The U.S. could create a sovereign wealth fund that would be worth more than $3 trillion after two decades if it saved a portion of tax revenue from its recently discovered shale oil and gas reserves.
That would be about four times Norway’s fund, the world’s largest, estimate Stephen Jen and Joana Freire of SLJ Macro Partners LLP in London.
The argument for saving, as Norway did with its oil revenue, rather than spending income from crude, as the U.K. did, is the potential for greater investment returns. Doing so supports the wealth of future generations rather than the lifestyle of the current one, they said.
“Unfortunately, more likely than not, the U.S. will spend the tax proceeds from this energy bonanza,” Jen and Freire said.