It’s the weekend! And that means I’ve got some news for your reading enjoyment:
- Dear Silicon Valley: Can you please note the insane tech challenge facing pension funds today? It is so rare we come across entrepreneurs who realize the scale of the challenge we face, and the potential upside for those that provide successful solutions. Signed, Every Chief Investment Officer. Everywhere.
- Important Clarification: Libya’s sovereign fund indicated that a recent report saying it is no longer dysfunctional is wrong; it remains dysfunctional.
- Laughable Lobbyists: Private equity GPs see Australia as their next great conquest, and, as such, they’ve hired some lobbyists to help educate the local super funds. For example, according to one particularly brazen lobbyist, Australians need to understand that the high fees charged by private equity are good value because PE runs a high maintenance business model. And he’s not wrong! Those private jets are pricey...
- Divestments: NYCRS is considering a divestment from all for-profit prisons, which seems entirely sane to me. When you create a profit motive around locking people up, you know what happens? You end up with close to 2.5 million Americans behind bars, which means any benefit from efficiency we get in the running of prisons is far outstripped by the sheer cost of keeping 1 percent of our country locked up.
- Collaboration: APG, PGGM and other Giants are collaborating in sustainable invest platforms and strategies because their for-profit, short-term managers simply don’t give a funk.
- Gigantic Giant: The China Investment Corporation expects to become the world’s biggest SWF in the next two years. This is remarkable, as the fund will basically have gone from zero to world’s biggest in roughly a decade.
- Buffering: Russia’s Reserve Fund, which had $143 billion in 2008... now has $32 billion. As a reminder: This is why governments set up buffer funds... to buffer.
- QOTD: “Short termism is endemic throughout the industry. Each part of the chain has narrower time frames.” ~ Richard Brandweiner
- Selfie: My latest paper is out and doctors warn it should not be read while operating heavy machinery, as it may cause drowsiness. Here it is: “Designing an Institutional Investor’s Collaborative Network: A Case Study of Value Network Analysis.”
Have a nice weekend!
