Global Economics  Sovereign Wealth Funds Taste Bitter Losses
Not long ago the Western world was obsessed with sovereign
wealth funds, those fast-growing pools of nationally owned
assets fueled by oil money and trade surpluses. The fear was
that they and their sometimes controversial owners would gobble
up vast troves of trophy assets in the U.S. and elsewhere. But,
after a brutal fall in the markets, that threat suddenly looks a
lot less real. While the funds are cagey about saying what they
actually own—and what they have lost—it's certain that they,
like many other investors, have suffered big hits to their
portfolios. They also have clearly lost firepower—and possibly
some of their appetite for acquisitions.  One fund that does
disclose its performance, Norway's $300 billion Government
Pension Fund-Global, reported a negative 7.7% return against an
international currency basket in the third quarter through
September. That was the worst performance in the 18-year history
of the fund, which invests Norway'