You're viewing a single thread.
Not much different than having it in a chequing account except that I'm less likely to spend it on something stupid.
1 year GIC rates are pretty good (4-5%) but considering that 50% of people under 55 can't afford a $1000 surprise expense it's not really a question of getting a handful of dollars from interest that the government could have given you to invest.
See facts like this make me wonder if a Norway style sovereign wealth fund could be developed to close the gaps in people's quality of life and what they've put into working.
It's not like the US is short on natural resource wealth to invest as the principle, and put together with a restructured tax regime it could significantly reduce the net burden for most americans, and especially the most misfortuned americans.
The US is a net importer, though. It wouldn't make sense.
I think that has more to do with the economics than the availablity in most cases
Being a net importer, means the US consumes more than it produces. It vaguely makes sense because it is still a growing county.
Norway's oil fund protects the domestic economy from the negative consequences of being an oil exporting nation. Less kindly, you could call it currency manipulation. The US would be ill-advised to do like-wise, given its import surplus.