09.10.2008 - In Search of SWF
From Tnr.com: One of the major reasons why the current financial crisis is so threatening is the absence of what Tokyo-based investor Peter Tasker calls "strong hands"--long-term, patient, deep-pocketed investors that a teetering financial system needs to function in times of great uncertainty and stress. When Japan suffered its financial crisis in the 1990s, the strong hands that invested and kept the system afloat included private equity funds, insurance companies, and banks. But today, those financial actors are too leveraged, weak, or frightened to play a similar role. While most of the attention this week is focused on the Treasury's rescue plan, in fact, the U.S. government's ability to serve as the strong hands of the world is today constrained by both ideological resistance to government ownership of private sector assets, as well as the inconvenient truth that our government is the world's largest debtor..... Full Article: Source
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