The Endowment Cushion at Alite Universities

University endowments at alite universities keep getting bigger and bigger. They earn, weigh more on their endowment every year than they need to balance the books. Princeton is a perpetual motion cash machine. There is literally no way they can ever run out of money. If they wanted to build a half a billion dollar dormitory with marble staircases, mahogany floors and solid gold bathroom fixtures, they could pay for it out of petty cash and still bank 200 million dollars. That' wiggleroom.