Wall Street Week: The Sports of Kings, From Formula One Racing to Sovereign Wealth Funds

Welcome to the Wall Street Week newsletter, bringing you stories of capitalism about things you need to know, but even more things you need to think about. I’m David Westin, and this week we told the stories of one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, NBIM, and what it takes to win on the track and on the bottom line of Formula One racing. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up here for this newsletter.

It’s no secret that the US faces some fiscal challenges in dealing with its growing debt. At the same time, private investment funds sometimes seem to have more have more cash than they know what to do with. So, it was inevitable that people would think about using the latter to help with the former. Enter sovereign wealth funds, which largely grew out of the windfall of huge oil and gas revenues in the 1970s being put to work by places like Norway and Alaska. The question is whether what works for Norway (to the tune of a roughly $1.5 trillion fund) and Alaska (weighing in at more than $80 billion) could work for the world’s largest economy, as well.