Saturday, April 13, 2013

Thatcher Afterthought: Sovereign Wealth

Here's one I hadn't thought of until I read someone recalling how Maggie dealt with Britain's sudden oil wealth, in contrast to the Norwegians. Recall that the Norwegians put together a sovereign wealth fund-- by any measure, one of the best managed and most contructive sovereign wealth funds in the world.  By contrast, Maggie cut taxes.

Counterfactual thought experiment, what if Britain had launched a sovereign wealth fund?  Would it have worked like Norway's?  Or would it just have been gobbled up by friends of friends?

I suppose one could also speculate on what the world would have been like had we had all those Norwegians running about (on cross-country skis, no doubt) with a few thousand extra kroner in their pockets?

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