Market talk says that the Future Fund has dropped close to $10 billion amid the recent turmoil.

The Fund’s total assets stood at $61.5 billion late last year.

The establishment of the Future Fund was announced by Peter Costello during the 2004 election campaign, the same campaign that brought us the “who do you trust to keep interest rates lower” stunt.

Like “who do you trust” it may well bounce back and deliver a posthumous punch to the Coalition’s economic credentials.

The Future Fund invests part of the budget surplus towards fully underwriting the Commonwealth’s unfunded superannuation liability by 2020. The Fund’s board of guardians, along with the Future Fund Management Agency, also manage the Higher Education Endowment Fund announced in last year’s budget.

In its last annual report, the Fund stated that it has delayed investing too heavily in the stockmarket.

However, by creating the Fund, Peter Costello chose not to return the massively growing tax take of recent years to Australians as tax cuts or government spending.

Instead, he exposed the money we give to the government to the whims of the financial markets.