[Citizen Tom Paine]

i have amused by the term “Wall Street talent”. What talent is required to do dumb things, display colossal greed and ignorance? This great "talent" apparently extended to Harvard as they lost hundred of millions of dollars. I respectfully submit that some less "talented" persons should be recruited to work there to straighten out the mess.

[SeekAndFind]

This great "talent" apparently extended to Harvard as they lost hundred of millions of dollars.

This whole thing leaves me shaking my head. Harvard's endowment fund managers are no different from your average mutual fund managers. During good times, they look like geniuses with double digit growth every year ( it reached close to $36 Billion during its peak ). Then, when the economy tanked, the funds tank as well ( so did Harvard's funds ).

Harvard is nothing special or extraordinary. I'd rather put my money in an all-weather fund that performs respectably under all economic circumstances like the Permanent Portfolio fund (PRPFX).

[hinckley buzzard]

some less "talented" persons should be recruited to work there to straighten out the mess.

Yes, like, say, from somewhere like Eureka College.

[Cicero]

Actually, Harvard had the best financial advisers in the business. Year after year, they did better than any of the other top universities.

Then, a few years ago, some of the alumni got stirred up, and protested that these advisers were being paid too much. So, they cut their pay and they all left. Then they brought in what has proven to be a gang of jerks to run their endowment. That was a false economy, I’d say.

Sure, there are a lot of crooks and incompetents working on Wall Street. But there are also a few good people. Guess who is going to leave after these 90% pay cuts. Especially since Bank of America just had to go out and find a few decent executives, and now they are going to be punished for signing on and will probably go elsewhere. In fact, in this tough job market only the really competent guys are going to be hired elsewhere—not the ones who bet on garbage derivatives.

Most of the trouble was caused by the government. CRA, faulty regulation, and government working with certain investment companies to screw the public. Cutting the salaries of the few remaining people who know what they’re doing in the weaker firms isn’t going to help. Espcially since Obama and Company haven’t the foggiest notion how to run anything.