Weekend Giant Reading: January 8 – 10, 2016

Welcome to the weekend, everybody. Here’s some news for your reading enjoyment:

- Rainy days I: Kazakhstan’s National Oil Fund is off 17% from its highs of $77 billion back in Aug 2014, as the government has been relying on the assets in the fund to fill budget gaps. According to some officials, the fund may be exhausted in a few years time.

- Rainy Days II: If you thought that decline trajectory was bad, Saudi Arabia is drawing down on its sovereign wealth fund to the tune of $14 billion per . . . MONTH. Ouch.

- Great Expectations: Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association will ask the state legislature to cut its return assumption from, technically speaking here, the “unhinged shrieks” level of craziness all the way down to the “delusional mumbles” level, or 8.5% to 8%.

- Sovereign Spoils Fund: Zimbabwe’s strategy for growing its new sovereign wealth fund revolves around compelling foreign firms to cede their wealth to Zimbabwe’s sovereign fund. To the fund go the spoils.

- Higher Ground: Norway’s massive SWF is divesting from China’s ZTE Corp. over corruption concerns.

- New Funds: In case you missed it, Hong Kong launched a new $28 billion sovereign fund at the end of last year.

- Old Funds: Yes, it’s true: The modern sovereign wealth fund’s origins can be traced all the way back to the wild west of 1800s Texas.

- Whose Funds? Libya’s rival Tripoli and Tobruk governments are fighting over the country’s massive SWF.

- Snake Oil:Private equity isn’t, apparently, worth the risks or the fees. Who wouldn’t want to pay 2 and 20 for five to six turns of leverage on an over-valued asset?

- Digging Out: Oman’s various sovereign funds are coming together to back Mining Development Oman. All together, the various funds will invest around $160 million.

Have a great weekend!