Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are state-owned investment funds with combined asset holdings that are fast approaching four trillion dollars. Recently emerging as a major force in global financial markets, SWFs have other distinctive features besides their state-owned status: they are mainly located in developing countries and are intimately tied to energy and commodities exports, and they carry virtually no liabilities and have little redemption risk, which allows them to take a longer-term investment outlook than most other institutional investors. Edited by a Nobel laureate, a respected academic at the Columbia Business School, and a longtime international banker and asset manager, this volume examines the specificities of SWFs in greater detail and discusses the implications of their growing presence for the world economy. Based on essays delivered in 2011 at a major conference on SWFs held at Columbia University, this volume discusses the objectives and performance of SWFs, as well as their benchmarks and governance. What are the opportunities for SWFs as long-term investments? How do they fulfill their socially responsible mission? And what role can SWFs play in fostering sustainable development and greater global financial stability? These are some of the crucial questions addressed in this one-of-a-kind volume.

The financial services industry has a dark secret, one that costs global investors about $2.5 trillion per year. This secret quietly drains the investment portfolios and retirement accounts of almost every investor. In 1900, French mathematician, Louis Bachelier, unsuspectingly revealed this disturbing fact to the world. Since then, hundreds of academic studies have supported Bachelier's findings. This book offers overwhelming proof of this, and shows investors how to obtain their optimal rate of return by matching their risk capacity to an appropriate risk exposure. A globally diversified portfolio of index funds is the optimal way to accomplish this. Index Funds is the treatment of choice for wayward investors. Below market returns in investment portfolios and pension accounts are the result of investors gambling with their hard earned money. This 12-Step Program will put active investors on the road to recovery. Each step is designed to bring investors closer to embracing a prudent and sound strategy of buying, holding, and rebalancing an index portfolio.

Today there are more and more mutual funds, as more and more people understand that mutual funds are the best place to put money. These funds include the good and the bad, the expensive and the bargain-priced, the short-term and the long-term, the highly secure and the very risky. So how do you find the funds that are right for you without spending a lifetime trying to become a market maven and finding yourself buried in graphs and charts? What you can do very easily is spend a little time with the swiftest, surest, smartest book ever to lead you through the mutual fund maze with wit and wisdom. No other guide tells you so clearly, so concisely, and so captivatingly what different kinds of mutual funds there are, how to choose your own goals and decide your own risk level, how to split your mutual fund investments to reflect your wants and needs, how to quickly learn which funds are the best of their kind, how and where to buy funds at the lowest price, how to spot hidden charges, how to track performance, how to know when to sell, how to make funds work for you in retirement, and much more.