Howard Marks on Managing Penn's Endowment

The latest memo from Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, is one of the best pieces I’ve seen from him in a while. With agreement from the University of Pennsylvania, Marks opens the kimono and talks about his stewardship of Penn’s $7 billion endowment from 2000-2010. It’s open and honest and includes some real gems about defensive investing and expectations about performance. 

Here it is:

Pensions and Hedge Funds - Ins and Outs

By Zach Kouwe

There’s been a lot of talk recently about pension funds being drastically underfunded. Somestudies peg the funding gap for state and local pensions at more than $1 trillion. To make up the gap, pensions either have to force their members to contribute more, cut back on benefits or make it up by earning returns in the market. (Sounds like social security, doesn’t it?)