Peter L. Bernstein

Capital Ideas traces the origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work of early scholars and the development of new theories in risk, valuation, and investment returns, to the actual implementation of these theories in the real world of investment management. Bernstein brings to life a variety of brilliant academics who have contributed to modern investment theory over the years: Louis Bachelier, Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, Franco Modigliani, and Merton Miller. Filled with in-depth insights and timeless advice, Capital Ideas reveals how the unique contributions of these talented individuals profoundly changed the practice of investment management as we know it today.

The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street

Capital Ideas

Michael J. Mauboussin

Alfred Rappaport

Expectations Investing is well worth picking up. -Financial Executive Expectations Investing offers a fundamentally new alternative for identifying value-price gaps, built around a deceptively simple and obvious tool: a company's stock price. The authors walk readers step-by-step through their breakthrough method, revealing how portfolio managers, security analysts, investment advisors, and individual investors can more accurately evaluate established and "new economy" stocks alike-and translate shareholder value from theory to reality. AUTHORBIO: Alfred Rappaport directs Shareholder Value Research for L.E.K. Consulting and is a Professor Emeritus at Northwestern's Kellogg School. Michael J. Mauboussin is Credit Suisse First Boston's Chief U.S. Investment Strategist and an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns

Expectations Investing

A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller "Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." —The New York Times "An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." —The Wall Street Journal "A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." —Business Week "Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." —The Economist "[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." —Worth "No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." —Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers "With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." —John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today. "An extremely readable history of risk." —Barron's "Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." —Money "A singular achievement." —Times Literary Supplement "There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." —The Australian

The Remarkable Story of Risk

Against the Gods

In this exciting new book, Peter L. Bernstein, who chronicled the evolution of risk in his recent bestseller, Against the Gods, tells the story of history's most coveted, celebrated, and inglorious asset: gold. From the ancient fascinations of Moses and Midas through the modern convulsions caused by the gold standard and its aftermath, gold has led many of its most eager and proud possessors to a bad end. Gold had them, rather than the other way around. And while the same cycle of obsession and desperation may reverberate in today's fast-moving, electronically-driven stock markets, the role of gold in shaping human history is the striking feature of this tumultuous tale. Such is the power of gold. This fascinating account begins with the magical, religious, and artistic qualities of gold and progresses to the invention of coinage, the transformation of gold into money, and the gold standard. The more important gold becomes as money, the more loudly it speaks of power--even more loudly than when it served as an entry to Heaven or a symbol of omnipotence. Ultimately, the book confronts the future of gold in a world where it appears to have been relegated to the periphery of global finance. From the Bible to the Gold Rush era to modern day Fort Knox and beyond, unforgettable characters stride through these pages. Contemplate gold from the diverse perspectives of monarchs and moneyers, potentates and politicians, men of legendary wealth and others of more plebeian beginnings; from Asia Minor's King Croesus to Rome's noted speculator Crassus, to Byzantine emperors and humble miners, Venice's Marco Polo and Spain's Francisco Pizarro, to Charlemagne and Charles de Gaulle, Richard I and Richard Nixon, Isaac Newton and Winston Churchill, Britain's economists David Ricardo and John Maynard Keynes, and Christopher Columbus and the Forty-Niners. Perhaps most remarkable are the frantic speculators who pushed gold to $850.00 an ounce in 1980 just as their counterparts twenty years later drove Internet stocks to exorbitant heights. Whether it is Egyptian pharaohs with depraved tastes, the luxury-mad survivors of the Black Death, the Chinese inventor of paper money, the pirates on the Spanish Main, or the hardnosed believers in the international gold standard like the United States' President Herbert Hoover, gold has been the supreme possession. It has been an icon for greed and an emblem of rectitude, as well as a vehicle for vanity and a badge of power that has shaped the destiny of humanity through the ages. As Bernstein muses, "The joke is that nothing is as useless and useful all at the same time." Far more than a tale of romantic myths, daring explorations, and the history of money and power struggles, The Power of Gold suggests that the true significance of this infamous element may lie in the timeless passions it continues to evoke, and what this reveals about ourselves.

The History of an Obsession

The Power of Gold

In all of history and in all fields of intellectual endeavor, a tension has existed between theory and practice. Those of us who earn a living in the real world seldom want to appear as slaves to some set of abstract ideas. It was no surprise, therefore, that the word "baloney" was Wall Street's greeting to the pioneering theories of finance developed by a small group of academics in their ivory towers during the years from 1954 to 1972. Yet those breakthrough theories would in time earn five Nobel Prizes in Economic Science. Baloney they were not. In Capital Ideas Evolving, today's foremost financial historian expands upon his groundbreaking book of 1992, Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street, to recount how these financial theories finally migrated from the towers of ivory to the towers of glass on Wall Street and other financial centers around the world. The result has been a global revolution in the nature of financial markets, the menu of investment strategies, the development of exotic financial instruments, and the role of an uncertain future in all investment decisions. Even the academics who originally developed these theories are active today in the markets and in the creation of new financial structures and strategies. The opening pages of Capital Ideas Evolving confront the attack on these theories from researchers in Behavioral Finance, who argue that the theoretical assumptions of fully rational investors are a far cryfrom reality. Bernstein finds strong positive conse-quences in the daily interaction between these critics and the impact of financial theory. Based on personal interviews with leading practitioners and theorists—including five of those who played a prominent role in Capital Ideas—this book also describes how today's key practical applications developed from the core ideas of finance theory into the new and exciting formats of the investment process found in today's environment. This story includes the startling success of a group of leading institutional investors, all of whom developed their strategies from a base composed of the principles once categorized as "baloney." As Bernstein traverses between financial theory and a history of modern financial innovation, he gives us a vivid and enlightening view of today's investment world. This engaging and insightful book brings to life the individuals, ideas, and issues that are transforming the financial landscape.

Capital Ideas Evolving

Incorporating myth, history and contemporary investigation, Bernstein tells the story of how human beings have become intoxicated, obsessed, enriched, impoverished, humbled and proud for the sake of gold. From the past to the future, Bernstein's portrayal of gold is intimately linked to the character of humankind.

"One corner of the great American panorama enlarged to highlight starry-eyed visionaries, political machinations, indefatigable ingenuity, and cockeyed optimism." —Kirkus Reviews The building of the Erie Canal, like the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal, is one of the greatest and most riveting stories of American ingenuity. Best-selling author Peter Bernstein presents the story of the canal's construction against the larger tableau of America in the first quarter-century of the 1800s. Examining the social, political, and economic ramifications of this mammoth project, Bernstein demonstrates how the canal's creation helped prevent the dismemberment of the American empire and knit the sinews of the American industrial revolution. Featuring a rich cast of characters, including not only political visionaries like Washington, Jefferson, van Buren, and the architect's most powerful champion, Governor DeWitt Clinton, but also a huge platoon of Irish diggers as well as the canal's first travelers, Wedding of the Waters reveals that the twenty-first-century themes of urbanization, economic growth, and globalization can all be traced to the first great macroengineering venture of American history.

Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation

One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, Peter Bernstein has the unique ability to synthesize intellectual history and economics with the theory and practice of investment management. Now, with classic titles such as Economist on Wall Street, A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold, and The Price of Prosperity—which have forewords by financial luminaries and new introductions by the author—you can enjoy some of the best of Bernstein in his earlier Wall Street days. Peter Bernstein's Economist on Wall Street is a collection of writings from 1955 to 1970. The book is especially interesting because so many of Bernstein's observations reflect the most important issues of the present—the outlook for inflation and its control, the intricacies of monetary policy, the future of the dollar, and the dilemmas of household finances. Bernstein was also concerned with developments in portfolio management, including the new influence of institutional investors and rules for optimal asset mixes. He provides light touches, too, as he indulges in fantasies and philosophical musings over a wide variety of topics. With so many years of hindsight, we should not be surprised to find some of Bernstein's predictions running awry. But why? In each instance, these forecasts were biased by memories of the past. There is a big lesson to be learned there. Economist on Wall Street is a remarkable book, with lasting relevance and keen insights into the art of investment management, the capital markets, gold and the dollar, and the fun of being alive.

Notes on the Sanctity of Gold, the Value of Money, the Security of Investments, and Other Delusions

Economist on Wall Street (Peter L. Bernstein's Finance Classics)

A classic collection of titles from one of the world's greatestfinancial writers One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, thelate Peter Bernstein had the unique ability to synthesizeintellectual history and economics with the theory and practice ofinvestment management. Now, with the Peter L. Bernstein ClassicsCollection e-bundle, you will be able to enjoy some of the mostimportant and critically acclaimed books by this engaginginvestment writer—Capital Ideas, Against the Gods, ThePower of Gold, and Capital Ideas Evolving. Capital Ideas and Capital Ideas Evolving tracesthe origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work ofearly scholars and the development of new theories in risk,valuation, and investment returns, to the actual implementation ofthese theories in the real world of investment management Against the Gods skillfully explores one of the mostprofound issues of our time—the role of risk in oursociety—in a non-technical and accessible style The Power of Gold tells the story of how history's mostcoveted, celebrated, and inglorious asset has inspired romanticmyths, daring explorations, and titanic struggles for money andpower Engaging and informative, Peter L. Bernstein ClassicsCollection puts the insights of one of the greatest financialwriters of our time at your fingertips.

Capital Ideas, Against the Gods, The Power of Gold and Capital Ideas Evolving

Peter L. Bernstein Classics Collection

The role of gold in shaping human history is the striking feature of this tumultuous tale that discusses the magical, religious, and artistic qualities of gold and progresses to the invention of coinage, the transformation of gold into money, and the gold standard. Far more than a tale of romantic myths, daring explorations, and the history of money and power struggles, this tale speaks of the true significance of this element, the timeless passions it evokes, and its revelations about humanity.

Historia De Una Obsesin / The History of an Obsession

El Oro / The Power of Gold

One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, Peter Bernstein has the unique ability to synthesize intellectual history and economics with the theory and practice of investment management. Now, with classic titles such as Economist on Wall Street, A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold, and The Price of Prosperity—which have forewords by financial luminaries and new introductions by the author—you can enjoy some of the best of Bernstein in his earlier Wall Street days. With the proliferation of financial instruments, new areas of instability, and innovative capital market strategies, many economists and investors have lost sight of the fundamentals of the financial system—its strengths as well as its weaknesses. A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold takes you back to the beginning and sorts out all the pieces. Peter Bernstein skillfully addresses how and why commercial banks lend and invest, where money comes from, how it moves from hand to hand, and the critical role of interest rates. He explores the Federal Reserve System and the consequences of the Fed's actions on the overall economy. But this book is not just about the past. Bernstein's novel perspective on gold and the dollar is critical for today's decision makers, as he provides extensive views on the future of money, banking, and gold in the world economy. This illuminating story about the heart of our economic system is essential reading at a time when developments in finance are more important than ever.

Peter L. Bernstein

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