The Rich Get Richer

If, as the old saw says, the proof is in the pudding, then the World’s
Greatest University over in the People’s Republic of Cambridge continues
to attract some mighty smart guys, and has the perspicacity to place
them in charge of its growing fortune.

Actually, as the Dowbrigade’s Mom so recently reminded him, that is
not what the old saw says; the true aphorism is "The proof of the pudding
is in the eating" but we try not to think about eating before noon.

Be that as it may, the
Boston Globe today reports that Harvard’s largest-in-the-world
endowment rose an astounding 21% last year. In these trying financial
times, with the Stock Markets locked in a stubbornly narrow trading band
and the leading economic indicators decidedly mixed, 21% is positively
obscene and in other contexts would give rise to accusations of insider
trading (Harvard? Ridiculous! What insiders do they know?). The total Harvard endowment is now over
$22 Billion dollars.

Put another way, if Harvard were a country and their endowment were
its GDP, it would be 97th out of 237 independent nations on a list
of GDP provided by the CIA Factbook, right between Jordan and Tanzania.  And
with a growth rate twice that of China! The best part is that they pay no taxes as a “non-profit” educational institution, yet exist as a state within a state, like the Vatican City in Rome, the High Priests of the Church of American Academia.

The Harvard University endowment yesterday reported a 21.1 percent gain
on its investments for fiscal 2004, marking its best year since 2000.
But the nation’s largest university fund also issued a sober forecast
that returns over the next decade will be dramatically lower than in
the past 10 years.

article from The Boston Globe