ALBERTO QUADRIO CURZIO

This part of the review is shared between four books whose review I am posting today.

All published between 2009 and 2010, might seem to be old, in 2018.

Nonetheless, both cover different segments of the same tags: Sovereign Wealth Funds, Global Finance, International Financial Flows, and deliver an historical perspective on those issues.

The key shared issue is: the debate on the future of finance and the future of geopolitics and the future of capitalism should be actually overlap with the debate on the future of democracy.

And now, the separate review of each book

This short book is part of a series roughly equivalent to an Italian version of "Que sais-je?"

It is quite useful as an overall, neutral introduction, moreover to an Italian public that over the last decade expanded its penchant for conspiracy theories.

Also, could be useful for both politicians and managers or company owners to consider what other changes might occur within financial markets, e.g. considering the level of commitment from Sovereign Wealth Funds to stock exchanges and other financial institutions.

Just consider the current inclination of the USA administration to level sanctions on other countries, notably China: how long will it be able to do it? And are SWFs a different kind of "nuclear" weapon that, as an aggregate, deliver an update to the Mutually Assured Destruction (see also the book "Destroying the village: Eisenhower and thermonuclear war" https://www.librarything.com/work/2005976/book/81996509).

There are more recent books but, unfortunately, if you want to avoid conspiracy theories, and focus instead on information and trends, no Italian material is available.

Pity, as actually there are plenty of companies and organizations (including banks) in Italy that have unfulfilled potential, but are unable to find the right partners.

Some SWFs (notably from the Middle East) acknowledged that (e.g. by acquiring a share in famous automotive or fashion companies), but there is still more.

As SWFs should not be considered just as big wallet- due to the limited amount of local skills to define and manage a varied portfolio, by nature SWFs are a natural business networking tool that transcends the usual "business connectors"- and is focused on producing a return on investment

[review released on 2018-06-19¨]… (mais)