Mind Over Data

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
--Tears for Fears

I'm attending an academic conference hosted by the National Endowment for Financial Education that is reviewing extant research on financial literacy and its distilling its implications. Financial literacy is one of many areas of research interest for me, and this is the first meeting of this type that I've attended in the financial literacy domain.

I've attended research 'colloquiums' in other topic areas and their primary objective has been on identifying opportunities for future research. The focus of this group seems much more normative--geared toward implications for public policy. A few of the recurring themes heard in today's discussion included:

a) the goal of researchers is to see effective policies developed and implemented.

b) the need for government mandated financial education.

c) too many financial choices for consumers are bad...'we' must limit choice or or make choices for people.

d) consumers of financial products are being exploited and must be protected.

Setting aside glaring issues related to freedom and liberty, these themes SHOULD be problematic from a pure academic viewpoint. Theme a) violates the research research principle of seeking the truth wherever it leads. Themes b), c), d) are all judgmental views, with no conclusive evidence to substantiate them. Not the stuff that 'evidence based practice' is based on.

Tomorrow another 30 or so people from government, non profits, and more academics join the fray. I had to bite my tongue a few times today as I'm clearly a fish swimming against a major tide here. We'll see what happens tomorrow when the floor is opened for dialogue.

Hope I'm not sent packing a day early...