You can’t go back. So don’t assume that as the U.S. and the West recovers, they’ll attract foreign capital just like they did before the recession. It’s a far different landscape now. The easy-credit bubbles are gone. And they’ve left us with a hellacious debt burden.

Like most investors, Harvard University’s billion-dollar endowment fund took a beating during the global financial crisis. Many investors cashed out, opting for the safety of the sidelines. But Harvard called a new play. During the first quarter, Harvard engineered a dramatic shift in its endowment-fund investment strategy – boosting its stakes in some of the most prominent emerging market exchange traded funds (ETFs).

The Taipan Emerging Market Index is up today 44.2%, a huge gain from last week when it was virtually flat with an uptick of .52%. By comparison, this week saw the S&P 500 up 0.9% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 5.3% as of this writing.

With aging power plants and failing infrastructure, South Africa needs an injection of investment cash into its power sector. And while its economy technically maintains a budget surplus, it’s constantly battling things like unemployment and poverty.