Citizens' Wealth: Why (and How) Sovereign Funds Should be Managed by the People for the People

by Angela Cummine

Overview

In 2006, Chile teemed with protesters after finance minister Andrés Velasco invested budget surpluses from the nation’s historic copper boom in two Sovereign Wealth Funds. A year later, when prices plummeted and unemployment soared, Chile’s government was able to stimulate recovery by drawing on the funds. 
State-owned investment vehicles that hold public funds in a wide range of assets, Sovereign Wealth Funds enable governments to access an unprecedented degree of wealth. Consequently, more countries are seeking to establish them. Looking at Chile, China, Australia, Singapore, and numerous other examples, including a comparative analysis of Britain and Norway’s use of oil revenues, Angela Cummine tackles the key ethical questions surrounding their use, including: To whom does the wealth belong? How should the funds be managed, invested, and distributed? With sovereign funds—and media attention—continuing to grow, this is an invaluable look at a hotly debated economic issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300222111
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	661 KB

About the Author

Angela Cummine is a British Academy postdoctoral fellow in the department of politics and international relations, Oxford University. A political theorist with expertise in the governance of state-owned assets and economic inequality, she divides her time between Oxford, UK, and Harare, Zimbabwe.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables ix

Acknowledgements x

Abbreviations xiii

1 Introduction: The Santiago dilemma 1

Part I The blessings and burdens of sovereign wealth

2 Do sovereign funds make nations richer? 19

3 Whose wealth is it: state's or citizens'? 36

4 The Tsipras point: control of and benefit from community wealth 58

Part II Democratizing sovereign funds

5 No accumulation without representation! 71

6 Dirty money: generating sovereign wealth ethically 93

7 Role models of community control: Norway and New Zealand 113

Part III Distributing sovereign wealth

8 Show me the money! Citizen benefit from sovereign wealth 135

9 Owner-state or owner-people: lessons from Alaska 160

10 Fighting inequality with sovereign wealth 182

Part IV What next?

11 Past the peak? The future of sovereign wealth accumulation 195

12 Transforming sovereign funds into community funds 207

Appendix 1 The world's sovereign wealth funds (as at April 2016) 218

Appendix 2 Select sovereign wealth fund definitions 224

Appendix 3 Truman scoreboard of sovereign wealth funds (2009-12) 226

Endnotes 229

Bibliography 253

Index 272

Editorial Reviews

This is an indispensable source for any examination of [sovereign wealth funds].”—Choice

Choice

Exceedingly impressive work from a rising academic star… Sizing up SWFs from Singapore and New Zealand to Alaska, and returning repeatedly to the recent experience of Chile (and the Santiago Principles that grew out of it), this study is sharp, focused and persuasive.”—THES

THES

Citizen’s Wealth contains powerful arguments… the book includes timely analysis, well-argued challenges to accepted wisdom and innovative ideas.”—Danae Kyriakopoulou, OMFIF

OMFIF - Danae Kyriakopoulou

An important and well-written book that provides new theoretical and empirical insights on how sovereign wealth funds can be used to not only extract and manage public wealth, but also invest in the future process of wealth creation – for the public good.’ — Mariana Mazzucato, R.M. Phillips Professor in the Economics of Innovation, University of Sussex and author of The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths

Mariana Mazzucato

Angela Cummine brings a fresh perspective on the purpose of sovereign wealth funds. She presents a compelling argument in favour of transforming these institutions into community funds. Whether you agree with her or not, these are important questions for all citizens of nations with sovereign or, as she terms it, citizens’ wealth. This is an essential book for anyone with an interest in this topic. — Hendrik du Toit, CEO, Investec Asset Management
 

Hendrik du Toit

‘A timely topic; insightful analysis; elegant writing. Any one of these qualities is enough to make a book worth reading: Angela Cummine’s Citizens’ Wealth has all three. Cummine has brilliantly identified sovereign funds as the junction where some of the most pressing economic and political challenges of our time converge, and provides a masterful map of its complex topography in the great tradition of genuine political economy.’ — Felix Martin, author of Money: The Unauthorised Biography

author of Money: The Unauthorised Biography Felix Martin

‘Sovereign wealth funds will be a defining issue in the global economy and financial system for years to come. This important book sets the terms for the debate and should be widely read especially by those creating sovereign funds and those aspiring to help or advise them.’ - —Lawrence H. Summers, President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University

President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Lawrence H. Summers