Fund extraction for the MIF? Maybe the apt word is extortion

NORWAY's sovereign wealth fund, called the Government Pension Fund Global, lost more than $164 billion last year. The fund's investments in equities, bonds and energy infrastructure were down by more than 14 percent as the market was spooked by the Russia-Ukraine war, inflation and the global economic downturn. But here is the thing. The huge loss was big business news but had no impact on the stability of the broader economy of the Nordic nation of just over 5 million people, a sizable Filipino community included.

Norway's SWF, we all know this by now, is the biggest, the king of sovereign global funds at $1.6 trillion (bigger than the Philippines' GDP many times over) and big losses and big earnings are expected. Its origins story hews to the textbook story on how to create SWFs. Its funding source came from the oil and gas surpluses of resource-rich Norway, piles of commodity earnings from an offshore bounty that had to be repurposed. Funding SWFs from commodity surpluses is the familiar narrative of SWF-creating countries, proceeds that essentially accumulated from resource extraction. There is state money to spare. Why not use it for investments purposes. The Norwegian fund earned big in the two years prior to the bust of 2022.