Sovereign Wealth Fund of the United States

Strangely, the United States, which claims to have the world’s most advanced economy, lacks a basic feature of other modern economies. That feature is a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

A Sovereign Wealth Fund is a government-owned investment fund that invests money on behalf of the people and the nation. For example, the world’s largest Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Government Pension Fund Global, invests on behalf of the Kingdom and People of Norway.

A good way to view a Sovereign Wealth Fund is as a national hedge fund that invests in stocks, venture capital, cryptocurrencies, synthetic assets, derivatives, debt, real estate, and other assets on behalf of the country. For example, a Sovereign Wealth Fund could invest in the stocks of companies that serve national interests.

What Norway can Teach America about Wealth

Norway’s parliament created the Government Pension Fund Global in 1990 after a long debate about how to use the country’s oil wealth. They discovered Ekofisk, one of the world’s offshore oil fields, in Norwegian waters in 1969.

To develop and pump the oil, Norway’s government turned to international oil companies. However, parliament kept control of the oil wealth. Many Norwegians feared the wealth could destroy the kingdom’s welfare state…