The real question is why do we alow Harvard to build up a $30 or $40 billion tax free endowment in the first place when you know all they are going to use it for is ti influence publi descision making in all the wrong ways. It and the other tax free foundations exist without even the control of a privately invested board i.e. stockhoder to give even the tenth generation of worthless offspring of the original founder a name to put on their business cards.

I believe the universities need reform in their corporate govervence even more the than the private sector. Endowments larger than what a school atually needs to survive a very rainy day also need to taxed at the highest existing rates. They should not be sitting in a privileged position when it comes to other investors because they will distort the market.

No sympathy here for Harvard and in fact if I am in charge they are going to be paying taxes on the earnings from that endowment.