Malcolm Gladwell unloads on Yale for reportedly paying $480 million to hedge fund managers last year

Abby Jackson

Aug 20, 2015, 01:43 IST

Author Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is lashing out at Yale University for what he says is exorbitant spending on hedge fund management fees.

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.