每日英语一讲,助力四六级——常春藤盟校正在疯狂举债

过去一年，美国常春藤盟校的资产管理面临多重挑战。在最新财年，八所院校的捐赠基金回报率均落后标普 500 指数至少 10 个百分点，哥伦比亚、哈佛等深陷文化争议的高校，还需斥资数亿美元解决纠纷以挽回公共资金。同时，依赖高收费、低流动性另类资产的捐赠基金模式承压，耶鲁等校甚至通过出售私募股权份额套现。

不过，雄厚的资金规模为这些名校提供了缓冲 —— 仅哈佛捐赠基金就达 530 亿美元，长期回报率也高于小型高校。更关键的是，它们在债市拥有特殊优势。2025 年以来，常春藤盟校合计发债超 17 亿美元，创 2020 年以来新高，且借款利率令众多企业、政府及普通高校艳羡。即便哈佛、普林斯顿等近期发行的高价债券，收益率也仅比美国国债高出 0.34 个百分点，与 AAA 级信用评级的强生公司相当；而排名靠后的佩珀代因大学等，债券收益率较国债溢价常超 2 个百分点，凸显常春藤盟校在资本市场的独特地位。

Ivy League universities are on a debt binge

常春藤盟校深陷举债热潮

For stewards of university endowments, the past year has been difficult. All eight Ivy League colleges lagged behind the S&P 500 index by at least ten percentage points in their most recently reported fiscal year. Those ensnared in President Donald Trump’s culture wars, including Columbia and Harvard, are writing cheques for hundreds of millions of dollars to settle disputes and regain public funding. And the endowment model itself is under strain. Devotion to alternative assets is being questioned amid high fees, revised valuations and low liquidity. Some colleges, including Yale, have sought to offload private-equity stakes in order to raise cash.

对于大学捐赠基金的管理者来说，过去一年并不好过。八所常春藤盟校在最近一个财年中的投资回报率都比标普500指数低至少十个百分点。那些卷入唐纳德·特朗普总统文化战争的学校——包括哥伦比亚大学和哈佛大学——不得不支付数亿美元的支票来解决争议并重新获得公共资金。而捐赠基金模式本身也正面临压力：在高额费用、资产重估以及低流动性的背景下，学校对另类资产的热衷正在受到质疑。一些大学（包括耶鲁）甚至试图抛售私募股权份额来套现。

Treasurers can take comfort from the size of their funds—Harvard’s comes to $53bn, for instance—and the fact that, over the long run, their endowments have outpaced smaller peers’. They can also console themselves with one other perk: privileged access to debt markets.

财务主管们多少能从两个方面获得安慰：一是基金规模庞大——哈佛的捐赠基金规模就高达530亿美元；二是从长期来看，他们的基金回报率依然优于规模较小的同行。此外，他们还有一项令人羡慕的优势——能以极优惠的条件进入债务市场。

Since January, Ivy League universities have together issued more than $1.7bn in debt, the most in any year since 2020. In doing so, they have borrowed at rates many firms, governments and less illustrious rivals must envy. Even the priciest recent bond issuance by Harvard, Princeton and Yale trades at 0.34 percentage points above the Treasury curve—about the same as debt issued by Johnson & Johnson, one of only two American companies with a triple A credit rating. Lenders are less forgiving to universities further down the league table. Many of Pepperdine’s bonds trade at more than two percentage points above corresponding Treasuries.

自今年1月以来，常春藤盟校合计发行了超过17亿美元的债券，这是自2020年以来单年发行量最高的一次。更重要的是，他们借债的利率让许多企业、政府以及不那么知名的学校都羡慕不已。即便是哈佛、普林斯顿和耶鲁最近最昂贵的一批债券，其利率也只比国债曲线高出0.34个百分点——大约等于强生公司（美国仅有的两家AAA信用评级公司之一）发行债券的水平。相比之下，排名更靠后的大学在借款时就没那么幸运了，比如佩珀代因大学的许多债券利率比同期限的国债高出两个多百分点。

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