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Feb 2025
9m 29s

How would a US sovereign wealth fund eve...

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About this episode
What is a sovereign wealth fund? President Trump's executive order calling for a plan to start a U.S. sovereign wealth fund is not a new idea. But it remains a topic of much debate among economists and policymakers. So is a national sovereign wealth fund a good or even viable idea?

A version of this episode originally aired Oct. 1, 2024.

Related episode:
Why oil in Guyana could be a curse

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