3 ms·
If 75% of the profits go to the government (and arguably, as long as the monarchy continues to exist, the other 25% covers expenses that the government would en
by ajdlinux 5y ago
If 75% of the profits go to the government (and arguably, as long as the monarchy continues to exist, the other 25% covers expenses that the government would end up funding anyway), then doesn't that make the Crown Estate actually a small Sovereign Wealth Fund more than anything else?
Lots of the media coverage around the Crown Estate seems to focus on the wealth of the Royal Family - if I were their PR team I'd be trying to push the (quasi-)SWF angle pretty hard.
- pjc50 5y agoIt is literally a Sovereign Wealth Fund, in that it's the wealth of the sovereign. It's just (like a lot of things in the UK) not very democratically accountable.
- ajdlinux 5y agoWhat does it mean for a SWF to be "democratically accountable"? Given SWFs generally act like other large scale institutional investors - I suppose democratic accountability has put political pressure on some SWFs to act on ESG concerns (changing investment strategies away from fossil fuels towards renewables, voting in favour of climate activist resolutions, etc) but apart from that, is there any reason to think that the Crown Estate is doing a bad job at maximising returns to the government? (And to be clear, though I suspect you know this - I'm not using the S in SWF to refer to the head of state specifically, but to the government, as is the traditional meaning)