The New Economics of Sovereign Wealth Funds

7

Wrapping Up

Writing about SWFs eschewing polemics against foreign ownership of ‘strategic’ assets, diatribes over the sinister influence of shadowy institutions, or tirades against the ‘locust’ irrupting into the harmonious Western economies, requires a comprehensive look at the forces that, unleashed by the globalization, are reshaping the economic and, as a consequence, the financial geography in the twenty-first century.

Often parochial views, held by those still living in the twentieth century, tend to ignore the sway of mega-trends that are bound to forge the twenty-first. Indeed, the stance against SWFs or FWFs hinges mostly on economic neo-patriotism rather than on incidences of regulatory failure, risk build-up, unfair competition, manipulative pressure on national authorities or undue weight in corporate decisions.

In this book we have endeavoured to put the emergence of SWFs within the broader context of the new economic reality rising above the political diatribes that emerged before the financial crisis. We stressed the underlying factors that have caused a momentous growth in the number and magnitude of SWFs and FWFs, propelling them onto the global stage. We have tried to disentangle specious arguments, tinged with populist overtones, from the genuine worries about the soundness of financial markets and the imbalances in the world economy. Above all, we have stressed that clogging the financial channels between mature and emerging markets will have serious consequences ...