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Andrew Tobias

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Making $7.8 Billion for Yale

March 7, 2006March 4, 2017

60 MINUTES

Sunday night’s three segments: Hospitals charge uninsured patients three or four times as much as those who are insured. (Shouldn’t there be a law against that? Instead, the Republican Congress moved to tighten the yoke, making it harder for patients to escape devastating these overcharges when they go bankrupt.) America tortures prisoners to the point of death. (And not just in those dramatic no-other-option moments, when Agent Jack Bauer, Monday nights on FOX, saves a city from devastation by extracting the unlock code – but also, routinely, when we pull a cab driver in as a suspected Taliban guy, and he later turns out – though dead – probably to have been just a cab driver). Canada doesn’t really care if you smoke marijuana. (There’s a guy up there selling gazillions of seeds through a mail order catalog, whom they might fine $200, but whom we’re trying to extradite to put in jail for life.)

’60 Minutes’ is reason alone to own a TiVo (or the cable equivalent).

YOU WOKE ME UP FOR THIS?

Picture it. You’ve just gotten out of the late movie, driving home, and you’ve had this TERRIFIC IDEA. You’d really like to tell your boss – or your entire sales staff – but it’s midnight and you’re afraid you’ll wake them up. Even if you don’t, they’ll know you’re a nut case to call so late (where were you brought up, in a frat house?). Well, with free bluffmail, you can leave a voicemail on their e-mail. You just call a toll-free number, record your message, and tell bluffmail whom you want to send it to. The recipient gets the e-mail with an audio attachment.

This could be useful even if it were the middle of the day and you had had your great idea just driving to the airport after a client lunch. Sure beats calling each person one at a time – or having to talk to them in case they’re around.

Bluffmail is one of those start-ups that, for all I know, is a lone Lithuanian in suburban Vilnius. But just in case you’re adventuresome . . .

THAT’S $7.8 BILLION EXTRA

This article appeared last summer, but its lessons are timeless. (Just in case you come to this page because you’re interested in money.) The subhead: David Swensen has made better returns for Yale than any portfolio manager at any university. He has a word of advice: don’t try this at home.

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