[starik36]

> The government obtains fractional ownership over large enterprises (this can happen through market mechanisms or populist strongarming...)

Isn't that what happened in the Soviet Union? Except it wasn't fractional. It ushered 50 years of misery.

[idreyn]

Yes, it is. And yes, except that it wasn't. A SWF is about building common wealth inside the systems that finance capital built (in the same way that the 401k replaced the pension) rather than turning back the clock on them. How you acquire those assets can vary wildly:

- Maybe you just decide to invest some public money

- Maybe you have some natural resources that are collective-by-default (minerals wealth on public land)

- Maybe there's a bailout of an industry that is financially broken but has become too big to fail cough and the government presses its leverage

- Maybe a president just wakes up and decides that he wants the government to own 10% of Intel, and makes that deal happen on favorable terms.