Posted on 02/04/2025 5:07:08 AM PST by V_TWIN
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an executive order Monday to create a sovereign US wealth fund — saying that TikTok may become one of its first acquisitions.
A sovereign wealth fund is an investment fund owned and operated by a government. The world’s largest and wealthiest such funds are owned by China and resource-rich countries like Norway and Middle Eastern emirates.
It was not immediately specified how the US endowment — the creation of which was first reported last month by The Post’s Charles Gasparino — would be capitalized, but Trump previously floated using tariff proceeds.
It’s unclear if adding a stake in TikTok would require up-front investment, or if Beijing would offload it without charge to avoid a looming 10% levy that Trump announced Friday.
“It’s a very exciting event. We’re going to have a sovereign wealth fund, which we’ve never had,” Trump said in the Oval Office — as News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch and Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison sat nearby.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Is it a coincidence that the Crypto and AI czar is giving a major speech today?
I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking :)
BAD IDEA.
“President Trump signed an executive order Monday to create a sovereign US wealth fund — saying that TikTok may become one of its first acquisitions”
So tax payer money will be used to buy a private company.
Not sure I like an official government slush fund.
I agree. On this side of eternity, bad idea. On the other side, maybe not so bad.
In the past election, TikTok was an absolute hotbed of support for Trump, especially for black men that defected from the democrats. Hard to imagine that would have been allowed if the US government owned it.
This is the first bad idea of his. No thanks to government or big tech taking it over. That would ruin it. Might as well turn it over directly to the CIA/FBI and cut out the middleman.
We still hang to think of the day a democrat comes into office.
We don’t need anything that will make the government bigger and more powerful.
In the past election, TikTok was an absolute hotbed of support for Trump, especially for black men that defected from the democrats. Hard to imagine that would have been allowed if the US government owned it.
This is the first bad idea of his. No thanks to government or big tech taking it over. That would ruin it. Might as well turn it over directly to the CIA/FBI and cut out the middleman.
We still need to think of the day a democrat comes into office.
Musk wants help getting out of his Bitcoin position
Where in the US Constitution does the government get privileges to tax us to compete against us by operating a private enterprise?
So the government is going to pick and choose companies they think are good investments? And then they have a fiduciary interest in their success?
That doesn’t sound very American.
Strategic reserves are one thing…stockpiling natural resources is one thing. Buying social media companies is quite another.
We are lacking the first pre-requisite for a SWF, and that is Sovereign Wealth. We have only sovereign debt. We are a debtor nation. The countries with a SWF are usually small nations that have cash to invest, often from selling oil. The whole notion is ludicrous, but it will be a good way for Trump to enrich his cronies, so I expect it will continue to be talked about. How will it be funded? No clue.
Good point. SWFs such as Norway’s and Alaska’s and Texas’ and Russia’s are typically based on natural resources. Getting too general in scope could cause other conflicts.
Imagine poppy pants Biden with trillions of dollars of “fun money” in a Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Because that or worse will happen some day.
How well did the government do with the Social Security money you sent them from your paycheck?
Pay down the debt. Cut taxes. Don’t give government more control of resources.
The government is about to have a huge influx of money from tariffs. That will easily fund this. It is a brilliant idea.
They will look at it as just another way to ‘pick the pocket’ of our economy (just like they do with the tax code now).
Seems to work out pretty well for Norway and Saudi. Like a government endowment fund. I don’t see the downside, as long as it is managed openly and responsibly. There would need to be guardrails to keep it from being used to manipulate markets. Probably less hazardous than bad actors like BlackRock and the hedge fund universe.
Good point. It works be the next USAID slush fund. And besides, we are 37 trillion in debt. We don’t have money for a slush fund. It’s bad if there government owns a social media company, it’s worse if it’s a public private partnership Benito would approve of.
Very bad idea.
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