Abstract: The financial crisis of 2008 left elite university endowments with 30% less value, leading these universities to respond with dramatic budgetary restructuring. While endowments had received probing national and Congressional attention in the months prior to the crisis, that attention...

A striking and unexpected feature of the financial crisis has been the sharp appreciation of the US dollar against virtually all currencies globally. The paper finds that negative US-specific macroeconomic shocks during the crisis have triggered a significant strengthening of the US dollar,...