Divestment

finance a la shmoop what is disinvestment? all right you got a couple

of choices disinvestment dat-investment and but disinvestment refers to the [Man walks through door]

process of a well a kind of whiny financial boycott like you think it

comes out of Yale or something it's a common thing among university students [Boy studying in library]

who are high on intellectual horsepower and low on self-awareness or how the

world actually works like the little rich kid who complains to Daddy about

the underpaid workers in his shirt factory as the kid drives away that [Boy driving sports car]

shiny new convertible BMW with the you know souped-up stereo set yeah that's

kind of what it's like well students often protest universities investing in

things like tobacco and oil and types of technology companies and that's really

kind of funny and sad because you know students late teenagers really have tons

of professional investment experience and life experiences and they've seen

lots of market cycles and they really know what they're doing when it comes to

the long cycles of the stock market and or they're advised by professors who [Woman working on laptop]

really have risked their own capital to build a big oh wait there none of that

so yeah that's the funny part and the sad part is that well for better or

worse over time those industries that they want to boycott for their school's

endowment which then pays for scholarships for underprivileged kids

have traditionally been really good industries to invest in like they've had

good investment returns yeah like technology come on give me a break just

goes up right so when the students push the university to sell its point zero

zero zero one percent ownership of their stake in whatever company well then the

university loses those good investment gains and that endowment money that was [Money vanishes from vault]

supposed to be earmarked for scholarships for the underprivileged not

the children of rich daddies in you know BMWs while that money just isn't there

just goes away so who did all that disinvestment hurt well students five

ten twenty years later who actually needed the scholarship money and didn't

get it but at least the boycott really affected how Chevron drilled for oil there

right [Chevron drills hole into sea bed]