Harvard Endowment Takes a 22% Hit in Four Months

Investors have been wondering how big of a hit the major endowments have taken in recent months. With large exposures to hedge funds, private equity, and other leveraged assets, the assumption was that the returns would not be pretty.

This morning we got our first hint of how bad it has indeed been. Over the last four months, the Harvard endowment has lost $8 billion, or 22%. And, the University President warns, "The estimated drop may be conservative because some money managers have yet to report figures."

With their huge endowments, schools like Harvard and Yale had been under intense pressure to lower tuition costs for students across the board. Just as they have begun to make the tuition changes, the endowments are taking big hits. We'll see how it plays out, but for now, there seems to be big trouble in endowment land.

Comments

[PastTense:]

Some of us would be quite happy to only have a 22% decline over the last 4 months--instead of over twice that amount.

2008 Dec 03 04:18 PM

[The Scienti...:]

I agree with PastTense that 22% is better than many, but at the same time I regret not taking the advice of people like Peter Schiff sooner. How much would Harvard have made if they had him managing their money - blog.scientificleader..../

2008 Dec 03 08:48 PM

[notsosmart:]

harvard, yale??.arent these the schools that spit out so many involved in this mess?

2008 Dec 04 01:40 PM