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William J. Bernstein

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William J. Bernstein is an American financial theorist, investor, and former neurologist who writes on investing, economics, and financial history. He is best known for The Intelligent Asset Allocator, The Four Pillars of Investing, and A Splendid Exchange, works that have shaped evidence-based personal finance and long-term asset-allocation discussions.

Biography & Author's Journey

William J. Bernstein reached authorship by way of two demanding scientific careers. Born in Philadelphia and educated in California, he earned a PhD in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, then an MD at UC San Francisco after deciding he wanted work that brought him closer to people. He became a neurologist in Coos County, Oregon, where the strain of long clinical hours eventually pushed him toward a second intellectual life: studying investing with the same empirical rigor he had brought to science and medicine. That shift from practitioner to investigator became the decisive turning point of his public career. ((https://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2003/09/01/348607/index.htm?utm_source=openai))

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Quotes

quote
The mere fact that a commodity came from a distant land imbued it with mystery, romance, and status
-A Splendid Exchange
quote
He didn't invent movable type, and he certainly didn't invent the printing press
-Masters of the Word
quote
Or put another way, less math, more Shakespeare
-The Four Pillars of Investing
quote
This process is such a counterintuitive and shocking notion that it bears repeating: banks print money
-The Delusions of Crowds
quote
Today, as then, unimpaired capital usually means Treasury securities
-Of Viruses, Distressed Sales, and Stocks' "Rightful Owners"
quote
Which is pretty much the same as saying that if someone exercises and eats a lot less, he'll lose 30 pounds
-If You Can
quote
Just don't set up any trust funds for your distant descendants
-What is the Very Long Term Return of Equity?

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Community Voices

"William J Bernstein suggests that communication is key to democracy. It's a persuasive argument"

The Guardian

"Bernstein's lucid and entertaining history is a warning that the primitive mind lurks under the sheen of alleged rationality"

Los Angeles Review of Books

"With an ability to switch gracefully from the macro to the micro, Mr. Bernstein whisks his reader on a tumultuous journey"

The Economist

"Mackay's 1841 work has been brilliantly updated for the 21st century by the investment writer William Bernstein"

Reuters

"Bernstein is an entertaining chronicler and analyst of these human failings"

The Times

"What really marks Bernstein out is his talent in understanding, and then explaining, international commercial linkages"

Foreign Affairs

"Bernstein, a trained neurologist and the author of several investment books, is particularly well suited to updating Mackay"

New York Review of Books

"Bernstein is a fine writer and knows how to tell a great story well"

The New York Times

"In A Splendid Exchange, Bill Bernstein has further burnished his credentials as both an economic historian and a felicitous writer"

John C. Bogle

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