Can sovereign wealth funds aid the post-pandemic economic recovery?

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can have positive or negative effects, like any fund how effective they are depends on how the money is spent, and sometimes it could even lead to a country getting poorer. Countries such as the US oppose SWFs as they may lead to international protectionism, but they can also cause corruption, obsessions with budget balancing, and a lack of political courage as over-reliance on such schemes can prevail. The most popular argument for sovereign wealth funds is to fund innovation, but not all research and development investments make a country richer, look at massive projects that failed, e.g. Concord. In addition to transparency concerns SWFs raise moral ones also, some SWF investments may exacerbate climate change, war or human rights abuses, for example Norway's SWF has invested billions in arms, torture and surveillance technology, despite their SWF having rules to stop this from happening.

cbc.ca/news/business/vaccine-markets-interest-rates-1.5795620 youtu.be/f7sRMIxYVVk?t=1628 forbes.com/sites/riskmap/2013/12/19/the-promise-and-perils-of-sovereign-wealth-funds/?sh=5652bddf48cd

Sovereign wealth funds have already led to several success stories, such as Norway’s Government Pension Fund, or Alaska’s Permanent Fund that is used to pay a public dividend program which has been called the world’s only example of a basic income program. But this development is already largely underway with an increasing number of governments looking to establish such “rainy day” funds. Countries that already have such funds in place have been able to make withdrawals during this period to provide economic support to the country’s economy during the pandemic, for example Norway and Nigeria. Governments need to establish citizen’s wealth funds to address not only the COVID economic crisis but the impending environmental crisis also. Such funds could be invested in de-carbonisation and job retraining schemes, while reinforcing a feeling of stakeholder-ship and citizenship in the citizenry, something that has taken a knock in many parts of the world in recent years.

peoplespolicyproject.org/projects/social-wealth-fund straitstimes.com/business/economy/sovereign-wealth-funds-invest-more-at-home-amid-covid-19-woes