Sovereign Wealth Funds – Nothing to See Here, Move On

This morning the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on Sovereign Wealth Funds–those state owned investment funds causing a political stir as of late.

The panelists all agreed that sovereign wealth funds are a good thing for the U.S. economy. We need the money! The thought that foreign governments would invest in the U.S. to surreptitiously bring down the U.S. is nil, as it’s a mutually assured destruction strategy. There’s just too much money being invested in the U.S. so even some Arab and Asian countries have an interest in seeing our economy prosper.

ACT released a paper on foreign direct investment earlier this year, where my coauthor Nora von Ingersleben and I conclude that there are processes already in place–namely CFIUS review–that will account for any national security threats.

Congress is right to be involved, and CFIUS keeps them involved. Congress receives reports from the CFIUS committee to ensure transparency in the process.

David Marchick of the Carlyle Group was one of the witnesses, and last month he was a panelist at an event on foreign investment that ACT sponsored in the Capitol Building.