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Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

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Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#131

Post by koolba »

dangrossman wrote: post #128
jimbokun wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I think I should get the full Affordable Care Act subsidy regardless of my income" I appreciate your sentiment, but you realize all of the insurance companies will just raise their rates by the amount of the subsidy, right? More demand in the form of government money earmarked for a specific good, with the same supply of the good, means higher prices.

> you realize... right? Gosh, I really dislike that turn of phrase. Anyway, they can't do that, since the ACA has mandated that insurers spend at least 80 or 85% of premiums on health care costs since 2012. The insurers ride that line as closely as possible, since their profit has to come out of the 15% allowed margin. This means an increase in total premiums without a commensurate increase in the cost of claims cann…

> Anyway, they can't do that, since the ACA has mandated that insurers spend at least 80 or 85% of premiums on health care costs since 2012.

That part of the law is particularly terrible. It directly incentivizes keeping costs high as the profit of the insurer is a fixed (says max but that means exactly 15%) percentage of the gross. It's in their interests to have the price of everything go up!

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#132

Post by Cacti »

ams6110 wrote: post #111
Cacti wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's much better than I expected. That being said, outside of a handful of extremely rich universities (and we are really talking a handful or two), most tend to "tax" the middle class more than anyone. I mean... I'm not sure if I'd consider 150k for a household middle class (probably upper middle) but in most places, again, with a few exceptions, you're basically required to pay the full tuition. In cash. After ta…

Tuition is tax deductible, you can also save for it tax-free (529 plans). If a family of 4 cannot save for college on $150K a year their priorities are out of balance. My parents did it and they never made half that. Put my brother and I through college with no financial aid. In-state, but still....

> My parents did it and they never made half that. Put my brother and I through college with no financial aid. In-state, but still....

I don't necessarily disagree but what time frame are we talking about? Because even 10 years ago state was massively cheaper than private, particularly the upper private schools.

If your parents made 70k and put you two through state, I'd assume they either saved an incredible amount or were paying somewhere around 10k/year. Perhaps I'm wrong, just guessing.

But I think you can do the math on 10k expense on 70k income versus 50k expense versus 150k income (as incomes haven't improved in a very long time).

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#133

Post by [deleted] »

jimbokun wrote: post #116
noonespecial wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of Serious Education, like that of Serious Illness is now quoted at $ImpossibleSum and then generously negotiated down to ($EverythingYouveGot + $EverythingYouCanBorrow).

This is the economic issue in the U.S. right now, and the only candidate who seems to even acknowledge it is Bernie. It's a difficult issue for Hillary, whose husband oversaw implementation of some of the policies that created this environment. And all of the Republican voters seem to be more afraid of brown people possibly getting money from the government, than about whether or not they can get sick or go to school…

[deleted]

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#135

Post by santaclaus »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #85
andr3w321 wrote: post #68

I don't really care if universities hire hedge managers to manage their endowment, but it's absurd that schools with multibillion dollar endowments still charge tuition. Yale has ~12,000 students and a $26 billion endowment. Tuition is ~$45,000 per student. $45,000 * 12,000 = $540 million. They can't spend 2%(540/26,000) of their endowment per year on free tuition? What is this money for? Of course this ignores finan…

> [Yale] can't spend 2%(540/26,000) of their endowment per year on free tuition? What is this money for? The purpose of research universities is to engage in scientific research, not to educate people . Education is one of their activities but not their primary goal. For more about this, read "The Purpose of Harvard is Not to Educate People" [1]: > But there is one misimpression that people seem to have[]: the purpos…

> The purpose of research universities is to engage in scientific research, not to educate people.

Shouldn't Yale be kicking everyone's butt here, then? Yale engineering ranks a paltry number 38, with quite a few publics far ahead of it.

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#136

Post by vecter »

jqgatsby wrote: post #112
whack wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible that you're one of the unlucky people who falls into the combination you described above. Unfortunately, even the best system currently available will often have cracks, and you seem to have found the one that currently exists. The vast majority of the time, kids with rich parents have a substantially blessed childhood & family-support, which justifies them having to pay substantially more in tuition fe…

Sorry, what you call a 'crack in the best system available' is the life I've had to live. I've had to take less societally-beneficial jobs because they paid more, while my loan-free friends were off joining the Peace Corps or teaching. I think the world is made a worse place when people like me are turned into mercenaries. MIT thinks it's okay to boil down someone's financial future into a single dominant number (par…

How could MIT sustainably afford to make tuition free? Genuine question. That's a pretty bold assertion.

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#137

Post by vecter »

jqgatsby wrote: post #112
whack wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible that you're one of the unlucky people who falls into the combination you described above. Unfortunately, even the best system currently available will often have cracks, and you seem to have found the one that currently exists. The vast majority of the time, kids with rich parents have a substantially blessed childhood & family-support, which justifies them having to pay substantially more in tuition fe…

Sorry, what you call a 'crack in the best system available' is the life I've had to live. I've had to take less societally-beneficial jobs because they paid more, while my loan-free friends were off joining the Peace Corps or teaching. I think the world is made a worse place when people like me are turned into mercenaries. MIT thinks it's okay to boil down someone's financial future into a single dominant number (par…

How could MIT sustainably afford to make tuition free? Genuine question. That's a pretty bold assertion.

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#138

Post by Animats »

Stanford spun off its investment operation in 1991 as the "Stanford Management Company".[1] Their management has become more aggressive over the years; they've gone from 10% private equity to 25% private equity. Stanford is involved with VC pools that invest in startups. They own substantial parts of Google and Cisco.

The Stanford Management Company also operates Stanford's substantial real estate holdings. Stanford owns about 12 square miles of Silicon Valley.

[1] http://www.smc.stanford.edu/

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#139

Post by Grishnakh »

jimbokun wrote: post #116
noonespecial wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of Serious Education, like that of Serious Illness is now quoted at $ImpossibleSum and then generously negotiated down to ($EverythingYouveGot + $EverythingYouCanBorrow).

This is the economic issue in the U.S. right now, and the only candidate who seems to even acknowledge it is Bernie. It's a difficult issue for Hillary, whose husband oversaw implementation of some of the policies that created this environment. And all of the Republican voters seem to be more afraid of brown people possibly getting money from the government, than about whether or not they can get sick or go to school…

The Republicans aren't as bad as you think. Trump has said (vague) things about providing health care for everyone. He's said a lot of things that are a big departure from standard Republican ideology, which is why a bunch of Republicans are calling him "not a real Republican" and the party as a whole is having a major shit-fit about him possibly getting the nomination. The guy isn't really a right-winger, he's a centrist nationalist as far as I can tell. The GOP is pissed at him lately because of his foreign policy stances, because he's voiced support for non-interventionism and staying neutral on Israel.

But you're absolutely right about Bernie and Hillary. Hillary, to me, isn't much different from Ted Cruz, and even more like Rubio. They're right-wing war hawks in the pocket of Wall Street, and the only things they differ on are social wedge issues that they use to get people on each side to vote for them.

AFAIC, our best hope is Bernie. Cruz and Hillary will both be a disaster and lead us into another war, and Trump is a wild card and highly unpredictable, though I think he's a lot less likely to get us involved in another war than Hillary or Cruz (he royally pissed off the GOP by saying the Iraq war was stupid).

Re: Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds with Schools Attached

#140

Post by Grishnakh »

koolba wrote: post #131
dangrossman wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you realize... right? Gosh, I really dislike that turn of phrase. Anyway, they can't do that, since the ACA has mandated that insurers spend at least 80 or 85% of premiums on health care costs since 2012. The insurers ride that line as closely as possible, since their profit has to come out of the 15% allowed margin. This means an increase in total premiums without a commensurate increase in the cost of claims cann…

> Anyway, they can't do that, since the ACA has mandated that insurers spend at least 80 or 85% of premiums on health care costs since 2012. That part of the law is particularly terrible. It directly incentivizes keeping costs high as the profit of the insurer is a fixed (says max but that means exactly 15%) percentage of the gross. It's in their interests to have the price of everything go up!

The whole law is terrible and it should be repealed and replaced with a nationalized system. As long as you have the insurance companies acting as middlemen, it's in their best interest to deny care as much as possible, to increase their profit. What actual good do they do? None, they just come between the patient and the caregiver.
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