We spent the Labor Day weekend in Cleveland which is exactly the same distance from Washington, DC, as Moscow is from the nearest Ukrainian border.

How to handle the dunning letters from Fair Harvard? A classmate, Sherman Lewis (no relation) suggests trying to donate to your Alma Mater by demanding that the money go to a new Social Alternative Fund. Go to http://alumni.harvard.edu/ways-to-give/social-alternative-fund and put “credit to the class of 19xx” in the comments box. Then the website will tell you you have made a mistake.

His strategy is intended to keep the money from the underperforming overpaid Harvard Management Co. and to protect against investments in a corrupt Rumanian company, 100% owned forestry firm Scolapax SRL; a Chilean logging co. it also owns, convicted of illegally chopping down native forests to plant eucalytuses; and two further stakes in Argentina's Corrientes Province which threaten wetlands/ These are to build up Harvard holdings in “alternative investments” like timber.

Real Estate diversification is just as shady. Harvard Endowment owns 100% of the non-union Double Tree Allston Hotel (across the River Charles). Boston has seen attempts to unionize hotel workers. The Endowment also invested in what may have been groundwater supply plays in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, California to benefit from drought.

Despite its salary excess, but perhaps because of the underperformance of these controversial “alternative investments”, endowment staffers are walking, starting with the CEO and CFO. Visit www.responsibleharvard.com and click to http://divestharvard.com to get a more transparent and responsible endowment.

*Update on soaring Novartis, now over $93. From TV comment last night, NVS will apply for a new drug authorization for the still-unnamed heart failure drug by year end and aim to launch the unique drug on the market in 2015. It today paid over $35 mn to take a 15% stake and an option for more in Gamida Cell, harvester of progenitor cells from umbelical cords to treat sickle cell and thalassemia disease, blood cancers, and other nasties. It may pay up to $165 mn if milestones are met by the end of next year plus royalties. It earlier pulled out of a straight acquisition (before we owned NVS.) More drug news below.

*Update on Paddy Power plc, subject of another note on Labor Day. Its stock traded in Dublin rose 2.53% in trading today. PDYPF has boosted its purchases of its own shares to be less depending on market-roiling trades by institutions, which is legal and easy in Ireland. I have no idea if the price boost came from US retail investors, the institutional crowd, or buy backs.

*Bombardier was hit by news that Japan Airlines was buying regional jets made by Embraer, its Brazilian rival, Friday. Its C-series first operator-buyerBraathens Malmö Aviation of Sweden cancelled its orders citing delays. Now today Goldman Sachs chopped its price target for the Canada transportation firm to C$3 from C$3.20 and put a sell rating on BDRAF. The reason: it cannot meet its flying schedule to luanch the plane a year from now and faces further delays for the maiden flight. Analyst Noah Poponak wrote that “the Cseries will negatively impact Bombardier's financial results and create negative catalysts for the next several years.” The maiden flight was delayed because of problems with engines supplied byPratt & Whitney during ground testing 6 mos ago. Having flown to Cleveland in an ERJ regional jet guaranteed to generate road rage in even short passengers I want a better plane and so we are sticking with the Canada company which also produces railroad and tram carriages. I also want my dividend.

*Today is the day the hedge funds sell their gold. The movement into the yellow metal came in the period between Memorial Day and July 4; the selloff began in August. Any fund manager still in gold is trying to decide if he wants to stick with it despite the drop in hedge fund holdings and the gold price last month. My own view is that global crises may actually boost the gold price just as the smart money is exiting. We own SPDR Gold Trust, GLD; IAM Gold, IAG; and the US$ bonds ofBarrick North American. Our bonds are up marginally today because ABX has got rid of its staffers who used to look for acquisition candidates among other mining companies, under its new capital conservation policy. Every such step ABX takes adds to the bonds' potential rating. We also recommend that readers consider a position in physical gold offered by our advertiser, Bullionvault.com/

*News that Goldman Sachs bought into a Banco Espirito Santo bond issue in the 11^th hour before the bankruptcy and nationalization of Portugal's BES (now Novo Banco) to flog this paper to its yield-hungry clients means the Giant Squid is competing in the mop-up of BES dreck against Portugal Telecom. PT bought short-term commercial paper issued by a Luxembourg holding company of BES, Rioforte months before GS did its deal in July. However, the Wall Street Journal seems to think Goldman has a better claim against the successor good bank than PT. I think the home team advantage should come into play but of course everyone will sue everyone else. PT is down on fear of Goldman today but I think the news actually may help it extricate itself from the Holy Spirit morass.

*Teva faces imminent but at-risk generic versions of its most profitably drug, Copaxone against multiple sclerosis, even in the 3x/week version just launched, based on applications with the US FDA. Mylan and Natco Pharma of India both plan to offer the daily version, but others are plotting to join the fray. All generics are at risk because the Copaxone patent may be upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Separately, TEVA reported good phase 3 results with its experimental asthma drug reslizumab, a monoclonal antibody blocking interleukin-5, a factor in the growth of eosinophils, inflammatory white blood cells implicated in allergy attacks. Reslizumab cut the frequency of clinical asthma exacerbations compared to placebo at statistically significant rates. It will apply for FDA licenses early next year.

*UK shareholders of GlaxoSmithKline want to pull a Teva, getting rid of the chairman, Sir Christopher Gent, who in any event is due to retire next year, and CEO Sir Andrew Witty, according to The Sunday Times (of London). The reason is the spiralling corruption investigations no longer confined to China or the USA, and rotten GSK results forecasts. We own the share for yield not for its knights.

*With all eyes on the coming ipo of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) next Monday, spare a thought for the other Mr. Ma (Pony rather than Jack) who heads Tencent and other Chinese shares. They will be sold off to raise money for BABA. TCTZF closed another e-commerce deal last week by investing RMB 5 bn (about $800 mn) in a jv with Wanda, the movie theatre chain and mall real estate company, and Baidu, an internet search firm, ostensibly to get people into shop doors when they are in the area (online to offline in the jargon) and also to sell them movie tickets, but also to fight BABA. Wanda owns 70% of the jv.

More in the world of cinema. TCTZF also signed a deal with Huayi Bros to create an online site for movie stars and their fans, but no financial details were released. My impression is that Pony Ma is more focused on money-making with his network of jv's than Jack, but I'm prejudiced because his firm has a major shareholders, South Africa's Naspers, to keep it in line. NPSNY owns 30% of TCTZF. If Tencent were to start making movies I'd worry.

*Delek Group is in advanced negotiations to sell its Roadchef network of British motorway diners to an unnamed investment fund. Last week I mistakenly said the diners had already been sold. We used to hit the Roadchefs regularly for all-day non-kosher but tasty British breakfasts when travelling in England to visit from France.

*Ecopetrol is spinning out on the stock market its ~7% stake in ute Empresas de Energia de Bogotá this autumn having just won the necessary approvals from its dominant shareholder, the Colombia govt. The money will go into oil and gas exploration and development, EC's main business.

*Vale broke off talks about created a jv with Glencore to hold their Canada nickel assets to save money. The talks faltered over regulatory and union risks, and because the price of nickel has recovered. VALE took it on the chin.

*Reckitt Benckiser is at a new 52-wk high today in sterling, £53.55, but not in US$s. Alpha Value put a sell on RBGLY today with a £44.67 target price, off ~16%. RB in Britain signed a share repurchase deal with Morgan Stanley yesterday to run from today to Oct. 28 which may explain the stock pop.

*Barclays (sold) divested its Spanish branch network for a loss of £500 mn, according to yesterday's Financial Times. Buyer Caixabank paid euros 800 mn which now will top the number of branches run by Banco Santander, at least until it rationalizes its network.

SAN cut the amount of high-risk bonds it was planning to sell from euros 2.5 bn to euros 1.5 bn, presumably because there was insufficient interest from potential buyers.

*Liberty Global is run by a cable guy, John Malone. Although LBTYA owns 6.4% of ITV, a UK broadcaster, I don't expect a bid for the rest, despite what the SundayTelegraph wrote over the weekend. Fear of ambition has pulled down the stock today. We sell the "c" shares as soon as they are issued to be safe.

Fund notes. We got dividends from FAX, FCO, EXG, and MFD today.

*Eaton Vance Tax Managed Global Diversified Equity Fund AKA EXG today announced its Aug. dividned of $0.0813/sh was totally net investment income; no more return of capital.

*Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund (FAX) declared its flat 3.5 cent monthly dividend was 62% made up of investment income and the rest return of capital, not taxed but which reduces your basis.

*Stablemate Aberdeen Global Income Fund (FCO) said its flat 7 cent monthly dividend was 75% made up of investment income, and 25% return of capital.

*Korea Fund closed its FY 2013-4 June 30 with its NAV at $47.33/sh up from $38.53 a year earlier. The discount from NAV was 9.74% vs 10.54% earlier. In both years there were modest net losses in investment returns but both for the year and the Q4 KF turned around its performance. It earned in unrealized gains in its Q4 over $23.16 mn vs a prior year loss of $38.8 mn, equal to +$2.83/sh this year vs a (-$4.50)/sh last year. (The number of shares is not the same because of buybacks.) For the whole FY, it had a +$72.3 mn unrealized gain in 2013-4 ($8.56/sh) vs a loss of $17.6 mn in 2012-3. KF is managed by Allianz of Germany, which also runsPimco.

*MFD stands for Macquarie First Trust Global Infrastructure and Utilities Dividend & Income Fund which reports its distributions in the middle of the month. It has a 6% yield.

*Raven Rus (LSE:RUS) fell 3.8% to 70.25 pence in trading today, hit by the prospect of further losses in its warehouse business in Russia from the collapsed ruble and the sanctions resulting from the Ukraine incursion.

*Oops. I wrote last week that Powershares DB US$ Index Bullish is a closed end fund. UUP isn't a CEF but an exchange traded fund. We recommend that readers use ETFs to protect against a soaring Greenback: UUP; Proshares Ultrashort Yen, YCS; and Horizons US$ Currency Class A ETF, listed in Toronto as DLR which hedges our C$ risks.

Trading alert: *I bought more Anton Oilservices, ATONY, at $86.58 today as suggested in my tables yesterday.