Colin Edward Egan (2018)
Ten Years That Shook the (Capitalist) World: A Brexit Antidote
Rugby: Strategic Management Think Tank
Book Description
This BiteSized Outside Fortress Volume opens in 1987 and progresses with markets in turmoil, greed in the ascendency (a sign of things-to-come), walls falling, curtains opening, Germany reunifying, China emerging, the USSR collapsing, George Soros rupturing the UK’s monetary policy, the fractious 1992 process limping towards a European Single Market and all of this within four years. As the decade progressed the Chinese dragon fiercely roared and its economy soared. Japan wilted while Asian tigers South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia flourished. The US quietly blossomed in a sustained period of real (non-inflationary) economic growth underpinned by cumulative annual productivity gains.
At the outset of our tumultuous ten years the much-maligned and misunderstood WTO, with all its rules and regulations and deterrents and structures and commitment to fair play, was still on the horizon as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade meandered along its half-century journey towards a belated birth of multilateral, rules-based ‘free trade’ in 1995.
Global financial markets were characterised by extreme turbulence in a decade which saw capitalism face-off against two varieties of communism, witnessed dramatic transformations in information and communications technologies and concluded with the Asian financial crisis and the newly minted Russian state defaulting on its sovereign debt in 1998.
This Volume chronicles these cataclysmic events and draws lessons for companies developing global business strategies in turbulent market environments. In the current frenzied and polarised political context businesses should have their strategies, plans and contingencies in place for a post-Brexit free trade competitive landscape regardless of which deal is negotiated: hard, soft or fudgy.
Contents
Preface
Prologue. 1843
1. A Rude Awakening for Globalization
2. Ich bin ein Berliner!
3. The Berlin Wall Falls, Germany Reunifies, Comecon Unravels, The Soviet Union Dissolves
4. Premature Prognosis: The End of History?
5. China’s Conundrum and the Clash of Freedoms
6. George Soros versus the Bank of England
7. Japan’s Lost Decade?
8. Inside Fortress Europe and the ‘1992 Process’
9. Time to Stop Talking: Multilateral, Rules-based ‘Free Trade’ is (Belatedly) Born
10. Windows ‘95
11. Globalization Interrupted: George Soros Returns, the Asian Financial Crisis, Russia Defaults
12. Why Genius Failed and No One Noticed
13. 1999-2018: A Brief Overview and Brexit
14. Exploring Global Business Strategy
15. Capitalism versus Communism: Half-Time
Epilogue. Capitalism: And How to Survive It!
EndNote One. Milestones in the History of Globalization
EndNote Two. Author’s Recommended Textbooks and Business Biographies
Volume One References
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All content © Colin Edward Egan, 2020