Weekend Reading

First, here are today’s top stories:

- Frontier Finance: The government of Zimbabwe says: ‘We now have a sovereign wealth fund worth $4 billion.’ I say: 'For real? Wow.'

- Resource Revenues: Here's why I have two Ghanian students working with me on research projects right now; it's all about avoiding the resource curse.

- Locals Only: New Mexico's State Investment Council adds $20 million to its local private equity investment pool. (Note: These sorts of investments now come with a health warning.)

- Deal Flow: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority purchased a €250 million building in Paris; 90 boulevard Pasteur to be precise.

- Asset Allocation: Japan's government is urging its GIANT pension fund, the GPIF, to diversify its holdings into more domestic and international stocks.

- Business Ethics: A new CFA survey finds that the problem with finance is... its culture.

- Alternatives: Venture capital managers are apparently investing more money than they can raise from LPs. We need creative solutions to this. Oh here's one.

- Movers: Welcome to the II Team, Mr. Scott Kalb! Awesome to have you on the team.

- Get Smart: On a daily basis. Sign up here.

Second, here are some new research papers I’ve been reading:

- Jennifer Bird-Pollan has a new and interesting paper out entitled, “The Unjustified Subsidy: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Foreign Sovereign Tax Exemption”. Here’s a blurb: “The taxation of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the United States is outmoded and due for reconsideration. Offering a tax exemption to the billion dollar investment funds owned by foreign governments is both unfair and fails to achieve the goals of the foreign sovereign tax exemption.”

- Larry Catá Backer has a another interesting paper out on Norway’s SWF: “Sovereign Investing and Markets-Based Transnational Legislative Power: The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund in Global Markets”. Here’s a blurb: “States, like non-state actors, are increasingly participating in markets. In the form of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), states have projected economic power beyond their borders. But some states are also using private market activities abroad to transform the way they project their own legal regime’s power beyond their territories, and in the process, are contributing to a fundamental re-orientation of the relationship between state, market and law. This study considers the way in which sovereign wealth funds seek to govern (rather than the way in which they may be regulated), by closely examining one of the most comprehensive of such projects — the use of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (NSWF) to project economic, policy and governance power abroad, and in the process shape the national law of states chartering companies in which they invest, private corporate governance culture globally, and the development of international law and norms for the conduct of economic activity within globalization.” Fascinating.

Anyway, have a great weekend!