Yale endowment fund... Can't more be done to help the world?
I'll skip to the punchline. The answer to the question above has to be a resounding yes. With the news last week of David Swensen's passing, the spotlight has been shown on the outrageous nature of the endowment funds at prestigious universities. Listen, what Mr Swensen did to revolutionize the way rich universities are able to deploy their assets and grow their endowments has to be applauded. Yale is sitting on over $30 billion, Harvard on $40 billion+, and the number 10 university, Northwestern has over $10 billion. Although the elite private universities dominate the list of largest endowments, some notable public universities also have large investment portfolios, such as the University of Texas, University of Michigan and University of California (all in the top 12). Top private universities tout how they are ready to provide financial assistance to anyone who needs it, and those same schools claim to even completely waive tuition for the lowest income households. In ad...