Columbia's Economic Planners?

[This NY Times article will be accessible today to all. But I have also added a website for Columbia's board chair, David Stern, NBA Commissioner -- "savior and dictator." It is instructive as to the behind the scenes forces driving Bollinger.

The big question mark here is whether Columbia is once again diving into an economic project way over its head. For those not familiar its the history, the vast discrepancy between Columbia's and Harvard's and Yale's endowments lies in the fact that Columbia went into real estate while the latter institutions stuck with the stock market in the critical years post WW2. I am not sure but what Columbia's Manhattanville venture is not more of the same in the face of a potential meltdown in both real estate and the stock markets vis-a-vis the global competition now beginning to haunt the U.S. economy. See Paul Krugman for regular updates. I am not sure lawyers are the best qualified for plotting future economic developments. They are trained to look to precedents from the past. Is biotech an assured money maker for Columbia 30 years down the line? Ed Kent]

Columbia's President, an Expert on Free Speech, Gets an Earful
By KAREN W. ARENSON and N. R. KLEINFIELD
Lee C. Bollinger faces a divisive undercurrent that has pierced the university and raised doubts about his own promise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/nyregion/25bollinger.html?th&emc=th

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Columbia's board chair, David Stern, NBA Commissioner

http://www.askmen.com/men/business_politics/50b_david_stern.html