Malcolm Gladwell unloads on Yale for reportedly paying $480 million to hedge fund managers last year
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, he cited a New York Times op-ed to attack the Ivy League school for supposedly paying excessive fees to hedge funds that manage Yale's endowment, while spending a fraction of the amount on students.
This seems reasonable. http://t.co/MBkO4NzhnM
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Yale's endowment spent $480 million paying its hedge fund managers last year and $170 million on its students.
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
I was going to donate money to Yale. But maybe it makes more sense to mail a check directly to the hedge fund of my choice.
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Why doesn't Yale spin off its university division and concentrate on its core money management business?
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
All the Wall Street analysts are in agreement: time for Yale to shed the declining legacy educating business.
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
If a hedge fund guy gives millions to the Yale endowment and then gets millions back for managing the same endowment, what is that called?
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
It's masturbation. Only with money.
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Masturdation
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Tax deductible self-pleasuring. TDSP. I believe that's the technical term.
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Does this mean that if I spend four years at a hedge fund I get a Yale degree?
- Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 19, 2015
Gladwell's tweets about Yale's spending are sourced from the Times op-ed by University of San Diego Law professor Victor Fleischer, who researched endowment spending and came up with the $480 million number. Fleischer says that's the amount that Yale paid to private equity fund managers as compensation last year.
This isn't Gladwell's first attack the Ivy League for its massive endowment spending. In June, he mocked the $400 billion donation to Harvard University by hedge fund manager John Paulson. That was Harvard's largest gift of all time and added to its already mammoth $36.4 billion endowment.
Gladwell ridiculed the gift as a pseudo-charitable gift that would be better spent, in his opinion, on a worthier cause.
We have reached out to Yale University for comment and will update this post when we hear back.
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