• Extend and pretend in Europe 3 Aug 2011
• Holders of Sovereign Debt 20 Sep 2011
• Chart of the day: Exposures to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain 17 Jun 2010

• Alcoa earnings call points to weakness in China and Europe 12 Oct 2011
• China GDP history 8 Jun 2011
• China Looks Cheap 2 Jul 2010

• China Data Stronger Than Expected, PBOC Must Move More Aggressively 15 Apr 2011
• China Curbs Shouldn’t Derail CNY Appreciation 9 Nov 2010
• US Criticism Of China to Intensify 16 Mar 2010

The financial climate has changed radically from when Norway’s Oil Fund was established in 1990. Norway has built up its savings since then by selling enormous quantities of oil and gas, and employing many thousands of workers. By coincidence, an even larger sum of $600 billion recently has been created overnight – electronically on computer keyboards, by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board as part of Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing policy (QE2). This money has been provided to spur bank liquidity, in hope that they can earn their way out of the losses they suffer from their bad mortgage loans and other gambles.

The aim of these banks is the same as that of Norway’s Oil Fund: to make money. As the financial press has noticed, nearly the entire $600 billion has been sent abroad – to the BRIC countries and raw materials exporters in strong balance-of-payments positions, whose economies are not as “loaned up” as those of the United States and Europe, where Norway invests most of its money. So while Norway is putting its money into these countries, their financial managers are jumping ship – sending electronic dollars and euros to the economies that use their own sovereign wealth funds in the opposite way from what Norway is doing.

• Going Off on Rogoff – There is No Hard Debt Constraint for Fiat Currency 2 Mar 2010
• Norway Buying European Peripheral Bonds 9 Sep 2010

• Brazil: we expect to see a continuation of the currency war in coming months 9 Dec 2010
• Brazil Rates To Head Higher In 2011 Even As BRL Gains, Current Account Gap Widens 18 Oct 2010
• Brazil Raises IOF Tax On Fixed Income Again, Warns Of More Capital Controls 18 Oct 2010

• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion 15 Jan 2009
• Weber says ECB may start taking a haircut on Greek bonds 10 Mar 2010
• Germans to SWFs: keep your hands off our companies 20 Aug 2008

• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion 15 Jan 2009
• Brazil: Look who’s got a Sovereign Wealth Fund 9 Jun 2008
• Will sovereign wealth funds pour yet more money into the West? 17 Feb 2009

• Sovereign wealth funds cut exposure to U.S. 18 Jul 2008
• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion 15 Jan 2009
• Barclays taps Sovereign Wealth Funds 8 Jun 2008

• Financials: catching a falling knife 15 Jul 2008
• Bill Poole calls Treasury capital injections unconstitutional 16 Oct 2008
• Should GE be a AAA company? 12 Nov 2008

• Sovereign wealth funds cut exposure to U.S. 18 Jul 2008
• Brazil: Look who’s got a Sovereign Wealth Fund 9 Jun 2008
• Lehman missed out on $5 billion from Korea 20 Aug 2008