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For those investors who are well positioned and well funded, there will be substantial opportunity this year to buy distressed commercial real estate or real estate debt in the United States. Baceline Investments believes investments in secondary U.S. markets will yield many favorable opportunities when compared to investments in primary U.S. markets.

Although hedge funds have been blamed for much of this year's market volatility, they could be the vehicles to bring liquidity back to financial markets and help jump-start markets on their road to recovery. In this report, a Bank of America executive suggests that as many as one-third of hedge funds may close in early 2009, strengthening the industry as weak players leave and creating investment opportunities later in the year.

While hedge funds greatly disappointed a number of investors in the past year, Allenbridge finds reasons not to abandon this asset class. This report explains what happened in the sector, dispels some of the misconceptions and offers pointers for hedge fund investors.

Conventional logic indicates that a down market offers value buys for investors willing to take a chance on assets that have dropped precipitously in price. But which of these assets are most likely to regain value, and how much of a portfolio is it reasonable to invest in them? Cambridge Associates examines the outcomes of the 1990 and 2001 recessions for distressed assets and suggests four key components of a successful distressed investment strategy.

After the heavy stock market losses of last fall, many regulatory agencies issued restrictions on the short selling of stocks. In this independent analysis for the Alternative Investment Management Association, researchers examine the effect of these restrictions on stock returns in six countries and find no strong evidence that the restrictions had an impact in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.

This article from Hammond Associates refutes conventional wisdom that says domestic equity indexes are more likely to outperform active managers in efficient markets, such as large-cap stocks, and more disposed to underperform active management in less efficient areas, such as small-cap stocks. The authors present an alternate theory that better explains active versus passive equity performance and how investors can use it to their advantage.

Too much leverage, poor risk control and blindness to the bubble in the real estate industry have been cited as key factors in the financial crisis. Greycourt, however, points to another potential cause: A collapse of ethical behavior across the financial industry, particularly the loss of any sense of fiduciary responsibility to customers. This white paper explores the role of lost ethics in the current crisis and proposes reforms for the industry.

Global investment in physical infrastructure has been a prime driver of growth in emerging markets, but sustained growth also requires investment in an intangible infrastructure that many emerging nations lack. Credit Suisse identifies five pillars of intangible infrastructure (education, health care, development of the financial system, technological investment and the penetration of business services) and singles out companies with the greatest growth potential within these pillars.

Researchers from the Bank for International Settlements delve into why some companies remain private and how well the philosophy has worked for them. While control seems to be a key factor in companies remaining private, research by BIS shows privately held companies operate as efficiently as those that have gone public.

A new paper from Butterfield Private Office outlines private trust companies and how ultra-wealthy individuals and families can use them to manage a wide variety of assets while retaining a large measure of control over the administration of those assets.