for country and industry risk, and considering expropriation and devaluation risk.

On September 1, 1998, the government of Malaysia imposed currency and capital controls in response to the financial crisis that had swept Asia. The controls sparked an enormous controversy in the world of international finance. Some celebrated the controls for insulating the Malaysian economy from the unstable international financial system. Others criticized the controls for trapping investors and allowing the government to protect the interests of "cronies." This debate also raised the central question about the future of the international financial architecture: What is the appropriate balance between financial market freedom and government discretion in the management of the global economy?

Discusses the macroeconomic and political situation in the United Kingdom from the end of World War II through 2001. Focuses on the interactions among macroeconomic performance, labor relations, the corporate governance system, and social services. In particular, compares and contrasts the policies (and their implications) adopted by successive government administrations, from the postwar Clement Attlee Labour government to the administration of Conservative Margaret Thatcher and finally to Tony Blair and "New Labour."

Only in the waning years of the 20th century did international financial markets begin to enjoy the freedom from government regulation that they had experienced before the first world war. By 2002, international capital markets had grown to be enormous--$1.2 trillion flowed around the globe per day. The massive size of the market presented policy makers with a serious challenge as they were forced to grapple with the costs and benefits of such mobile capital. This note briefly relates the modern history of capital controls and summarizes scholarship on the advantages and disadvantages of international financial market regulation.

Summarizes world markets for oil and natural gas from 1980-2001. Examines the rise of OPEC, two oil shocks, Gulf War efforts, and recent pricing issues facing Saudi Arabia.

Provides a vehicle to explore Islamic development and political issues within BGIE (business, government, and international economy). Set in early 2002, the case focuses on Crown Prince Abdullah's efforts to liberalize a failing rentier state, that had been dependent on petroleum for too long. His efforts to liberalize, however, come at a politically and socially sensitive time--just after September 11, 2001, and in the midst of the Palestinian intifada. In a desperate effort to maintain oil prices, OPEC has recently reduced output by 1.5 million barrels daily, with Saudi Arabia bearing the largest cut.

This case details the experience of Metalclad, a small California company, with an investment in a hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Mexico. Led by its new president and CEO, Grant Kesler, Metalclad shifts away from its core business and attempts to become a major player in the emerging market for hazardous waste disposal in Mexico. Despite support for the project at the highest levels of Mexican government, the project fails because of local opposition. The case ends with Metalclad charging illegal expropriation and filing the first ever suit by a private company against a NAFTA government.

Following from "Metalclad In Mexico (A)," this case details two parallel processes. The first traces the process by which Metalclad, a small California company, ultimately wins a NAFTA dispute settlement process judgment against Mexico for illegal expropriation of the company's property in the state of San Luis Potosi. Second, the case discusses the problems that led to the company's failed investment in a second waste disposal facility, this time in the state of Aguascalientes. With this last failure, Metalclad sold its assets and left Mexico. .

In April 2001, Dietmar Kuhnt, CEO of the German energy giant RWE, had to make a decision that would affect his company's future. Profits in the electricity sector depended heavily on regulatory rules that influenced industry structure and pricing. RWE had emerged through deregulation as one of the largest electricity companies in Germany and a multiutility. Now there was a proposal on the table to replace the largely lighthanded regulatory model based on negotiation between private parties with a more traditional regulatory model of an industry-specific regulator. What type of regulatory regime would be best suited to RWE's ambitious strategy to grow and prosper?

For many firms, government interaction is expansive, influencing the conduct of firms and industry structure. The visible hand of government, in the form of a regulatory scheme, plays a role in firm affairs along with the invisible hand of market forces. Deregulation and regulatory reform have changed but not eliminated government intervention. In such regulated environments, successful business strategy requires an understanding of the goals of regulatory involvement and the specifics of regulatory institutions. This note identifies some of the functions provided by regulatory institutions as well as the more important dimensions that differentiate specific institutional approaches to regulation. Understanding the common functions is important for managers interested in which approaches provide scope for long-term private sector involvement. Understanding the institutional differences is essential to devising specific strategies for business success. This note examines different regulatory decisions: the objectives behind regulatory intervention; the economic and legal basis of regulation; and various ways to implement a regulatory system, involving design choices in regulatory independence, the decision-making process, and industry scope.

Given the growth in Asian markets, it is important for Western managers to understand what drives the success of Japanese and Korean business groups--keiretsus and chaebols. The purpose here is twofold: 1) to analyze, compare, and contrast the ownership, structure, government influence, financing, and culture of each of these two types of business groups; and 2) to analyze how each has dealt with the recent financial crisis in Asia. From this analysis emerge important lessons for strategic international management. The chaebols and keiretsus both emphasize the idea of harmony, but they have different interpretations of this concept and enact it differently. Both groups have altered their structures in response to the new global financial environment. The chaebols have taken the opportunity to solidify and expand their core business units and become more vertically integrated, whereas the keiretsus have succeeded only in the limited disposal of some nonperforming units.

On April 4, 2000, at a board of directors' meeting, CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia's legendary reformer, announced his plan to break up the Russian joint stock company Unified Energy System (UES). The plan envisioned breaking up the giant energy monopoly along two lines of business: electricity transmissions and generation and sales. His proposal met a fierce storm of opposition from foreign minority shareholders of UES as well as from Boris Fedorov, a fellow reformer in the early to mid-1990s. This case examines the dynamics of implementing structural reforms in a highly uncertain environment.