News Release
September 21, 2007

Federal Reserve Board official among featured speakers at UW consumer issues conference

A spark fanned into a flame by a mentor ignited a passion in a young graduate student and launched a career in financial education and research.

Jeanne Hogarth of the Federal Reserve Board said it may sound touchy-feely, but says she was called to her profession. “And I think when that happens, you have a passion that can’t help but shine through in your work,” she said.

Hogarth is one of the featured speakers at this year’s Money Matter$ Consumer Issues Conference Sept. 26-27 at the University of Wyoming. Recognized experts on personal finance, credit and financial safety will present at workshops. Full program information is available at www.uwyo.edu/consumerconference.

Hogarth moved from Cornell University to Washington, D.C., and the Federal Reserve Board in 1995. She had taught high school seven years before entering graduate school, spent a year on the extension faculty at the University of Illinois and 13 years on the consumer economics faculty at Cornell.

A return to graduate school put her in contact with an instructor who had that passion. “It spoke to me,” Hogarth said, “and I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my career.”

Her position as manager for the Consumer Education and Research Section of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs offers a broad view of the financial health of Americans.

Despite the headlines, “consumers are actually doing pretty well,” she noted. “Many households are saving money. A large portion of households, about 40 percent, pay off their credit cards each month and others are up-to-date with their payments.  And, despite what you hear about things going on in the mortgage markets, most people are making mortgage payments on time and don’t have non-traditional mortgages.”

There are those who do have problems. “People are not lazy or stupid,” she said, “but credit and investment products themselves have become quite complicated.”

More choices have opened the marketplace to more consumers. So the good news, she said, is there are more choices and options and the marketplace is more democratic, but the bad news is the marketplace is more complicated.

 “I’ve spent most of my career helping people understand their relationship with money,” Hogarth said. There are those who suffer from a lack of money who need every penny. And there are those who lose money through late fees, for example. “That money is not helping you buy goods or services. It’s just lost money,” she said.

For another group, “we are trying to help them get either more value for the same amount of money or, at least for a particular product, spending the least they can on it, such as finding a credit card or mortgage with the terms and conditions you want.”

Government can help build financial savvy but can’t do so alone, she said. “Any kind of financial literacy effort takes a holistic approach, ideally building on  a foundation laid in place by financial education in the schools,” she noted.

 “Where government can play a large role is making sure there is substantive protection for consumers so there aren’t unfair and deceptive products and services out there,” she said. Government can help enforce consumer protection, making sure there is a mechanism in place for customers to lodge complaints.

“It takes a whole cloth,” said Hogarth. “We need well-educated consumers, good consumer protection laws, and enforcement of those laws” as fibers woven together.

How ordinary citizens can influence public policy on consumer credit will also be a focus during the conference. Can one person make a difference?

“You know my answer is yes,” Hogarth said. “You don’t need to be in Washington to be that person. Policy can be set at the local level just as at the federal level. Talking to the school board about providing financial education to youth or talking to the local 4-H educator about a consumer education project is as important as coming to Washington and testifying before Congress. One person at the local level can make a difference.”

###

Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

###