Globally, we manage over $700 billion, both as the world's largest index fund manager, where we manage portfolios to precisely track a client's performance target, and as a large active manager using quantitative techniques to structure portfolios that return above the performance benchmark for about $150 billion of assets.

You will see that our current policy portfolio goes beyond public asset classes like stocks and bonds, and we do include a significant allocation to less liquid private asset classes, namely, real estate, private equity, infrastructure, and renewable resources.

A benchmark is any commercial index or published figure calculated by the application of a formula to the value of one or more underlying assets or prices, including estimated prices, interest rates or other values, or surveys by reference to which the amount payable under a financial instrument is determined.

positions are actively monitored with reference to market information sources and an assessment made of the marketability or hedge‐ability of the position or its component risks, including the assessment of, the quality and availability of market inputs to the valuation process, level of market turnover, sizes of positions traded in the market; and

The assets retained are in sectors where the transaction does not create a dominant position (essentially academic and reference works).

the new strategic goal set for the European Union by the Lisbon European Council of 23-24 March 2000 and reaffirmed by the Stockholm European Council of 23 and 24 March 2001, "to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion"; the conclusions of the Spring 2005 European Council, which underline that "human capital is Europe's most important asset" ; the Lisbon European Council's affirmation that Europe's education and training systems need to adapt both to the demands of the knowledge society and to the need for a higher level and quality of employment. Hence, the mandate from the Lisbon European Council to the Edu ...[+++]cation Council "to undertake a general reflection on concrete future objectives of education systems, focusing on common concerns and priorities while respecting national diversity with a view to contributing to the Luxembourg and Cardiff processes" ; the Barcelona European Council conclusions of 15-16 March 2002 , which endorsed the work programme, including an indicative list of indicators to be used to measure progress towards the implementation of the thirteen concrete objectives through the Open Method of Coordination, with the aim for European education and training systems of becoming "a world reference for quality by 2010", and which called for the establishment of a linguistic competence indicator; the reaffirmation of the central role of indicators and the five reference levels in giving directions and measuring progress in the field of education and training towards the Lisbon goals ; the Joint Interim Report of February 2004, which underlined the need to improve the quality and comparability of existing indicators, particularly in the field of lifelong learning, and its request that the Standing Group on Indicators and Benchmarks and all existing Working Groups propose, by the end of 2004, a limited list of new indi ...