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Governments can own stocks just fine, just look at sovereign wealth funds around the world. But a more 'automatic' solution where the government sells off the s
by Epa095 2y ago
Governments can own stocks just fine, just look at sovereign wealth funds around the world. But a more 'automatic' solution where the government sells off the stocks amortized over the year is also fine, and gives more predictability for the stock market.
And who will buy? Other billionaires yes, but they will pay the state, so the end result is moving of wealth from the billionaires to the state.
And regarding your 'state ownership' tabu, Scandinavia says hi;-) But that's a different discussion, for this tax I am fine with the state continuously selling it.
- vessenes 2y agoAll good points, but sovereign wealth funds in the countries in which they operate well are typically a nationalized retirement program and by definition on behalf of the citizenry: countries like the us that instead fund social security through taxes and a reliance on population growth have pretty different systems. I do not believe the us could or would run a successful sovereign wealth fund: it’s a vastly more complex economy with attendant legal regulatory and social challenges than the countries where sovereign wealth funds have been most successful: Singapore (tiny, nearly a benevolent dictatorship), the nords - oil or drug wealth with small very homogenous communities - Saudi : a strong royal family. In contrast the US economy and legal system fully bake the neoliberal economic viewpoint into our institutions: we are a country that outsources almost everything including everything financial to the private sector. To me it’s just extremely unlikely that a system like that would work. Sadly because if my social security payments over the years had gone to temasek I would have done quite well..