Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Whatever.

I have to admit, today I am feeling a giant disconnect with the world. It's like I am living in a completely different universe than.....well - everyone in California.

No one seems concerned about gas prices. Construction has picked up. And everything seems as it always was. So, why worry? I mean, that Greece thing is completely solved now. Right?

Except for that part where "some" people are going to be at least 50% poorer. That will not reverberate around the world at all.

I am curious though - are hedge funds going to be some of the poorer ones, or not? I mean, it changes everyday, but I thought banks were the only ones not taking a hair cut. Because apparently pension funds (specifically CALPERS, but I'm sure not limited to) has a little investing pool in Greece.

"CalPERS's primary role in Greece is through its financial partner Och-Ziff Capital Management Group. CalPERS has invested at least a half-billion dollars with the New York-based hedge fund. Och-Ziff is one of a selected group of hedge funds and private equity firms in which CalPERS entrusted large pools of money because these Wall Street insiders promise rates of return far exceeding index averages." Source.

The article goes on to say:

"There's still another angle to CalPERS's role in the Greek crisis. According to figures taken from the fund's 2010 Annual Investment Report (the most recent available), CalPERS has invested more than $245 million in Greek corporations. The largest such holdings were with the National Bank of Greece ($67 million), Alpha Bank ($35 million), EFG Eurobank ($27 million), Hellenic Telecommunications ($25 million), and Piraeus Bank ($21 million). CalPERS was exposed to at least 26 other Greek corporations through direct equity investments as of 2010."

Oh, what a relief! No worries then. They should have no problem hitting that 7.75% return on investment target. My bad.

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