What external forms of assistance do firms rely on to mitigate thier
international business risks?  Which ones are most useful, and why
(this may be answered subjectively).

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 18 Oct 2005 08:56 PDT

US firms, or non-US?

Also, are you asking about high-risk operations, such as doing
business in politically unstable countries?  Or is more about ordinary
business risk, hedging currencies, and the like?

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by markvmd-ga on 18 Oct 2005 09:59 PDT

Pafalafa, thanks for expressing an interest in answering this question.

This question is about US firms and prmarily concentrates on typical
financial risks. A sentence or two about non-financial risk would be
appreciated, but not necessary (I was talking recently about how
political instability inherently means monetary instability, bad
police powers and legal protection, customs and taxation
complications, etc, and how that ties into this, so I can discourse a
little on that).

If you look at my other questions, you'll see they are finance related as well.

Thanks for your time!

Government garentees are sometimes very helpful but typically very
complicated. Sometimes you can barrow most of the money, so your own
risk is small = other people's money. Often fraud abounds, so
international biz requires unusual talant and nerve.   Neil