With the recent sub prime crisis affectingalmost every bank in every corner of the world,
it is threatening to cause major upheavalin the major economies of the world.
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Enter the world stage, and welcome theSOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS (SWFs).
These are monolith funds owned by a statecomposed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds,property or other financial instruments.
It is an exclusive club and few can qualify.
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SWFs are typically created when governments havebudgetary surpluses and have little or no international debt.They use this money to purchase physical, tangible assetsor shares of foreign companies with valuable good will.
In recent weeks, they have been going roundpumping billions of dollars into major banksand trying to resucitate them from impendingturmoil in the wake of the subprime crisis.
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The seven richest sovereign wealth fundscontrol an estimated total of $2.8 trillion!
YES! It's a whooping hell lot of money!
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority of theUnited Arab Emirates, largest among the Super Seven,is in control of $1.3 trillion in reserve alone!
Amazingly, but not suprisingly, two Singapore SWFsare among the members of the Super Seven.Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC)and Temasek Holdings each control funds worth$330 Billion and $159 Billion each.
That just goes to show how bloody rich Singaporereally is and that is why we can afford to invest inmajor corporations such as Shincorp and Indosatin Thailand and Indonesia, to much fanfare,and recently, Citibank, UBS and Barclays.
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Here's a full graph of the wealth ofthe members of the Super Seven.
Information accurate as at January 2008 Source: Wikipedia
Winston
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