An endowment investment program cannot avoid or extinguish risk; rather, it must choose among risks. If we avoid market risk, then the odds we will fulfill the permanent missions of the endowments drop to zero. With negative or zero real returns, spending and inflation reduce an endowment’s buying power with frightening speed. If we have 9 percent spending plus inflation and we invest in T-bills, it only takes about eight years to cut the endowment’s buying power in half.