The Chief of the Harvard endowment recently commented on the performance of university endowments generally, particularly noting how well they all seem to be doing despite the very challenging investment environment thus far in 2022. He is quick to note that the ones claiming the best performance numbers this year are correlated with higher allocations to private investments, which indicates not that these investments are actually doing well, but rather that the portfolio managers have yet to “mark their portfolios down.” This means that private assets are likely to see significant downwards adjustments to properly reflect how they have been affected by the rapidly changing macroeconomic environment. And it isn’t just endowments that own these assets, so it’s something to be watchful of across the board.