Reply #27: Harvard's endowment

[DemReadingDU]

Harvard not only lost money on the swaps last year. The value of its endowment tumbled a record 30 percent to $26 billion from its peak of $36.9 billion in June 2008, and its cash account lost $1.8 billion, according to Harvard’s most recent annual report.
.
.
“They put the operating funds in the endowment --it’s like the guy who has his retirement income in company stock,” said Morrell, who is also the former treasurer of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
.
.
Universities would have been better served if they had stayed away from the more complicated financial instruments being sold by Wall Street, said David Kaiser, a Harvard class of 1969 alumnus who has been critical of the high salaries paid to managers of the school’s endowment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aHQ2Xh55jI.Q&pos=10

That's a long article