Meet the world’s most flirtatious sovereign-wealth fund

Your columnist was in Riyadh in 2016 when Muhammad bin Salman, wearing robes and sandals, announced his Vision 2030, aimed at ending what the crown prince described as the kingdom’s addiction to oil. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler talked of selling shares in Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, to fund a giant sovereign-wealth fund (SWF), worth $2trn, to invest in diverse non-oil industries. He would be its chairman, benefactor and mastermind. It was heady stuff, even if some of it sounded unhinged in a hidebound autocracy like Saudi Arabia. The most striking thing occurred later when a palace official invited Schumpeter to a café. Young men and women sat without head coverings, flirting openly. The rule-breaking atmosphere was electric.