Submission + - Your Home Value and 401k Loss is Harvard School of Engineering's Gain
theodp writes: In 2007, hedge fund manager John Paulson personally took home nearly $4 billion — the largest one-year payout in the history of the financial markets — after convincing banks to create securities of sub-prime mortgages he could bet against. Paulson made another $5 billion for his firm the next year by betting against financial companies with exposure to housing. Now Harvard — which originally passed on an opportunity to join alum Paulson in his big bet — is also reaping the rewards of the nation's financial crisis. Harvard announced it is renaming its engineering school the "Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences" in return for a staggering $400 million donation Paulson made to his alma mater, the largest gift in the university's history. Author Malcolm Gladwell took to Twitter to voice his distaste. A sampling: 1. "It came down to helping the poor or giving the world's richest university $400 mil it doesn't need. Wise choice John!" 2. "If billionaires don't step up, Harvard will soon be down to its last $30 billion." 3. "It's going to be named the John Paulson School of Financial Engineering." Kind of surprised not to see Gladwell get retweeted by Robert Reich, secretary of Labor under President Clinton, who argued in 2007 that charitable deductions should be reserved for the likes of the Salvation Army, not Harvard, which has been described as a "tax-free hedge fund".