Welcome to the weekend.
First, here are today’s top news items:
- Social Science: As a ‘recovering economist’, I admit to loving this article. (Yes, it’s by design that this post is being written in an engineering school and not an economics department.)
- Transparency: NY Common sues Qualcomm for transparency into the company’s political spending practices. That’s a first.
- Economic Geography: Here’s the geography of hedge fund returns. Interesting.
- Real Estate: TIAA-CREF just bought 1511 Third Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.
- Commodities: CalPERS cut its commodity holdings by 55 percent in October:
- SWF Leadership: Singapore’s GIC announced the appointment of a new group chief investment officer.
- Pension Plundering: Brazil, Spain and Ireland plunder their pensions .
Second, here are a few research papers that are hopefully of interest:
- Reserve Adequacy: Joshua Aizenman and Hans Genberg have prepared an interesting review paper entitled, “Research on the Demand for International Reserves: Developments in Academia, the Contribution of IMF Researchers, and Influence on IMF Surveillance.”
- Trustee Competency: Susan Sayce, Johanna Weststar, and Anil Verma have a new paper entitled “The recruitment and selection of pension trustees: an integrative approach.” This is such an important topic.
- In-House Management: Gordon Clark and Yours Truly posted a paper over on SSRN before the break entitled, “Principles and Policies for In-House Asset Management.” Send all critiques here.
Enjoy your weekend!
