Dowbrigade

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