Not long ago, institutions and sovereign wealth funds salivated over the opportunity to invest in private equity operations. But, as seen by the lowly stock prices of the Blackstone Group LLP (NYSE: BX) and Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG), things are much gloomier now.

Interestingly enough, TPG has spent some time trying to drum up interest in an equity stake. And, it looks like there were serious talks with the Kuwait Investment Authority, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System. However, according to a report in the Financial Times, it appears that negotiations have ended.

The commodities fad took a major step toward becoming an investment trend when investment giant Calpers -- the $240 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System -- announced it may increase its commodities investments 16-fold to $7.2 billion through 2010, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

Calpers, the largest pension fund in the United States, said it would hold between 0.5% and 3% of its assets in commodities. Last year the fund invested $450 million in commodities.

Strong emerging market growth, particularly in China and in sections of Latin America, has created a bull market in oil, commodities and raw materials, and many economists say these assets are likely to outperform both inflation and selected investment classes in 2008, and possibly for a longer time period.

The Standard & Poor's GSCI index of 24 commodities is up 10% so far in 2008, following a 33% gain in 2007. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of stocks is down 6% this year, while U.S. Treasuries have netted a 2% return.

Under the category of "the stock market did not need this additional headwind," some of the largest public pension funds have been selling shares in a big way, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The Journal said the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan are all funds that are reducing stakes in U.S. companies. Collectively, these funds control more than $500 billion in assets.

Further, and equally significant, the nation's largest fund, the $250-billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers) is considering shedding its home-country bias, the Sacramento Bee reported.

One plan calls for Calpers to reduce U.S. equities exposure to 28.4% from 40% and increase international equities exposure to 28.4% from 20%. The Calpers Board of Directors is expected to vote on the measure next month.

Here's a novel idea: Pay someone only if they are providing better performance than no one -- not anyone, no one -- could provide.

Well according (subscription required) to The Wall Street Journal, the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) is contemplating doing just that with the money managers it hires: "Calpers' investment staff plans to present to the board a system in which the pension fund's global stock managers would receive a fee only if they outperformed certain benchmark indexes. Managers whose returns failed to beat the index would be paid nothing for that period."

This makes perfect logical sense. Why pay a management fee to someone who's doing worse than an index fund? But the possible risk is that paying strictly for performance would induce managers to take bigger risks -- possibly increasing the incidence of blow-ups and rogue traders.

But these kinks could probably be worked out with careful monitoring of risk, and tailoring the bonuses to the level of risk a manager assumed. But it's time for money managers to be paid for performance. Too often, it seems they are paid just for having a pulse.

It is not a secret that Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) has been criticized in the past for being a little "behind the times" in their stance on global warming. Well, there is an effort to get rid of the chairman of the company's public issues committee, Michael Boskin, and now the nation's largest public pension fund is joining the fight.

According to The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), Mr Boskin, is not fit to lead the company's committee and should be removed from his position. CalPERS claims that Boskin is not fit due to his lack of communication with shareholders regarding the business risks that go along with the current climate changes.

CalPERS owns 30 million shares of Exxon Mobil, so you can be sure that their view on Mr. Boskin is going to have some weight in whether or not Boskin will be able to continue to head the company's public issues committee. With Exxon Mobil being one of the few big oil companies to refuse to accept the role of fossil fuel burning and the impact it has on the environment, it really shouldn't come as too much of a shock when the company declines to candidly discuss the issue with its shareholders.