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When oil prices spike, where does the money go?

thelastgallon · 145 points · 148 comments · yesterday · Open original

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ggm18 hours ago

To the extent my superannuation fund (401k, ROTH, IRA, hard to know what people call this in other economies) is invested in oil, it goes to .. me. Super funds in Australia, Canada, the US, are now a massive component of capital investment both in the public market and in private equity. Australia's GDP is 2.5T and the super funds are up to 4T or 5T. Thats $trillion. The super funds are bigger than the GDP of the economy they reside in! Some funds are just venal machines in the for profit sector. Some are run by boards aligned to union sectors, I am in the tertiary education union backed fund in Australia and it's been in the top 5 performing funds for my entire working lifetime, and given me a comfortable retirement. Most of the injection of funds was from me: I paid between 9 and 12% and on occasion up to 15% of my income into this fund over a 35 year working lifetime. Its accrual is all down to my fund manager, and if they invested in oil and have secured a windfall, at the cost of the future climate risk, thats on me, albiet indirectly. 35 years at the 150+ year 6-7% return in the market, (some say this trend is even older) is several doublings over my working lifetime. Those doublings were driven in .. the market. Me here, is 75% or more of Australia. It's not some amorphous unknown nasty corporate investor in a sharp suit, its ordinary people. Oh, the article even points out that they pay out on insurance and capital costs rebuilding the exploded ships and production facilities. Guess who makes money? Thats right, the superannuation funds invested in the re-insurance market (Warren Buffett's favourite!) or in construction companies, public or private. So.. thats me again. The money comes to us. Some of us may be in Saud. Sure. The Saudi state pays a huge stipend to its citizens. Some of us may be in Norway. That national investment fund is amazing. Why do you think Norway is now almost completely cut over to private EV drivers? I'd love to ideate the hateful oil companies as the victors here but the thing is, they don't simply act like Smaug and sit on a pile of gold coins. Thats not held to be useful by them and their peers. They do shave off FAR TOO MUCH to swan about in those aforementioned sharp suits, but enough of the fat trickles into my hands, to keep me in the manner to which I am accustomed, as a retiree. I'm as complicit, and so are "you" for many people reading this.

kleiba212 hours ago

Spoiler alert: "But ultimately, the bulk of the money heads in the direction of the source of the oil itself – the oil companies. [...] The money largely goes to company owners – meaning shareholders"

rossjudson15 hours ago

Does this mean the industry is now able to clean up the underfunded environmental disasters they created in the Gulf of Mexico? Oh, right.

DivingForGold16 hours ago

When oil prices spike, producers may choose to be even more benevolent (bribes / paybacks) to politicians / administration who created the means which caused the price hike.

PaulHoule4 hours ago

The story back in the 1970s was that the global banking system was not so developed so the Saudis invested their profits from oil in the US so the money never really left the US which made the transition from domestic to imported oil much less painful for the US than it was for some other countries. The UK had it's bacon saved by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil https://www.resources.org/archives/gas-in-the-north-sea/