Despite the fact that it is the second-wealthiest school in the United States and one of the most prestigious universities in the entire world, Yale University has not been spared by the recession. In order to help soften the impact of a shrinking endowment, the university has planned to cut back annual spending by $150 million until 2014.
In all, staff and non-salary spending will be cut back by 12.5 percent, according to President Richard Levin and Provost Peter Salovey in a recently released statement. Yale’s endowment shrunk 30 percent to around $16 billion in June, $1 billion less than the …read more

Seeking some sage counsel to pass along to skittish investors during these turbulent financial times, the New York Times’s Business section on Sunday had a nice little chat with David F. Swensen (right), who manages $22.5 billion in assets and is the author of the 2005 book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment. Swensen’s advice, noted the Times, was straightforward and uncomplicated:
Don’t try anything fancy. Stick to a simple diversified portfolio, keep your costs down and rebalance periodically to keep your asset allocations in line with your long-term goals.
Swensen, by the way, is not some CNBC guru or …read more