OP here. Yeah, I deliberately took the title as the headline from the FT article. The planet money podcast and the FT article have somewhat different content,

OP here. Yeah, I deliberately took the title as the headline from the FT article. The planet money podcast and the FT article have somewhat different content, but both are well worth consuming. The FT article goes into more depth on the story. The reason I found it worth posting was because Norway set up specific rules that most other countries don't consider when they find oil (heavy taxation on the oil industry so that the oil profits benefit the whole country, only invest the interest not the principal, don't drill all the oil at once, get a higher percentage out of the ground than elsewhere, agree not to use oil as a political tool around elections). It's important to note that strong institutions like a stable political system, and strong, independent judiciary are needed for these rules for even be considered, let alone enforced. It's also interesting to note that at a time when so many sovereign balance sheets are weighed down by misguided bank bailouts, Norway has managed to build up a sovereign wealth fund such that for each it's citizens it has a positive $100,000 value.