Where is ours ????

[lukemg]

'Norway
What's Norway got to do with anything? Well, the country has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. The 'Government Pension Fund – Global', established in 1990 to invest Norway's surplus oil income, has a current asset value of US$737bn and holds about 1% of the entire shares of global equity markets.'

Knowing that the oil wealth was a short-term blip in the history of a nation, Norway immediately syphoned a small but significant chunk into this sovereign fund. Invested across the globe, this secures the future prosperity of the nation and future generations. you have to say this is an obvious but brilliant decision.

So where is ours ? Yes I know we are a much larger population but the short-term thinking, vested interests scrabbling for ever increasing payouts regardless of national income means we have pissed it all up the wall, mostly on non-productive uses, benefits, wasteful huge government depts etc. AND we are STILL spending more than the country earns which leaves us paying an ever bigger chunk in interest each year.
I am certain we will correct this when the shale gas 'bonanza' kicks off....

[SimonMac]

OK, spooky I was reading this exact same paragraph somewhere, something about Rio Tinto and not being a reputable holding for Norway, a fellow Fool I take it?

[lukemg]

Yep, that's where I saw it on the fool site, I knew about the sovereign fund but didn't know the scale, the arab oil nations are doing the same, buying assets all over the globe but the Norway plan seems SO obvious now, is probably capable of kicking out 40BN a year in earnings without any additional investment or let it compound up/keep adding, which I think they are doing.

A whole nations prosperity secured for 20 years of prudence, astonishing.

[bobspud]

We will never have one again...

We have let our utilities be sold to the French and Germans and Chinese wealth funds. So now any money that comes out of shale will go straight out of our country into a tax haven. While our idiots subsidise the firms that destroy the environment to get at the reserves...

The only wealth we will generate will be the taxes from the consumers

[DimPrawn]

Pissed up the wall by New Labour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[lukemg]

I still think shale gas can make a huge difference. Energy costs are holding back all western economies and in the US, the plentiful gas supply is reducing foreign dependency, generating many jobs and opening up industries that rely on massive amounts of energy that had been closing down.
But I am equally certain any revenue will be mismanaged...

[DimPrawn]

We mustn't touch this cheap fossil fuel energy!

Shale gas incompatible with controlling global warming - WWF UK

[bobspud]

Pissed up the wall by New Labour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This ^ and the depressing thing is that if there is any money to be found from Shale this will go the same way. I think its high time that we had another London Bridge type fund to lock the cash away and protect the wealth from idiots and thieves...

The City Bridge Trust

[Mich the Tester]

'Norway
What's Norway got to do with anything? Well, the country has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. The 'Government Pension Fund – Global', established in 1990 to invest Norway's surplus oil income, has a current asset value of US$737bn and holds about 1% of the entire shares of global equity markets.'

Knowing that the oil wealth was a short-term blip in the history of a nation, Norway immediately syphoned a small but significant chunk into this sovereign fund. Invested across the globe, this secures the future prosperity of the nation and future generations. you have to say this is an obvious but brilliant decision.

So where is ours ? Yes I know we are a much larger population but the short-term thinking, vested interests scrabbling for ever increasing payouts regardless of national income means we have pissed it all up the wall, mostly on non-productive uses, benefits, wasteful huge government depts etc. AND we are STILL spending more than the country earns which leaves us paying an ever bigger chunk in interest each year.
I am certain we will correct this when the shale gas 'bonanza' kicks off....

...and complete failure to reform pensions despite 50 years of warnings from demographers.

But on the positive side I read another article this morning saying that the people born after 1980 are more economically conservative than others before them and don't believe so much in government hand outs; probably pissed off that they didn't get student grants like their parents but will have to pay the bills for 60 years of profigacy for the rest of their lives.

[Mich the Tester]

It might be worthwhile digging up some of that coal again. Or cutting down a couple of Welsh mountains to extract the gold.