Ever get to the point at the end of the month where you thought about putting something in hock to shore up extra cash? That's what colleges are doing, especially the multibillion-endowed Ivies who have invested in the types of things that there is "no public market for," explains the New York Times. Now that the economy's tanked, the result is that schools—especially billion-dollar-endowed Ivies—are short on money. They're desperately trying to sell off some of these investments for only half of what they'd get under normal circumstanes. “It is a little like having to go to a pawn shop,” said one university endowment manager who said its policy is not to discuss performance publicly. “People don’t want to admit they have to sell this stuff."

Among institutional investors, school endowments aggressively embraced private equity, real estate partnerships, venture capital, commodities, hedge funds and other so-called alternative investments over the last few years. Endowments with more than $1 billion in assets reported 35 percent of their holdings in these types of investments on average last year, a much greater portion than big public pension funds, for example.

Wait 'til they have to explain to their wives where their mink coat went.