Sovereign wealth funds have garnered a lot of attention recently, most of it negative. But now comes word from IDD that France is considering launching such a fund. President Nicolas Sarkozy, a big fan of many things American, has publicly supported the idea of transforming Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), a state-owned financial institution, into a SWF. It has $345 billion in assets, which would rank it second between the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ($625 billion) and Norway's SWF ($322 billion).The issue is whether France would join Norway in setting a good example in terms of transparency, or will it follow a more closed model? Hopefully, it would take a leadership role. You have to wonder if any of that money would flow to the U.S. That might not go over so well with the folks at home, but we'll see.  

For more:
- here's the IDD article (For FierceFinance readers)