The morning session on sovereign funds pretty much boiled down to them saying, “Why regulate us when we’ve never yet done any of the things you are worried about?”

Mohamed Al-Jasser, vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, said that it was as if they were being presumed “guilty until proven innocent.” Bader Al Sa’ad, of the Kuwait Investment Authority said they’d been in business 55 years without any politically enforced decisions:

“All this fear about sovereign wealth funds has no real basis.”

Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of Blackstone, was, as might be expected from someone with a substantial shareholder in the form of the Chinese, nearly lyrical in his praise.

“Our experience with sovereign wealth funds is they are smart, long term, highly professional. All they are looking for is higher rate of return.”

I cannot fail to point out that China took a 10 percent stake in Blackstone in May, paying $3 billion. Blackstone shares have more than halved since they went public in June.

A note of caution came from former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who said there was cause for concern over political meddling in business.

He was also worried lest sovereign funds entrench bad management.

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James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.