President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to take steps to start developing a government-owned investment fund that he said could be used to profit off of TikTok if he’s successful at finding the company an American buyer.

Summary

Trump signed an executive order to begin developing a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, which he said could take a 50% stake in TikTok if it is sold to an American buyer.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were tasked with laying the groundwork, though congressional approval may be required.

Trump noted that other nations have similar funds and aims to rival Saudi Arabia’s.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    8·
    2 days ago

    Borrowing money to fill an investment fund will never work. Because if the investment fund is going to make more money than the interest on the loan costs, the lender would just do their own fund themselves and not lend money to someone else to do it.

    • Quik@infosec.pub
      2·
      2 days ago

      That’s not quite true. If you’re better than the market, you can borrow until the market price for money (interest rate) adjusts (you become the market) and make money off of it. The thing just happens to be, governments aren’t usually in the being-more-efficient-than-the-market game, so, yes, countries should never do that.