Ivy League Investments

Everyone who invested in emerging international markets understood they were considered aggressive investments - they are known to have the potential for high returns as well as high losses.

So the market has tanked, and Harvard lost money in the short-term. Big deal. That's why the strategy is called LONG-TERM investing - to maximize the trends - and DIVERSIFICATION - to spred the risk. Investing 11% of one's portfolio in higher risk investments is exactly what a good manager is supposed to do.

Now - if Harvard had invested large amounts of their endowment in, say, credit swaps and sub-prime mortgages, Mr. Gross might have a journalistic question to ask.

As it is, let's see what their endowment fund looks like in 2 years, and in 5 years.

I'm guessing it will look just fine.

Really? This article focuses on 11% of the endowment? I am sure everyone working for the Harvard endowment would tell you that they do not know what any market is going to do in the future, which is why they diversify. I am sure that when you look at their portfolio as a whole it will have fared much better than the portion you cited. They get paid to get an overall return, not to never loose money. They understand this but clearly you do not, which is why you are a writer and they are managing over 40 billion dollars.