Ivy League Inc.: Harvard is a Hedge Fund with Classrooms

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 Harvard has a $53 billion endowment, pays its investment managers like Wall Street bankers, and calls itself a nonprofit. In this episode, we expose how America’s elite universities have become hedge funds masquerading as schools—hoarding wealth, overpaying executives, and saddling students with lifelong debt, all while enjoying tax-exempt status. We compare them to their European counterparts, explain why free college is impossible under this model, and argue it’s time to tax the empire hiding behind ivy-covered walls. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Conservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Now here's your host, jordanRickards.
Hi everyone, welcome to theConservative Opinion Podcast.
This is your host, jordanRickards, and today we're taking
aim at the $53 billion hedgefund known as Harvard University
and President Trump's threat totake away their non-profit

(00:22):
status.
There's a certain deliciousirony in seeing Harvard finally
face threats to its tax-exemptstatus.
One might suspect it's justpolitical revenge for
ideological excesses, andperhaps in part it is.
But far more overdue is thesubstantive question why should
one of the richest corporationsin the world functionally a

(00:42):
$53.2 billion hedge fund enjoythe tax privileges of a charity?
If the revocation comes, itshould not be because of what
Harvard says though it is niceto see them finally discovering
the virtues of free speech butbecause of what Harvard is a
financial empire no differentthan any on Wall Street that
shields itself from taxation bytethering itself to a university

(01:05):
.
A wealth-hoarding non-profitthat behaves more like a
sovereign wealth fund withlecture halls stapled to it.
A luxury brand with admissions.
And lest you think this anexaggeration, consider that if
Harvard's endowment were treatedas the hedge fund that it is,
it would be the sixth largest inthe US.
It sits alongside firms likeBridgewater.
It would be the sixth largestin the US.

(01:26):
It sits alongside firms likeBridgewater, millennium and
Elliott pays no corporate tax,no capital gains and no property
tax on its vast holdings, savefor a minor excise fee.
Consider also the salaries atthe Harvard Management Company,
which runs the school'sendowment Its CEO earns $9.6
million.
The CIO pulls in $7.6 million.
Portfolio managers rake in $5to $6 million each.

(01:47):
These are not faculty.
They don't teach, they don'tresearch.
They extract.
And they do it all under thesacred protection of a nonprofit
charter.
Harvard is not alone.
Yale, princeton, stanford andPenn all follow the same model.
Hoard, multi-billion dollarendowments pay Wall Street
salaries, build bureaucraticempires and expand campuses like

(02:09):
conquering monarchscommissioning palaces.
It is the great con of highereducation, a tax-free cartel of
credentialing, wealthpreservation and administrative
indulgence.
And that's just the beginning.
University presidents routinelyearn seven figures.
Bureaucrats now outnumberfaculty.
Adjuncts teach the courses,while vice provosts for student

(02:31):
wellness earn $300,000 tooversee belonging initiatives.
Dining halls serve gourmetvegan cuisine while humanities
departments fight over crumbs,and the buildings designed by
star architects look more liketech campuses than places of
learning.
Meanwhile, american studentsdrown in debt.
As I've previously written,universities are not victims of

(02:52):
the student loan crisis.
They are its beneficiaries.
They raise tuition withimpunity, knowing either the
students or Washington will footthe bill.
Then they wash their hands ofthe consequences when students
are shackled with debt fordecades.
So what should be done?
First, no non-profit universityor otherwise, should be allowed
to pay any employee more thanthe President of the United

(03:13):
States.
If you're tax-exempt, youshouldn't be shelling out hedge
fund salaries Period.
Second, endowments should betaxed not just on income but on
principle.
The current 1.4% excise tax onincome is a fig leaf.
Once a university sits atopmore than, say, a billion
dollars in endowment assets, itshould face a progressive tax on

(03:34):
all of it, just like any trustor state would, and it should be
prohibited from receivingfederal money.
Third, no school receivingfederal money should be
permitted to charge theirstudents more than $10,000 per
year.
And finally, the revenues fromthe endowment taxes should be
redirected to forgive the verystudent debts these institutions
helped create.

(03:54):
If universities can charge likeluxury brands, pay like hedge
funds and behave likecorporations, then they not the
American middle class, which isalready stretched thin enough
can pay the bill when studentsare left bankrupt.
This isn't an attack oneducation.
It's a defense of it, becauseeducation is not what these
institutions are selling anymore.
They are selling exclusivity.

(04:16):
They are selling access.
They are selling tax-exemptprivilege disguised as moral
authority.
Strip away the Latin mottos andneo-gothic towers and what
you're left with isn't auniversity, it's a hedge fund
with a mascot.
It's time we called it what itis and sent the bill.
Thanks for listening.