Amato and Willis op-ed in L.A. Times

Lauren Willis (of Loyola Los Angeles) and Theresa Amato (of the Fair Contracts Project) have a great op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times on what to do about consumer financial illiteracy. "There are dozens of entities devoted to educating you about all things financial," they write, "[b]ut none of it is working very well." Financial literacy education isn't the answer; instead "[t]he financial marketplace must be structured so that ordinary people — people with limited time, math skills, attention and willpower, and an abundance of those wonderful American traits of trust and optimism — can navigate it safely and effectively." This means enforcing existing unfair-and-deceptive-practices laws, banning forced arbitration, and, perhaps most importantly, bringing financial industry incentives "into alignment with the interests of consumers."