One of those stats that always gets me when I see it... Norway's soverign wealth fund owns 1.5% of *all* listed shares. - ThreadSky

samfr.bsky.social • 53 days ago

One of those stats that always gets me when I see it...

Norway's soverign wealth fund owns 1.5% of *all* listed shares.

Comments

geordiedave1.bsky.social•53 days ago

And we spaffed our chance at that up the wall. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry

william-v.bsky.social•53 days ago

$325,000 per citizen 🤯

irodders.bsky.social•53 days ago

Interesting to see the list of companies (Wiki) excluded from the fund for activities in breach of the ethical guidelines.

illandancient.bsky.social•53 days ago

I the UK has missed the boat with hydrocarbons, could a similar wealth fund be created using surpluses from renewable energy, for example when its windy or if its too sunny, and people don't require solar or wind energy?

illandancient.bsky.social•53 days ago

Like the original Norway fund was designed to mitigate against fluctuations in oil prices - in the UK (Scotland) there are fluctuations in supply and demand that could be smoothed using money - somehow.

clumpytree.bsky.social•53 days ago

When people don't need the energy, it is not worth anything and therefore not earning money to invest. Also, obviously most energy production doesn't belong to the state.

clumpytree.bsky.social•53 days ago

Or are you suggesting a variable tax should keep energy prices high even when there is a surplus, to generate more tax income? Having variable energy prices is actually important for more efficient energy use, if we level that out, getting production and demand matching would be difficult.

illandancient.bsky.social•53 days ago

(I'm not an economist) I understand that electricity is priced based on the most expensive sources of energy, so even if the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, if there is any gas generated electricity in the mix it must all be priced as if it were from gas.

1/

illandancient.bsky.social•53 days ago

So I guess it would be a tax on the profits of renewables (wind and solar) which would then go directly into a new UK sovereign wealth fund for the good of the country

Its kind of shitty that the public as consumers would be paying this tax, but as long as the current pricing formula is used...

2/

clumpytree.bsky.social•53 days ago

That renewables are cheaper than gas but can make profit when prices are higher helps draw more investment into renewables. And also into batteries helping to balance those imbalances. As well as grid flexibility and shaping demand. We should be very careful to kill those market mechanisms.

philipporter.bsky.social•53 days ago

By value?

brizo75.bsky.social•53 days ago

Thanks to Thatcher, our sovereign wealth fund is £1.86 in loose change, a 3 year old Greggs steak bake, and a Philips Video Disc of the last night at the proms.

davelauchlan.bsky.social•53 days ago

Sigh. What could have been, eh?

houserdave.bsky.social•53 days ago

Berkshire Hathaway sees you and raises you to 5% of all US debt, more than the Fed itself: https://m.economictimes.com/markets/stocks/news/warren-buffett-now-owns-5-of-all-us-treasury-bills-a-larger-holding-than-the-fed-itself/articleshow/120583054.cms

jo10.net•53 days ago

This will never not be embarrassing for the UK.

colinjretnavy.bsky.social•53 days ago

I just saw that yesterday

thesecretbuyer.bsky.social•53 days ago

Would it help if I pointed out all the UKs Gold that Gordon Brown sold for $3.5bn is now worth just north of $47bn?

And climbing.

samfr.bsky.social•53 days ago

How much are the assets bought with the money worth now?

thesecretbuyer.bsky.social•53 days ago

No way to know. However UK does now have a sovereign wealth fund, it's entire portfolio is less than that gold would have been worth. About half.

I'm pretty confident the UK did not invest it well as the UK hasn't made many correct strategic decisions for about 25 years bar Brown during GFC.

pompoustakes.bsky.social•53 days ago

Don't forget to add all the Treasury coupons etc.
Did this a few years ago - still a cock up.

bigfez.bsky.social•53 days ago

I mean,that's not great investing, but at least it was moving money from unproductive assets to productive ones. This was the opposite:

bigfez.bsky.social•53 days ago

Total receipts as of 2015 were apparently ~£58bn so conservatively we've lost 100bn just on the asset deal, before you even take into account lost rent, the amount spent on housing benefits and homelessness, the insanity of selling stuff off cheap we then replace more expensively etc etc.

bigfez.bsky.social•53 days ago

(Don't defend GB in every aspect but it's always very noticeable that the people most exercised by 'brown sold the gold' tend to be extremely relaxed about every other way the state has been denuded over the last five decades)

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•53 days ago

No because it wasn’t an SWF, an unnecessary central bank reserve. It served no purpose unless we were planing to launder money or bypass US sanctions (which to be fair is no longer inconceivable).

thesecretbuyer.bsky.social•53 days ago

It was a reserve to sell in a crisis, to cover costs at a time when it would in parallel spike in value. Like for example

A pandemic
A Trade War
An emergency prewar rearm phase

Good thing we didn't have any of these since.

Lots of 'clever' people said it was valueless, clearly they were wrong

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•53 days ago

No it wasn’t that, you moron.

The sale of the reserve in a crisis isn’t to make money but to stabilise the market price on the basis that in a crisis, market actors would seek gold - but by the 90s market actors weren’t using gold at all. So it served no purpose. Hence lots of CBs selling reserves.

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•53 days ago

If you want to know when/how having gold reserve would be useful, you shit-for-brains, it isn’t any of those events on your list - it’s if the global financial system dedollarises. Which it now might start to do. But revealingly you didn’t include that on your list because you’re ignorant. end

thesecretbuyer.bsky.social•53 days ago

What a lovely, rational & totally balanced response.

Attacking the person (who you don't know) & throwing insults is always a surefire way to show you won the argument.

Well done you. 👍

gj4man.bsky.social•53 days ago

Bluesky's habit of hiding large chunks of a thread can really give the wrong impression sometimes 😂

hornetgx.bsky.social•53 days ago

So far.

odarygh.bsky.social•53 days ago

Enjoy their front page. Including a value-ticker. It was fun to watch during Trump-shenanigans.

https://www.nbim.no/no/

praisethe-sun.bsky.social•53 days ago

Do it again for China

markreckons.bsky.social•53 days ago

*Such* a missed opportunity. That could have been us as well with the North Sea oil bonus of the 1980s. Instead Thatcher pissed it all away.

marktierney.com•53 days ago

No, she made sure her friends in the US got all of it.... *special relationship*

lizzyjprice.bsky.social•53 days ago

While Thatcher used North Sea oil revenue to pay for the self inflicted mass unemployments of the 1980s, Norway planned for the future.

flisty.bsky.social•53 days ago

Going in with a chainsaw costs money. Someone should tell Musk

redbarchetta.bsky.social•53 days ago

But we have the British Business Bank...

jameselder.bsky.social•53 days ago

Meanwhile, if I remember rightly, Margaret Thatcher (or Charles Moore if you like) mentions North Sea Oil in The Downing Street Years precisely once.

kiersturmer.bsky.social•53 days ago

we could have had that too, Sam

malcolmburtt.bsky.social•53 days ago

Ah yes, but then the rich wouldn't have had their tax cuts. #ThatchersLegacy

eoinel.bsky.social•53 days ago

Meanwhile the U.K. produced more oil and has a country that’s hanging to bits.

alherix.bsky.social•53 days ago

What we need to thank Mrs Hatcher government for bears co no thinking.

As for Norway, they are also probably the largest donor of Overseas Development air at 1% of GDP

clatch.bsky.social•53 days ago

Me too.

Particularly galling as a Scot.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply