STRS Board member Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum takes STRS Board member Rob McFee to the woodshed on Facebook!

From John Curry

March 6, 2022

This is also known as "educating the educator!"

Looks like STRS lost a ton of money on Russian investments!

Thank you, Rudy!

Posted on Facebook by Rudy Fichtenbaum, March 6, 2022

Rob McFee, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine STRS had approximately $22 billion in international stock investments. Approximately 21% of these stock investments were in Emerging Markets and of that 4.3% was invested in Russia. That is approximately $194 million and now you are telling us that we have $50 million. I am just a retired Professor of Economics and have never taught mathematics but by my calculation that means STRS just lost $144 million. This loss is equal to approximately 7% of the contributions that active teachers make to STRS in a year. In the MSCI index for Emerging Markets Russia accounts for 3.6% and yet STRS had invested 4.3%, so we were significantly overweight. The bet on Russia was primarily being made by our own investment staff with internal investment accounting for 77.5% of the Russia investments. Speaking of investment decisions made by our staff, you haven’t responded to my email on the Benchmark Scam. Since you have decided to venture into the Members Only Forum, perhaps you would like to respond here. I am sure that the Members would like to hear your response.