Case: MONEY HAS WINGS

Jason Tuyen runs a nervous hand through his once finely combed hair. He loosens his once perfectly
knotted silk tie. And he rubs his sweaty hands across his once immaculately pressed trousers.

Today has certainly not been a good day!

Over the past few months, Jason had heard whispers circulating from Wall Street—whispers from
the lips of investment bankers and stockbrokers famous for their out-spokenness. They had
whispered about a coming Japanese economic collapse—whispered because they had believed that
publicly vocalizing their fears would hasten the collapse.

And today, their very fears have come true. Jason and his colleagues gather round a small television
dedicated exclusively to the Bloomberg channel. Jason stares in disbelief as he listens to the horrors
taking place in the Japanese market. And the Japanese market is taking the financial markets in all
other East Asian countries with it on its tailspin. He goes numb. As manager of Asian foreign
investment for Grant Hill Associates, a small West Coast investment boutique specializing in
currency trading, Jason bears personal responsibility for any negative impacts of the collapse. And
Grant Hill Associates will experience negative impacts.

Jason had not heeded the whispered warnings of a Japanese collapse. Instead, he had greatly
increased the stake Grant Hill Associates held in the Japanese market. Because the Japanese market
had performed better than expected over the past year, Jason had increased investments in Japan
from 2.5 million to 15 million dollars only 1 month ago. At that time, 1 dollar was worth 80 yen.

No longer. Jason realizes that today’s devaluation of the yen means that 1 dollar is worth 125 yen.
He will be able to liquidate these investments without any loss in yen, but now the dollar loss when
converting back into U.S. currency would be huge. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and
mentally prepares himself for serious damage control.

Jason’s meditation is interrupted by a booming voice calling for him from a large corner office.
Grant Hill, the president of Grant Hill Associates, yells, “Tuyen, get the hell in here!” Jason jumps
and looks reluctantly toward the corner office hiding the furious Grant Hill. He smoothes his hair,
tightens his tie, and walks briskly into the office.

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Grant Hill meets Jason’s eyes upon his entrance and continues yelling, “I don’t want one word out of
you, Tuyen! No excuses; just fix this debacle! Get all of our money out of Japan! My gut tells me this
is only the beginning! Get the money into safe U.S. bonds! NOW! And don’t forget to get our cash
positions out of Indonesia and Malaysia ASAP with it!”

Jason has enough common sense to say nothing. He nods his head, turns on his heel, and practically
runs out of the office.

Safely back at his desk, Jason begins formulating a plan to move the investments out of Japan,
Indonesia, and Malaysia. His experiences investing in foreign markets have taught him that when
playing with millions of dollars, how he gets money out of a foreign market is almost as important as
when he gets money out of the market. The banking partners of Grant Hill Associates charge
different transaction fees for converting one currency into another one and wiring large sums of
money around the globe.

And now, to make matters worse, the governments in East Asia have imposed very tight limits on
the amount of money an individual or a company can exchange from the domestic currency into a
particular foreign currency and withdraw it from the country. The goal of this dramatic measure is
to reduce the outflow of foreign investments out of those countries to prevent a complete collapse
of the economies in the region. Because of Grant Hill Associates’ cash holdings of 10.5 billion
Indonesian rupiahs and 28 million Malaysian ringgits, along with the holdings in yen, it is not clear
how these holdings should be converted back into dollars.

Jason wants to find the most cost-effective method to convert these holdings into dollars. On his
company’s web- site he always can find on-the-minute exchange rates for most currencies in the
world (Table 1).

The table states that, for example, 1 Japanese yen equals 0.008 U.S. dollars. By making a few phone
calls he discovers the transaction costs his company must pay for large currency transactions during
these critical times (Table 2).

Jason notes that exchanging one currency for another one results in the same transaction cost as a
reverse conversion. Finally, Jason finds out the maximum amounts of domestic currencies his
company is allowed to convert into other currencies in Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia (Table 3).

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 TABLE 1 Currency exchange rates

To U.S. Canadian
From Yen Rupiah Ringgit Dollar Dollar Euro Pound Peso

Japanese yen 1 50 0.04 0.008 0.01 0.0064 0.0048 0.0768

Indonesian rupiah 1 0.0008 0.00016 0.0002 0.000128 0.000096 0.001536

Malaysian ringgit 1 0.2 0.25 0.16 0.12 1.92

U.S. dollar 1 1.25 0.8 0.6 9.6

Canadian dollar 1 0.64 0.48 7.68

European euro 1 0.75 12

English pound 1 16

Mexican peso 1

TABLE 2 Transaction cost, percent

To U.S. Canadian
From Yen Rupiah Ringgit Dollar Dollar Euro Pound Peso

Yen — 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.25 0.5

Rupiah — 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.75 0.75

Ringgit — 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.45 0.5

U.S. dollar — 0.05 0.1 0.1 0.1

Canadian dollar — 0.2 0.1 0.1

Euro — 0.05 0.5

Pound — 0.5

Peso —

TABLE 3 Transaction limits in equivalent of 1,000 dollars

To U.S. Canadian
From Yen Rupiah Ringgit Dollar Dollar Euro Pound Peso

Yen — 5,000 5,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 4,000

Rupiah 5,000 — 2,000 200 200 1,000 500 200

Ringgit 3,000 4,500 — 1,500 1,500 2,500 1,000 1,000

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QUESTIONS

(a) (35 marks) Formulate Jason’s problem as a minimum cost flow Network problem, and draw the
network for his problem. Identify the supply and demand nodes for the network.

(b) (35 marks) Which currency transactions must Jason perform in order to convert the investments
from yen, rupiah, and ringgit into U.S. dollars to ensure that Grant Hill Associates has the maximum
dollar amount after all transactions have occurred? How much money does Jason have to invest in U.S.
bonds?

(c) (10 marks) The World Trade Organization forbids transaction limits because they promote
protectionism. If no transaction limits exist, what method should Jason use to convert the Asian holdings
from the respective currencies into dollars?

(d) (10 marks) In response to the World Trade Organization’s mandate forbid- ding transaction limits,
the Indonesian government introduces a new tax that leads to an increase of transaction costs for
transaction of rupiah by 500 percent to protect their currency. Given these new transaction costs but no
transaction limits, what currency transactions should Jason perform in order to convert the Asian
holdings from the respective currencies into dollars?

(e) (10 marks) Jason realizes that his analysis is incomplete because he has not included all aspects that
might influence his planned currency exchanges. Describe other factors that Jason should examine
before he makes his final decision.