Saturday, January 20, 2007

Madeleine Albright - Hedge Fund Manager?

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. secretary of state, raised $329 million to invest in emerging markets, joining the ranks of former dignitaries who have entered the lucrative world of private fund management.


Think there might be a bubble in the hedge fund world? There's a lot of ex political types in the hedge fund world now, but this has to be a sign of the apocalypse or something. This is a woman who toasted Kim Jong Il and negotiated with Milosevic.The Dutch think she's got some political insight:

``We see a lot of potential in emerging markets for economic growth,'' Jelle Beenen, a portfolio manager at PGGM, said in an interview. ``The reason that investing there is always a problem is there are issues like fraud and political instability, so that's why there's value in political-risk management and the involvement of Secretary Albright is a valuable one.''


But apparently that political insight isn't expected to produce very much:

PGGM expects Albright Capital to deliver a 10 percent return over the ``long term'', Beenen said.


I don't know about you, but if I put my money in emerging markets and deal with all the political risks, such as Hugo Chavez confiscating my investments, I want a hell of a lot more than 10%.

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