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Financial illiteracy in America and economic crises

By John Hockenberry, Adaora Udoji, Stephen Dubner

Tuesday, July 22 2008

Is the United States a nation with a fundamental misunderstanding of debt, financing and budgeting? "Freakonomics" author Stephen Dubner and a number of economics say it is. Dubner looks at how an absence of financial education hurts us during times of economic instability.

Guest: Stephen Dubner, Takeaway contributor and author of the "Freakonomics" book and blog
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Do you think companies like Fair Isaac, which created the FICO score, should do more to support financial literacy. How many people know what a FICO score is. Has professor Lusardi studied that. I was amazed to see a full page chart on the history of credit cards in this country, in a the major front page New York Times on Sunday about America's Debt woes, that does not even mention the FICO score. One could argue that FICO score enable the bankers to feed the minimum payment balance problem where banks get rich and consumers get poor. But if we were all more financially literate the FICO score could be a tool to improve our financial health. I am writing a book about this, and before I started writing it I didn't know what a FICO score was.

Posted by Ann Graham, 7:56 a.m. Tuesday, July 22 2008 Permalink

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