Sovereign Wealth Funds–Soon A $12 Trillion Question
February 2nd, 2008 · by Bob Meyer · 1 CommentSovereign Wealth Funds are investment funds owned and managed by national governments. Such funds currently manage between $1.9 trillion and $2.9 trillion. They are expected to grow to over $12 trillion by 2015.
The Congressional Research Service has prepared a report on Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) for members and Committees of Congress.
For the full report on SWFs see: SWFs
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February 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I’m not sure what I read at first glance, but none of it really sounds particularly good … to people besides investors.
It sounds like many nations … whom we have some sort of debt to … like China … and the Middle East nations … can be using these government owned corporations to sort of cash in on U.S. corporations.
Like if the SWF’s buy a sizeable stake in gigantic investment firms … who hold equity in American corporations … then don’t hold some type of equity over those assets? … Well what if China has some kind of equity over a major tech firm. And that tech firm wants to introduce something beneficial to America. DOes that mean the decision has to go through China in some way?
So that kinda blurs the line on saying what exactly belongs to us then? Kinda like when we hear things about selling public works projects to foreign nations. Call me a nationalist but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with NOT letting other nations control ours. Working together is fine, cooperation is fine, but transferring pieces of America is not fine. Same goes vice versa. I’m not happy with too may things our nation has done either.
Maybe that’s a just an abstract idea, but that’s my gut feeling on it at first read. And I realize it refers to something specific on SWF’s and doesn’t account for the concept as a whole.
I also think it’s part of a larger mess … but we’ll figure it out. Or else, right?
Again, that’s just my 2 cents … preliminary 2 cents, by the way. Maybe I can draw some insights here. Any experts out there? Scholars? Average Joe’s like me?