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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

#151

Post by Chinjut »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #92

The article title "...with Schools Attached" misses an important fact about most universities. The purpose of most universities is to engage in scientific research. They are not schools, not primarily. They are chiefly research institutions that, yes, have schools attached. For more about this, read: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/29/... > [T]here is one misimpression that people seem to hav…

Why specifically "scientific" research? Don't schools have large departments besides the sciences?

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

#152

Post by lancewiggs »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #32

The problem is that an Ivy League school is paying the expenses of managing investments worth a gazillion dollars instead of focusing on research and education. Money management is not what the universities are good at, and it's not what they are for. But in fact, the "hedge fund problem" is not the only problem American universities have - they are also running sports teams, housing, construction and real estate ope…

Actually they are very good at money management - and (at Yale at least) they teach it as well.

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

#153

Post by arca_vorago »

So I wonder exactly how much universities doing this lost when LIBOR was manipulated at the behest of the Bank of England because the Fed stupidly decided the rate they would use would be set in England of all places, essentially handing over monetary policy?

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

#154

Post by EGreg »

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…

That's why they should flip the classroom

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

#155

Post by ange1a »

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…

the problem is that when the economy falters or the government fights with itself (look at what's happening in IL) these universities would very much prefer to be self-sufficient. It isn't the only reason of course, but with the anti-intellectualism movement in america growing and the government playing more and more budget games that affect people's livelihoods I don't really blame them.

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

#156

Post by mdpopescu »

jqgatsby wrote: post #82
jonknee wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? It's mainly a tax on rich…

I walked out of MIT with $100K in student loans, because I had the combination of 'parents who make too much money' and 'parents who had five kids and did not adequately save for their children's education'. I'm all for soaking the rich, but how is that fair? I was apparently rich by association, and it was pretty upsetting to see kids who were ostensibly poorer than I was get a substantially easier start in life.

You're all for soaking the rich, except when it applies to you?

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

#157

Post by wobbleblob »

Grishnakh wrote: post #139
jimbokun wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cen…

> The guy isn't really a right-winger, he's a centrist nationalist as far as I can tell.

There's a word for that: populist. Policy by opinion poll.

As most European democracies have found out over the past decades, most voters aren't political idealists. Ideas from all over the political spectrum appeal to them. Many of them end up not voting because every major party comes with a package of political ideals that don't work for them.

From time to time, a politician appears who manages to tap that potential, and throws the traditional, ideals-oriented politics into disarray.

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

#158

Post by asddubs »

ploxiln wrote: post #100
jqgatsby wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I walked out of MIT with $100K in student loans, because I had the combination of 'parents who make too much money' and 'parents who had five kids and did not adequately save for their children's education'. I'm all for soaking the rich, but how is that fair? I was apparently rich by association, and it was pretty upsetting to see kids who were ostensibly poorer than I was get a substantially easier start in life.

It also seems unfair when one's parents lived well within their means and prioritized saving and spending on education, so one's family has to pay all their life savings for university, while a friend's family with the same or slightly higher income but no savings is given significant financial aid. (Or maybe they're better at filling in FAFSA? My father is a self-taught accountant who later went pro (incl. classes/t…

I mean, if tuition was free it wouldn't be unfair, because you'd both be getting it for free.

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

#159

Post by saryant »

machinshin_ wrote: post #106
SilasX wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to find where you are on the risk/return and growth/income spectrums is not hard enough to merit the hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. For whatever strategy you want, find the corresponding index fund with that strategy, and it will probably have done better after expenses and will have more liquidity and less volatility.

When you have 40 BILLION to invest, you can't just dump it into an index fund.

One Vanguard fund has $186 billion under management. The whole company manages $3 trillion.

I think they'd be okay.

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

#160

Post by alexvoda »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #150
djcapelis wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Funny, that. Turns out money can't buy everything. Especially when directed at the things that don't matter.

In the case of Yale, it does buy prestige.

It buys prestige within the group that values universities. But that group is shrinking. The more people reach the conclusion that attending these private universities have bad ROI compared to other educational resources the more people will loose trust in them and the less valuable that prestige is.
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