Three years ago, Judith Rickenbacker turned her Chicago town house into a laboratory for capitalist invention, international cooperation and entrepreneurial zeal. She did it by buying a sewing machine.
Rickenbacker used to be a hotel bookkeeper, dreaming of what life would be like without a boss. Her break came when she was able to borrow $500 to buy a powerful new sewing machine and become a professional seamstress. Having repaid the loan after one year, she is thinking about expanding her operation.
This triumph of cottage capitalism may not sound like a model of international business strategy. But the program that...