Peter L. Bernstein

Bernstein, Peter L. An economic historian and a widely read popularizer of the efficient market theory, which changed trading behavior on Wall Street, died Friday, June 5, 2009. He was 90 and lived in Manhattan. Peter Lewyn Bernstein was born in Manhattan on Jan. 22, 1919, a son of Allen and Irma Lewyn Bernstein. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude, and after a year as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York - working for a Harvard professor who had gone to the Fed - he spent World War II as an officer in the Office of Strategic Services, the C.I.A.'s predecessor, in London. Bernstein had run his New York-based consulting firm and produced Economics & Portfolio Strategy, a twice-monthly newsletter, since 1973. He wrote 10 books on economics and finance, including "Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street" (1991), which is considered a landmark work on modern investment theories and practices. Mr. Bernstein published most of his best-known books in the last 20 years of his life, including the best-selling "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" (John Wiley & Son). He is survived by his wife, Barbara Soskin Bernstein of New York City, a grandson and granddaughter-in-law, Peter and Lael Brodsky of Dallas and their 3 children, Jacob, Katie and Luke Brodsky. A memorial service will be held in New York City at a later date.