Peter R. Orszag, previously director of the Office of Management and Budget, writes an article for Bloomberg View in which he states that governments across the world have an estimated $75 trillion worth of commercial assets — roughly 50 percent more than the $54 trillion in global public debt — and these assets are typically quite poorly managed. Further, he states “the returns from better management would be enormous. A 2 percentage-point increase in the return on public commercial assets would generate an additional $1.5 trillion a year, a sum equal to total global spending on research and development”.
Orszag highlights the current situation: “Public assets could be better managed if public officials would increase transparency about their value, define clear goals and, as much as possible, insulate asset management from political influences”.
He concludes his thoughts with a message that “Rather than focus entirely on how much debt governments owe, let’s figure out ways to better manage their even-larger assets”.
Read the entire article here:
How Governments Lose Trillions Mismanaging Property