Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24049876

Seems to me that while the likes of Qatar , Dubai and AD are publickly out there in terms of media exposure of their Sovereign Funds, the Norwegians have been quietly going about their business without much fanfare.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

The UAE ain't doing so bad:
http://www.swfinstitute.org/fund-rankings/

To be fair, the Norwegians were starting from a point of relatively advanced development and employed a policy of "bank it now, spend it later". The Gulf states have had to build entire institutions and national infrastructure in a matter of decades. Given that, their (the Gulf SWFs) relative scale is mighty impressive.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

The GCC states had/have the advantage of: indentured servitude, no labor laws, slavery, highly exploited and abused blue collar workers; all which Norway didn't have.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Great to see the economic powerhouses of the world like East Timor, Botswana and Palestine making the list, but the UK not featuring.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

The UK does not have enough money to have ever created a 'sovereign wealth fund' - it has the NHS to pay for........ ;)

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

All true, but what does that have to do with sovereign wealth funds?

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Huge sovereign fund, but only 6 hours of sunlight. Proof that you can't have it all

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Thats becuase they have some very beautiful ladies - so swings and roundabouts really ..

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

So; Pros and Cons

Pros:
Beautiful Ladies (some)
Huge sovereign wealth fund

Cons:
Lack of daylight

At the moment I'm not sure whether lack of daylight contributes to Pro no.2 or if they're unrelated.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Lower government expenditure?

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

UAE infrastructure played a major part in the country's ability to accumulate such a large SWF. If the UAE had to pay an honest wage and treat labourers as human, it would have cost them far more money to do so.

If a person here in America was afforded such ridiculously cheap labour and did not have to follow health and safety laws, they too would have an easier time accumulating such vast riches.

--
Edit
What Meow alludes to.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

I wonder what they get up to with all that darkness around them....:D

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Well, first thing that came to my mind was pretty poor. Darkness, attractive women and for some reason...which is beyond me...this sprung to mind:

Note; I'm not condoning it, I must have watched too many bad films.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Leaving the Union with Sweden in 1905 was a smart move.

Re: Norway, world's biggest sovereign fund?
 

Up to date, as ever.