For most countries it would be better to have a fund of some size to tide them over emergencies. Unfortunately in the UK (like the US) we are very far from being able to setup a credible fund. There would be no point in a country continuing to amass large investments indefinitely unless it was able to finance spending easily and/or had a wasting natural resource that it was perparing for the end of (as is the case for the gulf states).

In this sense, the gulf states are very like an individual saving for their retirement!
.-= Neil´s last blog ..The Elusion of Financial Freedom That Debt Can Bring =-.

Australia is going to run a budget deficit this year due lower tax revenue from increasing unemployment. From what I can tell the debt is being financed by government borrowing funds externally and our Future Fund isn’t touched. You would think it would make sense to use some of the Future Fund, which gets repaid when the economy improves.

(1) When China recently committed to spend something like $500 billion on fiscal stimulus I had sovereign wealth envy. Here in the U.S. we have to take on more debt to fund our fiscal stimulus. China can just write a check. How nice.

(2) Back when the U.S. was running a surplus there was some concern that the lack of issuance of more debt would hamper the Fed’s ability to implement monetary policy. Back then they almost exclusively managed the money supply with open market operations w.r.t. Treasury Bills (not like today where they have everything from hamburgers to old shoes on their balance sheet). It was hard for economists to imagine how the Fed would work if we had no debt. That’s not something we have to worry about now!
.-= The Incidental Economist´s last blog ..The Best Books for Children =-.

The list of all the SWFs are located here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund

The way the government is run, is efficient and nothing short of incredible, with a lot of reserve cash for the rainy days, saved from their boom days.

Their Temasek Holdings are incredible, and a way for them to secure their position as an international financial centre.