Current Issue of ai5000: Foreign Investors Bet Big on U.S. Commercial Real Estate Market

STAMFORD, Conn., April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The April issue of ai5000 suggests that foreign investments in U.S. commercial real estate will boost America's economic recovery.

In "Learning to Love the Landlord," Eric Laursen reports that non-U.S. institutional investors may be the savior of America's collapsed real estate market, especially in "trophy cities" like New York and San Francisco. "This may be the best buying opportunity over the next two years -- or in our lifetime."

The new issue also examines CEOs who don't understand their own products and the efficacy of shareholder engagement.

• In "Are They Lying?", tech guru Robert X. Cringely compares tech CEOs to financial CEOs. "In the financial world, I would be hard pressed to find a CEO who understands his own products." He notes that this is a recipe for failure and that key decisions are often pushed so far down the ladder that "all of a sudden some PhD out of Columbia is making the call."
• James Gifford, the brains behind the United Nation's Principles for Responsible Investment, says that corporate behavior is best improved by shareholder engagement, rather than by excluding stocks from a portfolio. "If all the index funds in the world got together and had a serious engagement approach on corporate governance, on anti-corruption, on greenhouse gas disclosure, they would have a far bigger impact."

Elsewhere in the issue are Michael Lewis's thoughts on banking, baseball and dumb money, as well as Kip McDaniel and Paula Vasan's expose of the Wesleyan endowment scandal.

About ai5000

A quarterly online publication, ai5000 focuses on the 5,000 largest pools of capital in the world, across pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, insurance funds and other leading institutional investors. ai5000 is edited by Charles Ruffel, founder of Asset International and PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER and Global Custodian.

About Asset International

Asset International is a privately-held publisher and information provider to global pension funds, asset managers, financial advisers, banking service providers, and other financial institutions in the private and public sector. Asset International produces and distributes print and digital publications, conferences, research and data resources via its industry-leading brands PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER and Global Custodian. The company was acquired in January 2009 by Austin Ventures and has offices in New York, London and Stamford, CT.

SOURCE Asset International