BERNSTEIN, Peter L. 1919-

PERSONAL: Born 1919, in New York, NY. Education: Harvard University, B.S., 1940.

ADDRESSES: Home—205 East 63rd St., New York, NY 10021.

CAREER: Business analyst. Economist, Modern Industrial Bank, 1949-51; president and chair, Bernstein-Macaulay, Inc., 1951-73; chair, Investment Policy Committee, Hayden Stone, 1970-73; president, Peter L. Bernstein, Inc., 1973—.

WRITINGS:

The Price of Prosperity: A Realistic Appraisal of the Future of Our National Economy, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1962.

(With Robert L. Heilbroner) A Primer on Government Spending, Random House (New York, NY), 1963.

A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold, Random House (New York, NY), 1965.

Economist on Wall Street: Notes on the Sanctity of Gold, the Value of Money, the Security of Investments, and Other Delusions, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1970.

(Editor) The Theory and Practice of Bond Portfolio Management, Institutional Investor Books (New York, NY), 1977.

(Editor) International Investing, International Investor Books (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Robert Heilbroner) The Debt and the Deficit: False Alarms/Real Possibilities, Norton (New York, NY), 1989.

(Moderator) Improving the Investment Decision Process: Better Economic Inputs in Securities Analysis and Management: March 31, 1991, Washington, DC, edited by H. Kent Baker, CFA/Association for Investment Management and Research (Charlottesville, VA), 1992.

Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street, Free Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor) The Portable MBA in Investment, Wiley (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Christopher M.) The Practical Guide to Practically Everything, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Wiley (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor, with Frank J. Fabozzi) Streetwise: The Best of the Journal of Portfolio Management, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997.

(Editor, with Aswath Damodaran) Investment Management, Wiley (New York, NY), 1998.

The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession, Wiley (New York, NY), 2000.

Contributor to Risk Management: Proceedings of the AIMR Seminar "Effective Risk Management in the Investment Firm": October 10, 1999, Boston, Massachusetts, Association for Investment Management and Research (Charlottesville, VA), 1996. Founding editor of Journal of Portfolio Management and publisher of the biweekly publication Economics and Portfolio Strategy.

ADAPTATIONS: The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession was adapted as an audiobook, Random House, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: For more than fifty years, business economist Peter L. Bernstein has closely scrutinized the American economy. In the early 1970s, Bernstein reported on such matters as the stock market, investment, inflation, gold, and money. The monthly briefs he wrote over a period of years at his investment firm Bernstein-Macaulay, Incorporated, are collected in Economist on Wall Street: Notes on the Sanctity of Gold, the Value of Money, the Security of Investments, and Other Delusions. Morton R. Brown, writing in Library Journal, called the book "good reading for students of the market and the economy." Robert Lekachman, reviewing the book in New York Times Book Review, called Bernstein "among the shrewdest and most humane of the operators on the street of blasted dreams." By the end of that decade Bernstein had edited the book The Theory and Practice of BondPortfolio Management. Paul S. Nadler, a reviewer in the Journal of Finance, commented that, "to those without any idea of how active bond management can be, it remains a readable eye-opener."

Two decades later Bernstein published Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street. David Morton, reviewing the book for Management Today, noted, "Bernstein's book is a fascinating case for the defence of a score of quiet academics who had devised the new systems . . . who had followed their statistical findings as far as they could logically go, and discovered that they had walked right up Wall Street." Edmund A. Mennis, a reviewer in Business Economics, stated that "Bernstein has done an outstanding job in making this [economic] revolution understandable and interesting....Andinno other book is modern portfolio theory presented with such remarkable clarity." Books recommended for college libraries are The Portable MBA in Investment and Investment Management. Both are edited by Bernstein, and the latter is co-edited with Aswath Damodoran.

Adopting a more philosophical tone in his writing, Bernstein published Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. A reviewer in Parameters noted, "Bernstein brilliantly presents the history of mankind's encounter with uncertainty and risk, phenomena that pervade every aspect of the military experience." The reviewer observed, "Bernstein's final chapters include a comprehensive survey of the leading thinkers of risk management, a field that is so young that most of these individuals are still alive." Brian J. Glenn, writing in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, stated, "Bernstein presents the reader with an easy to read and often entertaining introduction to the history and theory behind financial risk analysis." Robin Pearson, a reviewer in Business History, observed, "For those interested in such fundamental questions about coping with change, Bernstein's book will provide an excellent primer."

Perhaps Bernstein's best-received book was The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession. Norm Hutcherson, reviewing it in Library Journal, said, "A master historian at the peak of his art here recounts the timeless story of our obsession with gold." A reviewer in Publishers Weekly stated, "Bernstein does deliver a page-turning history of the not-so-heavy metal and its influence on people through the ages." David Pitt, reviewing the book in Booklist, commented, "Never has there been a more enlightening, instructive, and entertaining look at the power of this most precious of metals."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

African Business, December, 2000, Derek Parker, review of The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession, p. 21.

American Economic Review, Volume 64, 1974.

Barron's, November 27, 1995, Robert L. Friedman, "Mastering Markets on the Cheap," p. 43.

Bond Buyer, January 20, 1992, Brad Miner, review of Capital Ideas, p. 321.

Booklist, January 1, 1971, review of Economist on Wall Street: Notes on the Sanctity of Gold, the Value of Money, the Security of Investments, and Other Delusions, p. 346; December 15, 1995, David Rouse, review of The Portable MBA in Investment, p. 674; September 15, 1996, Gilbert Taylor, review of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, p. 185; August, 2000, David Pitt, review of The Power of Gold, p. 2083.

Business Economics, April, 1992, Edmund A. Mennis, review of Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street, p. 67; January, 1997, Edmund A. Mennis, review of Against the Gods, p. 70; April, 2001, Edmund A. Mennis, review of The Power of Gold, p. 60.

Business History, January, 1999, Robin Pearson, review of Against the Gods, p. 178.

Business Week, November 6, 2000, "Glory, Greed, and All That Glitters," p. 21.

Choice, March, 1996, W. S. Curran, review of The Portable MBA in Investment, p. 1181; July-August, 1998, H. Mayo, review of Investment Management, p. 1899.

Economist, October 14, 2000, "History of Gold: It Defileth Not," p. 103.

Industry Standard, September 25, 2000, Daniel Akst, "Hard Currency," p. 202.

Journal of Economic Literature, September, 1998, review of Streetwise: The Best of the Journal of Portfolio Management, p. 1580.

Journal of Finance, December, 1978, Paul S. Nadler, review of The Theory and Practice of Bond Portfolio Management, p. 1477.

Journal of Risk and Insurance, September, 1999, Brian J. Glenn, review of Against the Gods, p. 517.

Library Journal, September 1, 1970, Morton R. Brown, review of Economist on Wall Street, p. 2795; September 1, 2000, Norm Hutcherson, review of The Power of Gold, p. 233.

Management Today, September, 1992, David Morton, review of Capital Ideas, p. 111.

National Underwriter Property and Casualty-Risk and Benefits Management, January 6, 1997, David M. Katz, review of Against the Gods, p. 9; February 10, 1997, Peter W. Rice, review of Against the Gods, p. 13.

New Leader, March 23, 1992, Harvey H. Segal, review of Capital Ideas, p. 17.

New York Times, November 27, 1995, review of The Practical Guide to Practically Everything, p. C15.

New York Times Book Review, November 15, 1970, Robert Lekachman, review of Economist on Wall Street, p. 46.

Parameters, autumn, 2000, review of Against the Gods, p. 162.

Publishers Weekly, September 9, 1996, review of Against the Gods, p. 72; August 21, 2000, review of The Power of Gold, p. 57.

Social Studies, March, 1970, review of A Primer on Money, Banking and Gold, p. 140.

Washington Post Book World, September 20, 1998, review of Against the Gods.*