All managers face a business environment where international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. Understanding the genesis of financial and currency crises, stock market booms and busts, and social and labor unrest is a crucial aspect in making informed managerial decisions. Adverse macroeconomic phenomena can have a catastrophic impact on firm performance - witness the strong companies destroyed by the Mexican tequila crisis. Yet, at the same time, such episodes also create business opportunities - and not just for the hedge funds and speculators that profit from them. Managers that have and...