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Acknowledgments ix <p>Foreword xv</p> <p>Preface xxi</p> <p>Prologue The Price of Risk 1</p> <p>ONE Thou Living Ray of Intellectual Fire 23</p> <p>TWO An Idea in the Rough 49</p> <p>THREE Some Kind of an Education 73</p> <p>FOUR Living Up to the Model 99</p> <p>FIVE Tortuous Economic Intuition 119</p> <p>SIX The Money Wars 139</p> <p>SEVEN Global Reach 165</p> <p>EIGHT Stagflation 189</p> <p>NINE Changing Fields 215</p> <p>TEN What Do Traders Do? 231</p> <p>ELEVEN Exploring General Equilibrium 255</p> <p>Epilogue Nothing Is Constant 283</p> <p>Appendix A A Financial Notes Chronology 299</p> <p>Appendix B A Newsletter Chronology 301</p> <p>Notes 303</p> <p>References 327</p> <p>Index 355</p>

<p><b>PERRY MEHRLING</b> is Professor of Economics at Barnard College of Columbia University. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and is the author of <i>The Money Interest and the Public Interest: American Monetary Thought, 1920 –1970,</i> and <i> The New Lombard Street: How the Fed became the Dealer of Last Resort.</i> Dr. Mehrling's specialty is the study of financial theory and the history of economics.

<p><b>praise for FISCHER BLACK AND THE REVOLUTIONARY IDEA OF FINANCE</b> <p>"The story of Fischer Black. . . . is remarkable both because of the creativity of the man and because of the revolution he brought to Wall Street. . . . Mehrling's book is fascinating."<br> <b>—FINANCIAL TIMES</b> <p>"A fascinating history of things we take for granted in our everyday financial lives."<br> <b>—THE NEW YORK TIMES</b> <p>"Mehrling's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of modern finance or the life of an idiosyncratic creative genius."<br> <b>—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY</b> <p>"Fischer Black was more than a vital force in the development of finance theory. He was also a character. Perry Mehrling has captured both sides of the picture: the evolution of thinking about the pricing of risk and time, as well as the thinkers, especially this fascinating eccentric, who worked it out."<br> —<b>ROBERT M. SOWLO</b>, Nobel laureate and Institute Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology <p>"Although I worked closely with Fischer for nine years at Goldman Sachs and clearly recognized both his genius and the breadth and originality of his ideas, until I read this book, I had only the vaguest grasp of the source of his inspiration and no understanding at all of the source of his many idiosyncrasies."<br> —<b>BOB LITTERMAN</b>, Partner, Kepos Capital <p>"Perry Mehrling has done a remarkable job of tracing the intellectual and personal development of one of the most original and complex thinkers of our generation. Fischer Black deserved it: a charming and brilliant book about a charming and brilliant man."<br> —<b>ROBERT E. LUCAS JR.,</b> Nobel laureate and Professor of Economics, The University of Chicago

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