> Some of the endowments (Yale, Harvard, Standford, etc) are so big that they're basically investment funds that run universities in order to avoid paying taxes

> Some of the endowments (Yale, Harvard, Standford, etc) are so big that they're basically investment funds that run universities in order to avoid paying taxes. I think there is a fundamental difference: the investors in those funds are not making any profit. The managers are taking some fees (although even those are pretty modest, compared to what they could make running their own hedge funds and taking 2+20), but the endowments are either reinvesting all their profits or using them to benefit the university.