Thursday, December 04, 2008

Buddy, Can You Spare $8Billion?

Harvard Hit by Loss As Crisis Spreads To Colleges
By John Hechinger and
Craig Karmin
912 words
4 December 2008
A1
English
(Copyright (c) 2008, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Harvard University's endowment suffered investment losses of at least 22% in the first four months of the school's fiscal year, the latest evidence of the financial woes facing higher education.

The Harvard endowment, the biggest of any university, stood at $36.9 billion as of June 30, meaning the loss amounts to about $8 billion. That's more than the entire endowments of all but six colleges, according to the latest official tally.

Harvard said the actual loss could be even higher, once it factors in declines in hard-to-value assets such as real estate and private equity -- investments that have become increasingly popular among colleges. The university is planning for a 30% decline for the fiscal year ending in June 2009.

1 comment:

Chuckbert said...

Harvard and I and the rest of the world are in the same boat. I don't check the value of my 401(k) very often. It doesn't have 8 billion to lose but it still hurts.

Your picture at the top of your blog is mind blowing!