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Harvard Blew $1 Billion in Bet on Tomatoes, Sugar, and Eucalyptus Login/Join 
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted
Six years ago, Jane Mendillo, then head of Harvard’s endowment, spent a week in Brazil, flying in a turboprop plane to survey some of the university’s growing holdings of forest and farmland. That year, Harvard began one of its most daring foreign adventures: an investment in a sprawling agricultural development in Brazil’s remote and impoverished northeast. There, workers would produce tomato paste, sugar, and ethanol, as well as energy after processing crops. The profits, in theory, could outstrip those of conventional stocks and bonds and keep the world’s richest university a step ahead of its peers.

Too lengthy to post in full, continues here.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
chickenshit
Picture of rsbolo
posted Hide Post
They're as crimson in the face as their banner.


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Posts: 8000 | Location: East Central FL | Registered: January 05, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Staring back
from the abyss
Picture of Gustofer
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It's always easy to piss away other peoples' money.

Just doing what leftists do.


________________________________________________________
"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
 
Posts: 20131 | Location: Montana | Registered: November 01, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Shaql
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I don't think you're exactly correct in your title. The tomato venture was a $150M part of a $1.1B write-down.





Hedley Lamarr: Wait, wait, wait. I'm unarmed.
Bart: Alright, we'll settle this like men, with our fists.
Hedley Lamarr: Sorry, I just remembered . . . I am armed.
 
Posts: 6852 | Location: Atlanta | Registered: April 23, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drill Here, Drill Now
Picture of tatortodd
posted Hide Post
That’s frightening to pay people major league baseball size salaries and the endowment would’ve been better off in an index fund with 60% stock and 40% bonds.



Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
 
Posts: 23323 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Ice Cream Man
posted Hide Post
AKA, well a few things, but mainly...

HARVARD IS NOT AN AG SCHOOL!

Just because they view the players in that space as "dumb hicks", they should think about why someone would reach out to them, for an ag investment, and that, possibly, its because every Ag person has already turned them down.

(This is the same as when Southerners/Yankees get pitched oil deals.)
 
Posts: 5748 | Location: Republic of Ice Cream, Miami Beach, FL | Registered: May 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Now in Florida
Picture of ChicagoSigMan
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Over the long run the fees paid to achieve alpha will always outstrip the cumulative value of the alpha. It's a near mathematical certainty. BUt it's good work if you can get a job investing other people's money for tens of millions in fees.
 
Posts: 6065 | Location: FL | Registered: March 09, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
Over the long run the fees paid to achieve alpha will always outstrip the cumulative value of the alpha. It's a near mathematical certainty. BUt it's good work if you can get a job investing other people's money for tens of millions in fees.


Buffett and Munger work for $100k a piece!




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Shaql:
I don't think you're exactly correct in your title. The tomato venture was a $150M part of a $1.1B write-down.


Yeah, well, I post what the articles say. Thankfully, I don’t have to vouch for the truth and accuracy of them. That’s left to the gentle reader to decide for himself.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
This can't be true.

Those kids at Haaavad are wicked smaaaaat.....
 
Posts: 4979 | Registered: April 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of sleepla8er
posted Hide Post
.

US News & World Report reported that at the end of 2016, the 10 largest University endowment funds averaged $16.6 Billion.

Harvard has the largest endowment fund among the top 10:
$35,665,743,000

Notre Dame has the smallest endowment among the top 10:
$8,748,266,000

www.USnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-09-28/10-universities-with-the-biggest-endowments


.
 
Posts: 2856 | Location: San Diego, CA  | Registered: July 14, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sleepla8er:
.

US News & World Report reported that at the end of 2016, the 10 largest University endowment funds averaged $16.6 Billion.

Harvard has the largest endowment fund among the top 10:
$35,665,743,000

Notre Dame has the smallest endowment among the top 10:
$8,748,266,000

www.USnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-09-28/10-universities-with-the-biggest-endowments


.


They must have changed accountants.

For decades, University of Texas was ranked right behind Harvard, thanks mostly to the remainder of 2.1 million acres of West Texas the Legislature allocated to start UT. Thanks to in large part to discovery of oil out there, the endowment last
I saw was in the $20+ billion range.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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