I was a bit distracted by some remarkable SWF developments this week (like this, this and this). So I forgot to flag up Steffen Kern’s SWF update. It is definitely worth a read, as it provides a post-crisis view of SWFs in relation to all of the other financial actors.
Anyway, it’s easy to flip through and has lots of nice graphics. Check it out.
A very interesting presentation. It is a bit rich to call SWFs (=pools of funds some governments do not want to spend now,even on plainly welfare enhancing purposes)”businesses” (a business is a private sector enterprise driven by the profit motive). But all in all this is not a bad piece. It recognizes that the SWF phenomenon is a product of a highly abnormal phase in the post-war development of the world economy.
One of the curious (and probably inaccurate slides) is the one with the high share of financial sector investments. One can only guess at the motives of entities like GIC, CIC, ADIA etc to put money into near-insolvent FIs. These were lottery tickets at best and it is unlikely they were purchased rationally. But (unless Agency securities and bank deposits are classified here under FI) it is unlikely.
It appears that SWF is more of an investment banking issue than one of public administration..