Another is that they are unidimensional in the sense that they don’t benchmark themselves against anything but instead simply promise to

Another is that they are unidimensional, in the sense that they don’t benchmark themselves against anything, but instead simply promise to deliver outstanding rates of return. A third is that remuneration is performance based, which is what keeps the best talent moving into the industry.Most pension funds continue to have a big problem with all three of these distinguishing features. They want transparency, benchmarking and acceptable levels of remuneration, and as a result, they have opted for mediocrity and value destruction. On the other hand, things do seem to be changing, and already the more progressive pension funds are adopting hedge funds as an asset class.Many retail investors would like to do the same Most high net worth individuals already have.

Of course, it remains to be seen how well the hedge funds do in a bull market, or indeed whether they can still generate outstanding returns once they become a mass market phenomenon. But as things stand, traditional, long only fund management is dying on its feet and the hedge funds are coming of age.jeremy.warner independent.co.uk. Something of the chill of 11 September 2001 lies in the contrast.The religious words are, in the cold light of day, the words that murderers are saying to themselves to make a martyr’s drama out of a crime. The non-religious words are testimony to what religious language is supposed to be about – the triumph of pointless, gratuitous love, the affirming of faithfulness even when there is nothing to be done or salvaged.It should give us pause, especially if we think we are religious.

You don’t have to be Richard Dawkins to notice that there is a problem.Writing in the Dust, 2002RELIGION IN PUBLIC LIFEAll faiths, all views of the world (including atheism!) are capable of being distorted. People whose lives are already twisted and damaged use faith as they use other things in twisted and damaged ways. And if you try to shut religious faith out of the public arena, to shut it out of education or politics, you are actually encouraging faith to become narrower and more isolated, more liable to be misused by fanatics.Christmas Message 2001HOMOSEXUALITYIf we are looking for a sexual ethic that can be seriously informed by our Bible, there is a good deal to steer us away from assuming reproductive sex is a norm, however important and theologically significant it may be.The Body’s Grace, July 1989I don’t see my task as going around the bedroom with a magnifying glass doing surveillance. I do see my job as making sure that someone who is going to be a priest in the Church is taking full responsibility for all that means … I am not convinced that a homosexual has to be celibate in every imaginable circumstance. But if that were the case I would also want to be sure that their attitude to their sexual habits is a responsible, prayerful and theologically informed one.Interview in Southern Cross, 200211 SEPTEMBERNo “Star Wars” shield of missile defence could have averted last Tuesday’s atrocities.