Weekend Giant Reading: December 19 — 21

It’s Friday, which means I’ve got a nice roundup of the top news stories from the past week:

- Compensated Courage: After its blockbuster IPO, the Alaska Permanent Fund’s 37.5% stake in JUNO is nearly worth $1 billion, which is amazing. And it’s all the more amazing because the deal was sourced directly by the SWF’s in-house team. This is something all VCs know (and often say at me in an aggressive manner) is impossible. So here’s to the APFC for having the courage and skill to allow a bit of luck to play in its favor!

- Sigh: $1 billion is missing from Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account.

- Under Construction: The Governance of the single biggest institutional investor in the world, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, is... TBD.

- On Sale Now: There’s really nothing long-term investors like more than a good market dislocation, such as the recent collapse in oil prices. Cue the Canadian pensions...

- Spygame: Is Norway’s SWF attracting foreign spies to Oslo? Norway thinks so.

- Portfolio Design: CalPERS is applying a singular logic of “repeatable, predictable and scalable” to its whole portfolio.

- Fee Machine: “Disenchantment over high fees and lacklustre performance may finally be turning the tide against hedge funds...” Seeing is believing.

- Opposite Day: The domestic arm of the China Investment Corporation — Central Huijin — is apparently preparing to invest internationally.

- VC Inflows: China’s venture capital industry may see $32 billion in new capital inflows thanks to a rule change by its regulator.

- Bailout: Russia will allocate $6.54 billion from its sovereign wealth fund to domestic banks.

- Selfie:Bending the market to our models.

- Research: “Is it worth paying financial experts?” ask two academics in a recent paper. “We find no evidence that financial experts make better investment decisions.”

Have a great weekend!