'The Rise of the State: Profitable Investing and Geopolitics in the 21st Century': Author Q&A

Benjamin Shepherd submits: Despite the prevailing economic uncertainty, many master limited partnerships (MLPs) have performed extraordinarily well, generating solid returns for investors through tax-advantaged payouts and capital gains.

I alluded to this a few times yesterday, so I think I should offer my recommended readings on the Panic of 2007 and the ensuing recession. These are real recommendations, actual advice about what you should do, so things like length and readability count. Rogoff & Reinhardt have done a really praiseworthy empirical research program, but you should just look up their conclusion with Google you don’t actually need to read the book.

Protectionist barriers aimed at capital-rich sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) could backfire on the fragile global economy, top executives of major state investment firms warned here Saturday.SWFs have the capital needed by affected economies to recover from the global crisis but governments may come under domestic pressure to impose protectionist measures, they said.

In the December issue of the Absolute Return Letter, Niels Jensen reveals his “dirty dozen” — twelve major risks for the year 2011. Many of these overlap with themes we have already highlighted or discussed. With more explanation to follow, here are Jensen’s 12 risks in brief:

Slides for speech to World Bank conference (Lessons from East Asia and the Global Financial Crisis), Tuesday in Seoul (1pm local time), are attached.  This post summarizes my main points.