Capital Ideas is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the financial industry. It offers a unique insight into the development of modern investing and shows how the unlikely contributions of a few academics transformed the art of investing. Reviewers praise the book for its informative and engaging writing style, making it an accessible and enjoyable read for both finance professionals and lay readers alike.

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When the recession of 1974 hit Wall Street, the investments profession desperately turned to the theories of a small and unlikely group of academics for guidance in finding a way to regain the value of their clients' holdings. Some of these scholars had begun to study stock prices merely as an expedient way to test the properties of large numbers, but inadvertently, they laid the intellectual foundation for a revolution in commerce. Peter L. Bernstein shows how Wall Street first fought, and then embraced, the advances wrought in the academic seminars and technical journals that ultimately transformed the art of investing.