Harvard endowment grows by 7 to 9 percent
In a sign of what could be in store for Yale’s endowment, Harvard University’s endowment reportedly grew by 7 to 9 percent in the last fiscal year despite the rough economic climate.
Citing people familiar with the returns, The Wall Street Journal reported in its Thursday edition that Harvard, with its nation-leading $34.9 billion endowment, is believed to have weathered the financial storm far better than many other institutional investors who were hurt by the slumping stock market and subprime crisis.
By comparison, the S&P 500 index dropped 14.9 percent in the fiscal...
#2
By Yah
5:10p.m. on August 8, 2008
When I was there, I think Yale's endowment was something like 1.2 versus Harvard's 4.something.
Swenson has done a capital job!
All prosperity to Harvard, but caution is warranted here. The Journal's article ("puff piece" is a more accurate term) is odd and selective, to say the least. Among other things the Journal obscures: (1) the Journal information is an unauthorized "leak" by some individual with an agenda (Harvard and its management company refused comment on the Journal numbers), (2) the Harvard endowment does not report for another month, (3) Northern Trust does not track the Harvard endowment, (4) whether the Harvard money managers have done well is to be determined by comparision to a special index of endowments and similar funds, not to the S&P or other equity index, (5) Harvard's endowment was famously called a "hedge fund" by its former manager, Jack Meyer, and many hedge funds have done far better than equities this year, (6) few endowments have reported this year, but one that has is the University of Virginia's, which claims 7.8% growth, an amount quite on par with the weirdly ambiguous 7% - 9% Harvard returns reported by the Journal.