Procter & Gamble (P&G) just learned the hard way how fast low-hanging fruit can go from ripe to rotten. With a saturated and competitive market at home, the consumer goods giant has bet heavily on so-called developing countries. Here's how P&G's CFO, Jon Mueller, rationalized that decision on a conference call with analysts this morning: This is where the world's babies will be born and where more new households will be formed. But lately, it's also where governments fall apart and currency markets shudder and heave. It goes without saying that international expansion hasn't been a recent strategic coup in such places as Venezuela, Argentina, and the Ukraine, three countries where P&G has focused its recent efforts. Geopolitical risk is a lot harder to model than, say, US detergent demand.