OT: Northwestern furloughs 250 workers, suspends contributions to employee retirement funds
My wife has been furloughed from UM for the last two weeks. She (I) still have medical benefits but no dental, eye. Possible return July 15th but she will probably let coworkers who need to get back go first, even though she probably has the most seniority.
Question: what the fuck do endowments actually do and go towards?! The past few weeks we're finding out all these institutions can't dip into them even though we're going through uncertain and never-before-seen times...and "blank University" can't touch that fancy, asininedly-high endowment.
What Is an Endowment?
An endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization, which uses the resulting investment income for a specific purpose. An endowment can also refer to the total of a nonprofit institution's investable assets, also known as its principal or corpus, which is meant to be used for operations or programs that are consistent with the wishes of the donor(s). Most endowments are designed to keep the principal amount intact while using the investment income for charitable efforts.
Doesn't really answer my question but fun read.
Endowment funds support student financial aid. Also endowed faculty and coaching salaries. Research. Infrastructure (buildings and specialized research facilities). The list goes on.
It's a simple concept. Donate $1,000,000 to your favorite university. That cool million should throw off X% of interest or earnings each year. That X% pays for what the donor wants to support. Universities can't legally reallocate those funds on a whim. It would be great if donors and universities could collectively agree to reallocate certain endowed funds during these extremely dire times, but it's probably not a quick and easy process.
Only gonna get worse the longer these stay at home orders are in effect
No -- you have it backwards. It's only going to get worse if we continue to have 1,000-plus people dying every day.
If people don't feel it's safe to go out, they won't go, at least in large numbers. No one can force them.
There's a reason the Bundesliga is playing today and MLS isn't; why Korean Baseball is in its 3rd week of the season and the MLB *might* start playing in a month -- the safety came first, and then the business activity followed.
Also, in the beginning, a huge drop in patronage of restaurants, bars, etc. came first and the stay at home orders followed. Turns out people don't like pandemics.
Yep. And "open" states like Georgia, Utah and Oklahoma are barely off the floor. It's going to take a lot of time and a lot consistency (e.g., no stories of an outbreak at an Olive Garden or an AMC Theatre) for it to get close to normal for people to say, "Hey, let's go to dinner & a movie." (or anything involving lots of people indoors).
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/when-will-restaurant-traffic-get-back-to-normal
Delete
250 people?! omg
The economy is teetering - and I’m not a bear. We have only 0.5% infected at this point, 20% unemployment and many businesses on the verge of illiquidity. Most Americans lacked $400 of emergency funds before the pandemic and they’re now cashless. The public institutions are on the verge of numerous purges far more deep than 250 at NW.
The next 4 weeks of reopening is crucial & risky. Whether states shut down again with the re-emergence will tell if the US economy implodes.
I think that allowing businesses to reopen isn't going to make much difference until the infection numbers come down, and not by a little.
Sure, maybe 1/3 of people will rush out to bars, restaurants, stores, and start spending again. But if more than half the population doesn't think it's safe, they will behave accordingly.
Which businesses can survive with less than half of their prepandemic sales?
Fear mongering by the anti-government/anti-vaxxer/anti-mask crowd is doing really, really well.
That's exactly what I'm living right now.
I'm lucky that my work supports police and fire. We usually do not get cut. My Wife worked at Beaumont and already got cut.
I'm sad to say my Wife and I took a ride this evening and on Woodward we saw many people with no masks next to each other. The people don't seem to have the will to work together and ride this thing out at home or using safe practices. We have some family members planning gatherings that the Wife and I will not attend. I'm at a loss why they are not seeing the danger.
Maybe because the majority of Americans have lost trust in the corporate press and our politicians.
I think my company furloughed about 95% of it's employees, including me. They are offering insurance benefits still, though I get them through my wife so doesn't effect me. Pretty sure 401K match is not going to happen this year.
My main concern right now is when I do go back to work, people will be so scared off from the pandemic still that business is going to be horrible. I work sales/commission so that's kind of a big deal.
Reagan did this to Federal Employees about 8 years before I became one. CRS employees got 80 percent of their high 3 base pay plus got to contribute fully to our Thrift Savings Plan (they all got to retire at age 55 and are set for life in retirement). While FERS employees after '81 only got 1 percent for each year of federal employment. Lets say you worked 30 years, you only get a pension of 30 percent of your high 3. Essentially your retirement comes down to saving in a 401K, which is the TSP.
Jeff Bezos donated .06% of his wealth to fighting Covid19 ($100 million to Feeding America for the Covid-19 Response Fund). Yay.
In fairness, he also said he would give away everything after his first trillion.