| From Thenational.ae: Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) were much in the news last year. As the first wave of the financial crisis hit, Gulf and Asian funds such as the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) and Singapore’s Temasek, ploughed billions of dollars into recapitalising prominent Wall Street institutions such as Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
At the time, with oil riding high at more than US$100 a barrel, it seemed very much as if the balance of economic power was shifting rapidly eastward. Despite the fact that their combined value accounted for only a fraction of the size of other investor classes such as pension funds or insurers, there was a brief moment when sovereign wealth was seen by some western politicians as a considerable threat to their economic independence.......Full Article: Source
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