Global InformationEdgar Lawrence Smith information
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Edgar Lawrence Smith (May 6, 1882 – June 19, 1971) was an economist, investment manager and author of the influential 1924 book Common Stocks as Long Term Investments, which promoted the then-surprising idea that stocks excel bonds in long-term yield.
Smith was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Cambridge Latin School (now Cambridge Rindge and Latin School) and received an A.B. from Harvard University in 1905. He worked in banking and other financial endeavors in the years after college, then signed on in 1922 as an adviser to the brokerage firm Low, Dixon & Company. While there, he later recounted in his Harvard class's 50th reunion yearbook, "I tried to write a pamphlet on why bonds were the best form of long term investment. But supporting evidence for this thesis could not be found."[1]
This discovery led to the 1924 publication of "Common Stocks as Long Term Investments."[2][3] The book was widely reviewed and praised, and became a key intellectual support for the 1920s stock market boom. Its success enabled Smith to launch a mutual fund firm, Investment Managers Company. It also garnered him an invitation from the economist John Maynard Keynes, who had favorably reviewed the book in The Nation and Atheneum, to join the Royal Economic Society.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought a turn in Smith's fortunes. Investment Managers was sold to a subsidiary of Irving Trust Company, and in 1931 Smith resigned as its president. After that he devoted his time to research, writing, and painting. Subsequent studies of the relative long-term performance of stocks vs. bonds, by Alfred Cowles in 1939[4] and Roger G. Ibbotson and Rex Sinquefield in 1976,[5] backed up Smith's 1924 conclusions.
In retirement Smith lived with his wife, Mary née Zender, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He died in a nursing home in Media, Pennsylvania. Upon his death he was survived by his widow, a son, three daughters, seven grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.[6]
- ^ Fiftieth Anniversary Report of the Harvard Class of 1905, Cambridge, 1955, p. 494
- ^ Nelson, Milton N. (1925). "Reviewed work: Common Stocks as Long Term Investments, Edgar Lawrence Smith" (PDF). The American Economic Review. 15 (2): 326–328. JSTOR 1807133.
- ^ Jackson, James Roy (1925). "Reviewed work: Common Stocks as Long Term Investments, Edgar Lawrence Smith" (PDF). Journal of Political Economy. 33 (6): 689–691. doi:10.1086/253729. JSTOR 1822265.
- ^ Cowles, Alfred III and Associates (1939), Common Stock Indexes, Principia Press
- ^ Ibbotson, Roger; Sinquefield, Rex (1976). "Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation: Year-by-Year Historical Returns (1926–1974)". Journal of Business. 49 (1): 11–47. doi:10.1086/295803. JSTOR 2353433.
- ^ "Edgar L. Smith, Economist. Banker and Writer, Dead". The New York Times. June 20, 1971.