Harvard University President Defends $37 billion Endowment Before Money Worshippers In United States Congress

Currently (April 2016) it stands at over $37 billion

No need to visit Beacon Hill, or City Hall to defend a $37 billion endowment. Harvard University controls those two governments. In 2001 my bill in the MA legislature removed tax exemptions from non profits with more than $500,000 in funds. At the hearing Committee Chairman State Senator Marian Walsh was concerned about the Catholic Church. That was before the child abuse scandal was revealed.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/22/faust-visit-dc/

Faust Defends Tax-Exempt Endowment In D.C.
By ANDREW M. DUEHREN ,

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
April 22, 2016

Harvard University, Public Charity Laments Its $37 billion Endowment as Insufficient

Do all non profit charities have discussions like this one? Faust and Summers sound like Orwell's 1984, "profit is non profit."



http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/10/7/faust-concern-hmc-performance/

Endowment’s Performance Is Concerning, Faust Says
Harvard Management Company’s returns again trail peers
By MARIEL A. KLEIN , THEODORE R. DELWICHE, and WILLIAM C. SKINNER,

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

October 7, 2015

Hedge Fund Boss Gives $400 million to Harvard University

John Paulson
[From article]
The 59-year old financier said the gift was his way of thanking the Ivy League school for providing him and others with a top flight education, to which he credits his success at his $19 billion firm Paulson & Co.
"Today is an opportunity to thank Harvard," he said at a conference on campus announcing the donation to Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Paulson earned a business degree from Harvard in 1980.
[. . .]
The school's $36.4 billion endowment makes it the world's richest university.
[. . .]
In 2012, Paulson made his first prominent gift with a $100 million donation to Central Park, near his New York City home.

http://news.yahoo.com/hedge-fund-mogul-paulson-gives-harvard-record-400-142021290--sector.html

Hedge fund boss Paulson gives Harvard record $400 million
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
June 3, 2015

Obama Must Want Harvard University To "Spread Its Wealth"

[From article]
The president undoubtedly Tweeted Harvard’s Dean of Donations this week to remind him that “at a certain point you’ve made enough money,” and that, while he doesn’t want to punish Harvard’s success, “when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”
[. . .]
It was, after all, a $37.5 billion record year for giving to America’s 4,800 colleges and universities, but $6.75 billion of that went to just 10 schools. In other words, the top two-tenths of one percent got 18 percent of the money.
You may ask why Barack Obama, of all of the Harvard grads, should be the one to alert the guardians of this Ivy League bastion to their opportunity to address historical inequality?
As a millionaire, living in a palace, with servants meeting his every need, security watching his every step, becking and calling limousines and luxury aircraft, vacationing in posh resorts, and golfing his days away — Barack Obama clearly has the prestige, and the leisure time, to petition the captains of Cambridge, Mass., to redress this lingering injustice.
However, you may contend, the donors to Harvard did not intend their wealth to be spread around so liberally.
Yes, but what is Harvard, if not an educational institution? Should that education stop after a few years of undergraduate work, a master’s or a doctorate? No, I say, let the learning continue for a lifetime, as Harvard teaches its wealthy capitalist alumni the vanity of greed and the surpassing value of selfless giving.
May Obama’s elite friends in academia experience the full blessing of his legacy of leveling.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/28/obama-calls-on-harvard-alma-mater-to-spread-around-1-5-billion-in-2014-donations-it-received/

Obama Calls On Harvard Alma Mater to ‘Spread Around’ $1.5 Billion in 2014 Donations It Received
January 28, 2015 - 7:59 am
Scott Ott

Harvard Endowment Profited From Corrupt Foreign Corporation?

[From article]
Scolopax is wholly owned by Phemus Corporation, a subsidiary of the Harvard Management Company that invests on its behalf. According to University tax filings, Scolopax had assets of over $126 million in 2011. Phemus Corporation’sassets totaled more than $4.2 billion in 2012, the last year for which information is publicly available.
University spokesperson Kevin Galvin said that Secu’s relationship with Scolopax and the University ended in December 2012. The alleged transactions occurred between 2007 and 2009.

So does that mean that Harvard University may have profited from illegal transactions? 

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/1/29/harvard-timber-contractor-bribes/#

Former Harvard Timber Contractor Accused of Bribery, Money Laundering
By CHRISTINE Y. CAHILL, 

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
January 28, 2014

For Ending University Endowment Tax Exemptions

[From article]
"Under US tax law, most philanthropic organizations are required to distribute a minimum of 5 percent of their assets per year in order to retain their not-for-profit tax breaks, but university endowments have lobbied Congress hard and have no such requirement to spend anything.
[. . .]
Professors and teachers, the bedrock of these institutions, are not the problem. They are fairly compensated; many are middle class themselves. It's about the greed of the endowments.
[. . .]
the nation's elite universities game the system and sit on tens of billions of dollars that they refuse to use to make college affordable? These are educational institutions, right?
[. . .]
Educational endowments should not be permitted to hide behind their not-for-profit status while running massive portfolio management operations in their "trust" departments and not be required to give back."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/well_endowed_gQ4pkrnMj1eSnMK50oideP

Well endowed
Feds should make private college trusts pay
By JONATHON M. TRUGMAN
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:12 AM, July 3, 2011
Posted: 11:25 PM, July 2, 2011

So. Poverty Law Center Not So Much Poverty

http://bigjournalism.com/llyman/2010/12/20/mainstream-media-the-southern-poverty-law-centers-partner-in-slime/

Mainstream Media: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Partner in Slime
Posted by Izzy Lyman
BigJournalism.com
Dec 20th 2010 at 1:15 pm

Is Harvard Causing Increased Gas Prices?

Is Harvard University causing increased gas prices?

[From article]
"In the summer of 2009 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sponsored the "Stop Tax-breaks for Oil Profiteering and Commodity Speculation Act."
No other senator would co-sponsor the bill, which was clearly not in the best interest of Wall Street, and it died in committee.
[. . .]
His bill would have repealed tax exemptions for organizations like pension funds and university endowments when they trade commodities."
[. . .]
"That alone is bleeding about $180 billion annually out of the US economy, or roughly the additional amount that Congress is now trying to put into people's pockets through the new, deficit-bloating, tax cuts.
But the experts also estimate that if you add up the extra cost of all fuels -- airplane fuel, diesel, etc. -- energy speculation could be draining $300 billion a year from the US economy."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/gas_prices_can_come_down_CUe7Y5bFSbUd6BofAZ990H

Gas prices can come down
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:35 AM, December 16, 2010
Posted: 12:47 AM, December 16, 2010

Will Geithner Allow This?
IRS Investigates Harvard

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB124908669502998405.html

The IRS's New Target: College Endowments
By ROBIN GOLDWYN BLUMENTHAL
Barrons.com
January 11, 2010
The IRS is examining questionable practices at college endowment funds across the country. PLUS: Whistleblowers who raised the red flags about Harvard Management.

Summers and Harvard's Endowment


"Larry Summers: While President Obama's chief economic adviser has done a good job of keeping out of the crossfire, his legacy as president of Harvard continues to haunt him. Iris Mack, a former derivatives trader at Harvard, said she warned Summers back in 2002 that the endowment, now devastated, was invested in too many risky assets and was fired as a result. Summers denies the charge."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/wall_street_turkeys_full_of_stuffing_9oBVkXKEL6kqM1hfDI8DcK

Wall Street turkeys full of. . . stuffing
Terry Keenan
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:33 AM, November 22, 2009
Posted: 12:46 AM, November 22, 2009

Crimson Pork


"most endowments are meant to last in perpetuity." Unforeseen was the possibility that the dollar would become worthless due to government printing presses running 7 days a week. Harvard could charge tolls to pass through their property. Profs. Wilkerson, Tribe and Ogletree could pressure Obama for a special stimulus bill for Harvard. It could be added to the 1900 page health care bill as an amendment, or to a defense bill for new troops for Afghanistan. Obama can prevent anyone from reading the bills until after they are passed.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529806

New Law To Help University Finances
Published On Thursday, October 29, 2009 1:46 AM
By ATHENA Y. JIANG and JUNE Q. WU
Harvard Crimson Staff Writer