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China's newly formed China Investment Corp. is a $200 billion "sovereign-wealth fund." As governments' foreign-exchange reserves bulge with cash, such funds pose new opportunities - or threats - depending on your perspective.

Finance & Development. A quarterly publication of the International Monetary Fund, Finance & Development carries this current article about the rise of sovereign-wealth funds. It estimates their current value at $2 trillion to $3 trillion. But that's a range of $1,000 billion, which only shows how tough it is to figure out how much money is socked away in these mysterious funds.

http://go.philly.com/imf21

China bank. The China Development Bank's move to take a stake in Britain's Barclays P.L.C. bank explains how sovereign-wealth funds "can provide an attractive source of funding for mergers and acquisitions," according to this Economist article. It also points out how little is known about the funds.

http://go.philly.com/economist21

Economist, too. An earlier Economist piece calls the sovereign funds "the world's most expensive club," and lists the biggies, including Saudi Arabia's $300 billion, Singapore's $430 billion, and the United Arab Emirates' $875 billion funds, all as of last March.

http://go.philly.com/economist21a

Peterson Institute. The policy brief here calls for transparency in the doings of sovereign funds, and points out that they may have "the potential to disrupt international financial markets," as well as "the potential that their management will be guided by political, rather than economic and financial, considerations."

Read the policy brief:

http://go.philly.com/peterson21

The nonpartisan Peterson Institute think tank site:

www.petersoninstitute.org

Fund wars. A rather more alarmist view is put forward at the Global Politician site, which warns of sovereign-wealth funds becoming tools for "asymmetric warfare" by hostile states.

http://go.philly.com/global21