(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The first kroner were deposited into the oil fund's account in 1996. The fund's official name is the Statens pensjonsfond utland. The thinking was that the state's oil and gas revenues were best safeguarded in the long term by investments in shares, securities and property abroad.
It is only permitted to inject the annual return from the fund directly into the Norwegian economy. The piggy bank should grow big and fat for future generations and not be crushed by unreasonable politicians who would squander everything in a hurry like the Spanish did in their time with all the gold and silver they robbed from Latin America.
The oil fund with a country in tow
The oil fund has now also grown beyond all limits. Little Norway owns the world's largest government fund. We can rightly say that our nation is an oil fund with a country in tow. As of this writing, market value of NOK 18 billion; that corresponds to approximately three million per Norwegian. 20 per cent of the state budget is financed by the fund. Over 70 per cent is invested in shares. The oil fund currently owns 1,5 percent of the world's shares, while Norway's population is less than one per thousand of the world's population.
The enormous oil revenues have left their mark on the past three decades Norwegian economy and mentality, for better or for worse. Norway looks a lot like an Arab Gulf state – apart from the geography and climate. While the Arab countries drain the wealth of a desert under a burning sun, our oil derricks are fixed at the bottom of the North Sea under a stream of freezing low pressure. And while those who become rich in the desert states are a small number of sheikhs, the wealth in Norway must be distributed among the citizens in the present and future. The oil fund is therefore basically our joint property.
The Norwegian Oil Fund's investments are part of the global one capitaliste the economy which, on the one hand, creates huge fortunes in a few hands, while poverty spreads on the opposite side. We live according to annual reports from the British organization Oxfam in a world where a handful of people own more than the poorest half of humanity. The oil fund is part of this system. But the system is unstable and could collapse in a new financial crisis, and large parts of the fund could disappear into a black hole. It will be a shame for the unborn Norwegian citizen.
Capitalism is dirty. It is characterized by environmental destruction, exploitation, speculation, money laundering, human trafficking, child labour, tax havens and not least: cynical people who do everything to keep the wars going so that weaponsthe forges continue to produce their cunning deadly products day and night. Much of this is legal, because the system is rigged for the rich, and more and more of the economy is run by criminal gangs.
The Oil Fund and Palestine
Four days after Russia march in Ukraine gave Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold vedum clear message that all Norwegian investments in Russia were to be frozen and liquidated as soon as possible. The opposite happens in Palestine/Israel. There is far too much money at stake here, both for the oil fund and for other financial institutions and a number of arms manufacturers.
The report came out last year «Don’t buy into the occupation», which shows that the oil fund is the largest European investor in companies operating in the occupied West Bank. The oil fund has invested 13,6 billion dollars in nearly 50 companies that profit from the occupation. A large part of these investments, around five billion dollars, are in five Israeli banks that are responsible for the direct financing of the illegal settlements. Altogether, the report shows that 776 European financial institutions account for billions in loans and investments in companies linked to them violation of international law and Palestine
This year a new report came out, «The companies arming Israel and their financiers», which reveals that the oil fund is among the largest European financial institutions that invest in international arms manufacturers that sell arms to Israel. In total, the financial institutions have given the arms industry 36,1 billion euros in loans and guarantees, and they own 26 billion euros in shares and bonds.
Nicolai Tangen was supposed to be a man of the state, but in reality is international finance capital's foremost activist in Norway.
Capital, including our own overgrown piggy bank, profits from the ongoing Israeli occupation and genocide taking place in Palestine. Therefore, no change happens without pressure from activists.
We can expect little of that ethical advice in oil the fund, because it largely consists of people loyal to the system. Today, former Hydro CEO Svein Richard Brantzæg leads the council, while multi-billionaire and Ferd CEO Johan H. Andresen was leader from 2015 to 2023. In all these years, oil the fund continued with its investments in the West Bank and in the arms industry. And the bombing of Gaza is not the first. In our century, Israel has bombed Gaza in a series of wars before the ongoing genocide unfolding today.
The global financial capital
We also hear few protests against these investments from oil fund managers Nicolai Tangen, who is otherwise a very public person who speaks out about most things. In reality, a paradigm shift took place in Norway when Tangen was hired as manager of the fund in 2020. The former hedge fund manager built up his billion-dollar fortune himself by means of the use of at least five different tax havens: Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey. His hedge fund Ako Capital also invests in the West Bank, as can be seen from the above-mentioned report «Don’t buy into the occupation».
Tangen's competence was to be a successful financial speculator. He was supposed to be a man of the state, but in reality is international finance capital's foremost activist in Norway. The oil fund manager has for a long time carried out unrestrained lobbying to get the oil fund to invest in so-called unlisted shares that are not on the stock exchange. Unlisted shares are used by "private equity", speculative acquisition funds based in tax havens and with very high fees for the managers. Tangen has succeeded in getting his boss, Central Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache, on the team to get the oil fund involved in such speculations.
The investor conference in Oslo
The stock market sharks on Wall Street have with their speculations several times triggered financial crises that have plunged humanity into misery and war. But now many of the most cynical speculators are no longer listed on Wall Street. They are now just sharks and choose instead to invest in hedge funds or private equity.
Several of these dollar billionaires and fund managers gave lectures at the oil fund's annual investment conference at Norges Bank's premises in Oslo on 23 April this year. The theme for this year's conference was: How to become a better investor? Who are these people who will teach the Norwegian financial elite how to run good business, and what do they represent? We highlight some of the speakers (see also the two sub-issues):
An usher was Ole Andreas Halvorsen (asset 7,2 billion dollars), who is head of and co-founder of the hedge fund Viking Global Investors. "It's important to give the environment in Norway a boost, and you are the hero above all heroes", wrote oil fund manager Nicolai Tangen in an email to Halvorsen ahead of the gathering, according to DN. Halvorsen earns DKK 36 million every day, wrote the magazine Kapital in 2021.
A number of other initiators came from various buyout funds, based on unlisted shares. They all operate from tax havens, largely from the US state of Delaware, an eldorado for PO box companies. The US as a whole is now considered the most secretive tax haven globally, according to the Financial Secrecy Index 2022.
They invest in all possible objects such as shares, currency, raw materials, debt, property, bonds – and derivatives.
The funds are managed by some of the world's richest people, who earn more in one day than a worker does in several years, yes, a lifetime. They invest in all possible objects such as shares, currency, raw materials, debt, property, bonds – and derivatives (the derivatives market is now at least five times larger than the world's combined GDP).
They buy up viable companies, restructure and slaughter them or move production to low-cost countries and sell the rest after a few years for sky-high profits. Left behind are ruined local communities and people without work. They fight all forms of trade union organisation. They are waging a class struggle against the working class of the world. They have a swarm around them of paid lawyers, politicians, think tanks and consulting agencies to protect their interests.
It is a typical feature of the development of capitalism globally that such speculative acquisition companies have expanded. These are the funds Wolden Backe and Tangen will draw in the oil fund more in. It is the way into the darkest heart of capitalism.
The mentality in Norges Bank and Norges Bank Investment Management (the oil fund) breaks completely with the post-war social democratic consensus.
There were 270 registered for the conference, the top of the list the financial elite in Norway. The thinking of these funds matches that of the Norwegian financial elite, including that of the oil fund's management. They have identical views on what are the best investments.
The mentality of Norges Bank and Norges Bank Investment Management (the oil fund) completely breaks with the post-war social democratic consensus. It is a step in a new direction for Norwegian society, the contours of which we can only guess at - except that it does a lot of damage.
About Apollo Global Management
One of the speakers at the investor conference in Oslo was Marc Rowan, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, which is a giant investment fund. Rowan and his wife supported Trump's 2020 election campaign with a million dollars.
Rowan is one of the Israel lobby's most powerful supporters in the US.
On its website, the oil fund has removed all information that Rowan is one of the Israel lobby's most powerful supporters in the US. Among other things, Rowan led the campaign to oust the chancellor of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, because she had allowed a major Palestinian literature festival to be held on the university's grounds. Rowan characterized the wave of protests against Israel's war in American universities with the following words: «It’s not antisemitism. It is anti-Americanism.»
Apollo has grown 14 times since the financial crisis in 2007/2008. What kind of fund is this, and what can they teach the Norwegian "capital management industry", as it is called from the oil fund's communications department?
Apollo's ownership in American hospitals has e.g. led to poorer results and safety for patients – and dismissals and pay cuts for the employees. It is documented in the report «Apollo’s Stranglehold on Hospitals Harms Patients and Health- care workers". In other industries as well, Apollo's investments have led to mass redundancies and bankruptcies.
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project writes on its website: "Over the past year and a half, Apollo Global Management has nearly doubled the number of employees in its companies to over 550 through acquisitions such as the acquisition of Alorica, a call center operator with 000 workers and Michael's craft stores with 100 workers. Private equity takeovers often result in significant losses of workplaces and reductions in average worker wages in the companies they buy. Private equity-owned retail companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers due to store closings and bankruptcies.”
About the world's largest hedge fund: Bridgewater
Bridgewater Associates was founded in 1975 by Ray Dalio. It is today the world's largest hedge funds with approx. 1300 employees and managers approx. 125 billion dollars. Their headquarters are located in Westport, Connecticut. Dario stepped down as boss in 2022, and his closest employee over the years has been Greg Jensen, who is currently the fund's investment director. Today, the general manager is Nir Bar Dea, who was previously an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Greg Jensen was the first presenter at the investor conference in Oslo, where he held a 20-minute Power Point presentation in front of the Norwegian financial elite with the theme "Investment philosophy and strategy".
Threatened the publisher with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit.
In December 2023, financial journalist Rob Copeland published The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend. The book is mostly about the founder of Bridgewater, Ray Dalio, but much is also about his second-in-command, Greg Jensen. One reviewer called the book "A hedge fund horror story". bridgewater launched several law firms to stop the book and threatened the publisher with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. Copeland's sources are primarily interviews with hundreds of former and current employees of the fund. The employees must be anonymous, because upon employment they must sign a 13-page document on complete secrecy about the fund – even after they have finished working in Bridgewater.
The book reveals the inner workings of Bridgewater. The working conditions are characterized by a culture of fear, continuous monitoring and humiliation of the employees in public and sexual harassment. In 2014, however, Bridgewater had to pay one million dollars to a female employee who was forced out of the company after a relationship with Jensen. That same year, Jensen earned $400 million.
MODERN TIMES asked the oil fund's press department the following question after referring to Copland's book: "Why on earth is the oil fund dragging this company into the heat? If they were to learn something, surely it would have to be the opposite of Jensen's strategies and the fund's corporate culture? And that was hardly the intention of inviting Jensen to the conference?"
Characterized by a culture of fear, continuous monitoring and humiliation of the employees in front of the public.
Sigurd Gotaas Brekke, Head of External Relations and Projects, Norges Bank Investment Management, writes this in his reply: "Hello. The goal of the conference is to create the premier meeting place for the Norwegian asset management industry. Greg Jensen is a successful investor and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Bridgewater Associates, and a person we thought we and the Norwegian asset management industry could learn something from."
Quotations translated by ArticleFiorfatter
