Post

correction on this post, Norway didn’t spend any GPFG money for the first 20 years of its existence, but they did tap it in 2016 for the first time, and repeatedly since then due to the pandemic and rearmament post-2022 www.ipe.com/norway-takes...

How much of an impact did creditors knowing they were extremely solvent have on them though? I imagine Norway can borrow money more cheaply than most countries since they're guaranteed to be good for it

The US is also considered an extremely reliable debt payer, or at least it was before Trump, and really, it still is. Right now, Norway's central bank interest rate is slightly higher than that of the US; the difference is that the US has much higher levels of public debt and deficits than Norway.

and on the “can we afford it” question America is better situated than any country to fund a world class welfare state, we are rich and control the global reserve currency, we could chase down tax cheats better than any nation, we just don’t because of our shitty constitution and corruption

This all started with a post about why Norwegians can afford to vacation so much in the US and while the welfare state helps with that the main reason is that their currency is super strong thanks to their oil wealth so everything outside Norway is cheap to them.

That is incorrect. The Norwegian krone is actually much weaker than the dollar and the euro. Norway's way of handling its oil revenues prevents its currency from becoming overly appreciated. Interestingly, the Swedish krona is also weak. Here is an explanation: corporate.nordea.com/article/1019...

Norway benefits from oil through the extra income and GDP per capita it generates. Without the oil sector, Norway’s GDP per capita would likely fall somewhere between Finland’s and Denmark’s—levels that are still very high and sufficient to fund a generous welfare state.