Even Harvard has the investing blues

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

reaonableGuy — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:24:26 GMT

I don't believe that 36 Billion was all donated to Harvard. A lot of it came from growth of the fund in the previous years. So they lose a little bit of that.

Big Deal. The point is when money is sitting around and doing nothing for the

main purpose of the establishment, it does not matter if it is even there or not.

22% decline is better than the 40% or more that most mutual funds suffered.

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

Gersh — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:51:06 GMT

Making money by leveraging in an up market is easy--any bright high school student can do it--I know because I did,35 years ago, in a class exercise about the 1920s stock market. The problem is that it is gambling (on a continued rising market) and the fund managers were never given the shareholder's OK to gamble like that. Same with the bankers who are now being given BILLIONS of taxpayer's money to try to revive the corpse they slaughtered. Harvard fund managers are in that same team of "experts".

Gersh

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

kenray — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:21:02 GMT

several years ago i began reading articles describing how well universties were investing their money. I could not figure ouy how they were able to achieve such lofty returns while I as an unsophisticted investor could never achieve their gains. And now I know why I will continue to invest with local banks or major mutual fund companies.

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

Bill Smith — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:20:01 GMT

Nice, $36.9 billon dollars given to them over the years for free and they are going to take a "hard look" at staff and salaries. Looks like they'll target the janitors and clerks first. They make about $36,000.00 per year and are at the bottem of the ladder. They'll be first to get slashed by these money hungry snobs.

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

Gene Thompson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:55:48 GMT

The 36 Billion dollars Harvard Endowment is not a nestegg for bad times.

To invest the Endowment in stocks basically violates the reason for its existence, which is solely for investment in the educational functions of the university.

Now Harvard has squandered 10 billion dollars gambling that was not given to them for the purpose of making profits in the stock market.

Endowments should be required to remain uninvested cash funds until spent on education for which they were given the tax free status to begin with.

My responsibility as Chairman of the Global Endowment is to hold all funds in cash until they are spent on globalizing education and fine arts, and granted in support of exceptional individuals who deemed to be social models of personal growth and human achievement for others to emulate.

Gene Thompson, Chairman

The Global Endowment

www.gtvnn.net

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

stu — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:16:56 GMT

and the mindless selling caused by them abandoning their hedge positions is destroying the value of the investments of others,probably at a time when the market is turning back up. Great example for their finance students, sell at the bottom.

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

john meehan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:20:48 GMT

HARVARD IS PRIVATE AND SHOULD SPEND OR NOT SPEND WHATEVER IT LIKES OF ITS LARGESSE. DO NOT PENALIZE ANYONE FOR THEIR SUCCESS.

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

William — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:29:57 GMT

Higher education is paying the price for over leveraging. Harvard for years invested in hedge funds and other "alternative investments" and other colleges and universities followed. Harvard is not the only school reporting losses, When all is said and done 30 -40 % losses will be seen at some colleges and universities. The truth is (as is confessed in the article) they do not know the true extent of the losses and donors who are not on the Boards of Trustees will not know for a long time. Resignations from these Boards would be appropriate and an open transparent reporting of all the facts will hasten that needed response. I would also like to know if there are any tyng relationships between Board members and the managers of these funds!!

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

SJ — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:48:14 GMT

Oh damn! Now they only have $36 billion sitting around. Colleges should be required to use a large % of their endowment. It's not right that they're allowed to horde billions of dollars when every year the cost of college goes up at a rate double inflation. www.generationyinvestor.com

re: Even Harvard has the investing blues

SK — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:47:23 GMT