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Norweigan oil fund

nbim.no

221–230 of 339 posts

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#221
post #54

Yes those social Norwegian's invested; and the UK gave there north sea oil revenues to all the oligarchs

Same thing in Australia, the wealth coming from the resources boom has been and is being given to a few rich people, not the general public (who are having social services slashed regularly)

Yes this makes me very sad too. If you add the natural gas, iron ore, gold, etc we should be sitting on enough to run the country indefinitely. Instead the government is crying poor slashing services and selling off public assets.

We have also managed to completely hollow out the economy - there is nothing really left as all capital has flowed to the most profitable sectors (house building and resources) encouraged by public policy.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#222

One of the most mind blowing things to me, is that where I'm from (Canada) we've pumped almost 2.5 times more oil and gas than Nowrway over the past 30 years, yet our "oil fund" is somewhere around $20 Billion. Norway decided the benefits of resource extraction should be universal, while my country decided that the benefits should go to the wealthy and multi-national corporations.

Ha. Here in the US where we produce more than double what Canada does, there isn't even an oil fund.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#223
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population of Norway, 2017: 5.258 million Population of United States, 2018: 327.2 million

Discovery of oil in the United States: 1859. Discovery of oil in Norway: 1969. Imagine if we'd have had the foresight to take Norway's approach that natural resources are the nation's natural resources and let the returns build for 160 years.

We used ours to build an automobile-based economy. We didn't exactly lose out on the deal. The unfortunate discovery that CO2 contributes to global warming came much, much later. But at any rate, American economic dominance largely depends on infrastructure and mass market autos.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an order of a magnitude. Even then, so, Venezuela produces 1/5th per capita the oil of Norway. Why doesn't there exist a fund with $37k/person in Venezuela?

You could ask a similar question of the UK.

And North Dakota. The resource curse can happen anywhere.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be a good resource to get some more context on different countries’ energy systems and where petroleum plays in. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-03... This is particularly visual. Not taking away from Farouk al-Kasims contribution but find Norway to see how unique their particular situation is.

Forgot the link to the energy maps https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/473335.pdf

Those are a little hard to compare since the green square for petroleum is the same size reagrdelss of number.

But ignoring that, Norway's chart don't seem that different from Iran, Iraq etc. What did you intend to demonstrate via these charts.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder if Canada could have been like Norway for the same reasons. And Canada has more than just oil. But a lot of it seems to be privately squandered.

Alberta has one - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Trust...

Works out to $4k per person in the fund currently.

The argument could be made that it’s because they spent the money on long-term assets, but I’d argue they spent it on lower taxes.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#227
post #215
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway was lucky to be a very developed society before oil was discovered. In most countries oil is a curse

Wasn't most of the middle east pretty undeveloped before oil?

That’s precisely the point the GP is making

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it's about being developed, vs being about having a high-trust society? In a lot of places people will immediately get suspicious if you say you're setting up a government fund to hold everyone's money. For the benefit of society, of course.

It's about Norwegian climate: you don't work - you freeze to death in winter. In a dozen of generations an idea that everyone must work hard becomes an obvious thing.

I would expect similarly: if you are vocationally dishonest you will freeze to death.

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#229
And all it cost was the earth's climate.

I think this "oil fund" will be an interesting target when countries and states start disappearing under water and their crops start failing for reparations.

Also, why does Norway not contribute the full 2% to NATO spending again?

Re: Norweigan oil fund

#230

One of the most mind blowing things to me, is that where I'm from (Canada) we've pumped almost 2.5 times more oil and gas than Nowrway over the past 30 years, yet our "oil fund" is somewhere around $20 Billion. Norway decided the benefits of resource extraction should be universal, while my country decided that the benefits should go to the wealthy and multi-national corporations.

Ha. Here in the US where we produce more than double what Canada does, there isn't even an oil fund.

The oil fund is Exxon, which is in the S&P 500, which is in your 401k.
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