Most people are overconfident about their own abilities. That is probably a good thing. But we would be horrified if a physician's aide engaged in heart surgery.
Many of us like to think of financial economics as a science, but complex events like the financial crisis suggest that this conceit may be more wishful thinking than reality.
I don't entirely reject the idea of efficient markets. It needs updating.
Maybe we should teach schoolchildren probability theory and investment risk management.
While neurological studies have tried to identify components responsible for fear and greed, the impact on finance is less clear.
What makes this story so remarkable is that throughout my early childhood I had ongoing learning difficulties, particularly in mathematics. I struggled to learn the multiplication table, and no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn't remember 6 times 7 or 7 times 8.
