It’s an awkward way of putting it, to be sure, but this Harvard professor, representing a group of alumni calling for the refund of this year’s money managers’ bonuses — they earned $21 million for losing $8 billion of Harvard’s endowment — is certainly correct.
The bonuses – paid out over time and subject to so-called clawback provisions if future performance is below market benchmarks – reflect industry standards, said John Longbrake, university spokesman.
Actually, they don’t. The bonuses are lower than industry standards because this same group of alumni, a few years ago, generated so much outrage over the $35 million in bonuses sometimes earned by individual managers (that’s the industry standard) that Harvard lowered the amount its people could make.
But they still earn an awful lot, don’t they? Especially given the fact that they’re running the endowment into the ground?
The group of alumni has proposed that no employee should be paid in excess of what the university president earns; [Larry] Summers was paid $611,000 during his last year, the latest presidential salary available.
LOL. You expect money managers to work for less than, say, five million a year? Sure, we all have to tighten our belts. But these people need to eat…
January 29th, 2009 at 10:46AM
Live by the sword…