Sovereign Investment: Concerns and Policy Reactions provides the first major holistic examination and interdisciplinary analysis of sovereign wealth funds. Sovereign wealth funds currently hold three trillion dollars' worth of investments, almost twice the amount in all the hedge funds worldwide, and are predicted to hold nine trillion more by 2015.
This relatively new and rapidly expanding phenomenon remains relatively unregulated, but the International Monetary Fund and the G7 aim to establish temporary and voluntary rules to introduce transparency and uniformity until more permanent regulatory structures are instituted. What permanent rules and procedures should govern sovereign wealth funds? What bodies should enforce them? Do the current provisional rules answer the national security concerns of host countries? Editors Karl P. Sauvant, Lisa Sachs, and Wouter P.F. Schmit Jongbloed address these questions in a collection of essays by leading authorities from the IMF, academic institutions, law firms, multi-national corporations, and think tanks. Together, these authors analyze how sovereign wealth funds have helped to limit the effects of the current global economic crisis, and what rules can govern their operation in the future.