No one could have predicted...

My current employer edition:

During the boom years, it was assumed without question that the value of Harvard’s endowment would keep rising. Trusting in that false certainty, the already profligate university went wild, increasing its annual operating budget by 67 percent, from an inflation-adjusted $2.1 billion in 1998 to $3.5 billion in 2008—this, even as the number of students remained constant. While I was reading through Harvard’s financial reports from the past decade, the word “delusional” sprang to mind. So did “unsustainable.” It was like feeding an addiction, having access to so much quick and easy money.

To be fair to Larry Summers (not that we need to), most other colleges and universities currently find themselves in similar situations. Including my alma mater, Reed College.

I have a bright idea. To make up the $220 million shortfall in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard could simply accept board 4400 full-paying (~$50K ea.) students!