Leo Kolivakis's blog

James Bullard,president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, told the FT that the US has escaped the danger of a Japanese-style deflationary trap. He may be right, for now...

Global pension assets hit the $23 trillion mark and now amount to 70% of the average global gross domestic product, down from 76% a decade earlier. While the increase in pension assets in 2009 is encouraging, the same structural issues that plagued the pension industry before the crisis are still present, leaving them exposed to further downside risk when the tide shifts back.

In recent days, a spate of announcements on infrastructure deals have hit the wires. Cash strapped governments are increasingly looking to pensions to fund long-term infrastructure projects...and many are heeding the call.

Pensions need leverage from anywhere they can find it, including hedge funds. Amazing how quickly they forget...

Frustrated with hedge funds and private-equity investments, public pension funds are turning to one of the oldest investment strategies—using borrowed money to boost performance...

As President Obama addressed the nation, the Lords of finance were out defending the private equity industry. They stand to gain the most if financial reforms pass...

The big news on Tuesday was that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised up its global growth forecast to near 4% in 2010, with significant revisions to US and Canadian growth projections...

One of Canada's largest pension funds, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is refocusing its priorities as it tries to come back from an underwhelming investment performance...

Whenever I read that pension fund consultants are "being inundated with requests," my antennas go up, as does the hair behind my neck!

Japan's $1.36 trillion public pension fund, the world's largest, is seeking higher returns...

One of the largest state-operated workers comp fund had massively misrepresented its performance. And you thought only Bernie could pull off multi-billion dollar scams...

Looks like private equity is staging a comeback but will it last?

An all-out war on public pensions is brewing in Canada...

According to the C.D. Howe Institute and the British-North American Committee, the governments of the UK, US and Canada are understating the true cost of public sector pension plans. If true, then you got the seeds to the next debt time bomb. The hard road ahead is looking harder when you sit back and analyze the implications of all these pension liabilities, especially if you consider the possibility that they're grossly understated.

Two of UK's largest hedge funds, Bluecrest and Brevan Howard, are making or considering moves out of London to Geneva. London's mayor, Boris Johnson, is worried that thousands of the City's bankers will flee to escape higher taxes and more regulations. Will the rush to Geneva spell trouble for global regulators?